Fuel Scarcity: Queues Return to Abuja as Price Increases

Long queues for petrol resurfaced in Abuja and environs yesterday, amidst speculations about a possible pump price increase.

Reports revealed that many independent marketers’ stations have already raised the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol, to as much as N650 per litre, thereby heightening the price difference between the and major marketers including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited which are still selling petrol at N617 and N613 per litre respectively.

With the huge price difference, motorists thronged the filling stations still selling petrol at the old prices, especially NNPC retail stations, thereby resulting in long queues.

The NNPC has however, allayed fears of a possible scarcity of petrol in the country.

Responding to Economic Confidential enquiry, chief corporate communications officer of the company, Olufemi Soneye said the current situation is due the price difference in the filling stations.

“The recent tightness in Abuja is essentially a price war which is typical of any competitive market. Motorists would rather queue at filling stations that offer lower prices than others. Whilst NNPC Retail is selling at N613 in Abuja, other marketers’ prices range from N625-N650,” Soneye explained in details.

Recall that the NNPC is once again a major importer of petrol after scarcity of foreign exchange and naira depreciation forced many independent marketers off petrol importation. The national oil company is also a major retailer.

Meanwhile, the queue led to traffic gridlock along Olusegun Obasanjo Way at Wuse as the two NNPC stations along the route had long queues of cars waiting to fill their tanks.

The Mobil Filling Station at Utako also had vehicles waiting to purchase fuel even though it was sold at N640 per litre while ETERNA fuel station in Jabi was closed.

The situation was the same on Airport Road with long queues in stations like BOVAS, SALBAS OIL, AA Rano and SHEMA.

At AA Rano located at Jabi, only one fuel pump was dispensing the product from the 30 fuel pumps in the station.

Few cars were allowed into the station with the main gate to the station locked to prevent other cars from coming in.

Economic Confidential gathered that the queues started on Friday when some filling stations started selling petrol at N630 and others at N640.

“Since Friday, some of the stations have closed up and the rumour we are hearing is that they want to increase the pump price to N700 per litre.”

The chief executive officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, had last month said they received the assurance of the NNPC that there is available stock of petrol in the country.

Speaking after a meeting with all relevant stakeholders in the oil industry to ensure availability of fuel in the country, Ahmed however said independent marketers with licence to import the product complained of lack of access to the official price of dollars, thus, costing them more to import the product.

He added that they complained that the current pump price is not profitable for them and they can’t compete with the NNPC, which is importing the product at the official price of the dollar.