By Our Correspondent
Fuel scarcity has hit Lagos and some parts of Ogun as long queues resurfaced leading to long queues across the states, few hours after oil workers issued statement about their warning strike.
Our correspondent observed that long queues emerged in some filling stations across the city of Lagos even when some were not selling the products after exhausting their stock.
Forte Oil filling station at Igbosere and Total filling station at Okesuna, Mobil at Maryland in Lagos Island were not selling due to non available of premium motor spirit, otherwise called petrol.
Oando filling station and Conoil in Marylad were selling but with long queues selling and also its outlets visited around Alapere, Ikoyi, Suru-Lere and Marina were dispensing petrol to motorists.
Mobil station adjacent Adeola Odeku in Victoria Island, Capital Oil and Oando filling stations at Berger bus stop were also dispensing while MRS filling station at Berger was out of stock.
The supervisor, Conoil filling station at Magboro, Mr. Micheal Arobaju said his station has enough stock to last till next week.
On a sudden emergence of long queues, sources at Apapa depot were divided while confirming the cause of the scarcity to our reporter.
One source at Apapa who pleaded anonymity stated that there is no just cause for the scarcity because there are enough stock to last for days.
According to him, “BOVAS just received 8000 metric tonnes (MT) of petrol yesterday (Tuesday) which is equivalent of about 11million litres. It also received 7000MT last week which is about 10million litres. All these are products are from one marketer. I want to blame it on panic buying or maybe some marketers have begin hoarding due to the festive season that is approaching.”
Another source claimed that sometime last week, some marketers with allocation imported sub-standard petrol which was rejected buy local marketers. He stated that:” We rejected some products that are ‘off-spec’ (off-specification). Although some marketers who may be out of stocks accepted the products but most marketers rejected it.
Respondents argued that the threat by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) may be responsible for the situation.
It may be recalled that PENGASSAN had threatened to embark on 3-day warning strike over anti-labour activities of some oil majors in the country.
Meanwhile the Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its downstream subsidiary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has said it has over 32 days ample stock of petroleum products available for supply across the nation during the yuletide and beyond.
The Corporation noted that the market is robust with premium motor spirit also known as petrol and enjoined motorists in Lagos and its environs not to engage in panic buying.
The NNPC stated that the noticeable queues in some filling stations in Lagos are attributable to panic buying caused by reduced truck- out of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from Oil Marketing Companies’ Depots in Apapa area of Lagos due to the gridlock created by the ongoing road construction in Apapa.
The Corporation in a statement by Ohi Alegbe Group General Manager,
Group Public Affairs Division,
NNPC, urged Marketers affected by the Apapa road construction to load their petroleum products from its inland depot in Mosimi so as to support the “zero tolerance to fuel queues” policy across the country. It appealed to marketers to immediately commence loading from the PPMC Mosimi depot to cover for the shortfall from Apapa.
The Corporation also advised Marketers to desist from hoarding or diversion of petroleum products as any marketer caught in the nefarious act would be sanctioned.
The NNPC called on the general public to avoid panic buying of petroleum products as adequate measures have been put in place to wet the nation with PMS in order to ensure hitch free transportation of goods and services during the yuletide period and beyond.