The scarcity and scurry for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol may come to an end this week as reports coming in indicate loading at Lagos depots has commenced.
Recall that due to the nationwide protests that began on Thursday, 01 August with record violence and looting in certain cities and states, most businesses as a precaution shut shop hence, commercial oil sector players such as importers grounded largely their travel and commute-related operations. For instance, truck owners and drivers for fear of potential attacks in the course of transporting fuel halted activities.
Oil marketers had also explained on Monday, 05 August that the reappearance of queues at filling stations in many states was because of the non-supply of petroleum products by dealers to avoid major losses that are likely to occur during the ongoing nationwide protests.
End users of PMS in cities and states like the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, witnessed varying degrees of queues about two weeks ago, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited blamed on a “hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.”
As NNPCL and stakeholders collaborated to minimize or remove the impediments, the nationwide protests created obtacles to ending the fuel queues earlier causing further disruption to petrol supply and the reemergence of scarcity and longer fuel queues in some states.
NNPCL has said the severe shortage in supply and logistics problems experienced in some parts was due to glitches in some vessels’ discharge operations as the organization’s chief corporate communications officer, Olufemi Soneye posited that the company was “working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in the operations.”
More so, by Sunday, 04 August some trucks had started lifting PMS at depots to supply stations across the nation.
Officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and other government agencies were reportedly at the depots to supervise the process — as more vessels carrying the product berthed and supplied some depots over the weekend.
“There were activities today in some depots that took fuel during the ongoing protest,” a source said. Another official told our correspondent, “NMDPRA and other officials have been on duty since Thursday when the protest started, just that depots are being careful of the security of trucks and drivers on the road.”
The official added that the seemingly low protest across the country, especially in Lagos, had been boosting loading since Sunday.
Stating that the fuel queues at stations dispensing the product may start easing off from Monday, though not as it is supposed to be. But he acknowledged that the pump price of a litre of petrol may remain on the high side into Week 33 when it may ease from increased supply.
Notably, many filling stations did not open for business since the beginning of the nationwide protests just as many Nigerians stayed home proving an advantage to illegal petrol hawkers otherwise known as black marketers who sold fuel as high as N1,300/litre and N1,500/litre to end users requiring the product in some parts of the country.
