Fuel queues worsened in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger states on Thursday, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said logistical complications were responsible but it had been resolved.
The product remained scarce on Thursday in the nation’s capital as well as in some Northern states, forcing many filling stations to remain closed.
Independent marketers have hiked prices to about N700/litre at stations while the few NNPC retail outlets with the product to sell maintained the N617/litre price. Transporters have also increased fares.
Oil marketers say that the supply of fuel into Abuja has declined because trucks were not lifting the products.
The Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja Branch, Mohammed Shuaibu, told journalists that “There is low supply while the demand for PMS is high. Right now, only NNPC retail stations are selling at N617/litre in Abuja and other northern states. Every other station has arbitrary prices.
“The current reception at the Suleja Depot, which supplies Abuja and its environs, is very poor, the trucks are not coming and we understand that there is a cut down in supply from the depots in Warri and Lagos where products normally come from.”
He also traced the shortage in supply to the NNPCL not importing enough PMS to meet local demand,
However, he urged government to intervene by ramping up supply of petrol through the NNPCL, lamenting that many motorists were now involved in panic buying.