Petrol Scarcity: Lagos Residents Worry As Queues Return

There is anxiety in the air, as Lagos residents express worry over sudden petrol scarcity and long queues at retail outlets in different parts of the city.

Prime Business Africa observed long queues in some filling stations in different parts of Lagos on Tuesday morning. Most filling stations along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway did not have products to sell, while there were long queues in others dispensing fuel.

The petrol scarcity, which  PBA confirmed to have quietly crept into the city late Monday evening, had resulted in panic buying early Tuesday morning and compounded the matter for unsuspecting workers and business men who rose for the days work on Tuesday morning.

Many Lagos residents  were seen besieging petrol outlets with Jerry cans to buy and store the product.

As early as 7 a.m. on Tuesday, PBA observed long queues at Conoil filling station on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road and ‘The Western’ along the Oshodi-Orowonshoki Expressway, among others.

A motorist in one of the petrol outlets was heard accusing some filling stations of deliberately disrupting sales to hoard the product, since there were signs of scarcity, so that when the price goes up as expected they would open and sell at  higher margin.

Citing non-availability of petrol after about two hours of dispensing products, ‘The Western’, for instance, had to stop sales. Some of the frustrated commuters, many of whom had waited for more than an hour, had to leave the long queue lining the busy Expressway. A few other cars were seen waiting helplessly in the queue.

At the ‘ASCON’ filling Station adjacent to the Stanbic Bank branch at the Isolo Local Development Authority (LCDA)/Aswani Market Road  in Ajao Estate, fuel attendants abandoned waiting vehicles in a long queue that spilled into the road, for brisk business of selling in kegs.

A resident of Ilasamaja, Seun Oke, who spoke with Prime Business Africa, stated that when he heard about the looming scarcity on Monday night, struggled to get two 25 litres Jerry cans and stored for use in his power generating set. He expressed concern that the petrol scarcity is happening alongside a sharp drop in electricity supply in the last one week.

Mr. Oke said he heard that the scarcity might continue till the end December. According to him, some residents are  known to have tipped some fuel attendants in advance to dispense petrol to them for storage. ‘They will naturally come back at night to pack the products for a special fee,” Oke alleged.

Prime Business Africa‘s checks also found that filling stations which have products have hiked prices  between N190 and N250 per litre, depending on location.

Scarcity of petrol and diesel had earlier been witnessed in some parts of the country, including Abuja, as a result of the devastating floods in more than 80 per cent of  Nigeria’s 36 states, a situation which authorities  and NUPENG officials say has made petrol tanker movement more difficult.

Food supply is equally affected by the nationwide flooding, as haulage trucks are unable to convey products through obstructed roads to parts of the country. Recently, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on its twitter handle, issued an advisory on the Lokoja-Abuja Highway, directing travelers to take alternative routes if possible.

However, Mr. Chinedu Ukadike, the spokesman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), on Monday, said the current petrol scarcity is not linked to flooding. According to him, the new wave of petrol scarcity can be attributed to late arrival of vessels carrying petroleum products to depots, a situation that has led to substantial drop in quantity of petrol available for distribution.

“For us, the independent marketers, we are service-oriented, and we normally buy our products from NNPC, private depots, and private tank farm owners. Some of them are located in Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt, knowing full well that we import petroleum products in this country, and most of these products are vessel-driven depots, and they collect products from ships.

“Recently, NNPC and the PPMC experienced shortfall in sufficiency of products they have in stock, because some of the mother vessels they are expecting are just arriving. There was a little delay and a difficulty with some of the logistics in handling charges at the depots. So, these are the issues that have truncated the chain of supply.”

Ukadike hinted that late arrival of mother vessels that were supposed to supply to private depots, delay in processing payments and other regulatory issues at NIMASA could have exacerbated the petrol scarcity being experienced in Lagos and other places.