Why Petrol Queues In Abuja Won’t End Soon — Marketers

Petrol marketers have attributed the lingering queues at petrol stations in Abuja and other northern state capitals to the high cost of freighting the product from coastal depots.

The National President of Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association (NOGASA) Mr. Benneth Korie, explained to journalists in Abuja that the exorbitant cost of diesel was having a huge impact on transportation cost of petrol.

Checks around Abuja on Tuesday showed that while few major marketers were opened with long queues, virtually all the independent marketers’ stations were shut.

He stated: “The reason for the persistence scarcity of petrol particularly in Abuja is as a result of high cost of diesel. Diesel as at today is N850 per litre in the market and the bridging being paid to transporters from the Petroleum Equalisation Fund is not enough.

Korie noted that the only solution to the challenge is for the Federal Government to raise the pump price of petrol “a little” in order to reduce the huge amount paid as petrol subsidies.

“When you increase the pump price of petrol a little, the savings will help the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, have enough foreign exchange for the importers of diesel to bring in more products.

“The importers are not able to get FOREX at the official CBN rate and so everybody is going to the parallel market to import their diesel and so you expect the cost to be high”, he added.