Fuel scarcity to ease this week - Oil marketers

Consumers are expected to get a little reprieve from the current scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from Thursday following the injection of about 100 million litres of the product into the system.

The Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, told one of our correspondents that members of the body received 30 million litres of petrol from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Monday.

These, he said, were expected to be increased to 50 million litres on Tuesday (today) with additional 20 million litres from the NNPC.

“Today (Monday), the NNPC gave us 30 million litres of PMS and we expect another 20 million litres on Tuesday morning. This will bring us to a total of 50 million litres,” Olawore said.

According to him, Conoil and NIPCO have also imported 44 million litres of petrol.

“Conoil and NIPCO have brought in 22 million litres each, which brings us to another 44 million litres. Since the first quarter import allocation was given by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency last week, the marketers began importation and other major marketers are expected to bring their own before the weekend,” he said.

With about 100 million litres injected into the system and more expected to land in the country by the weekend, Olawore said consumers would soon begin to feel the impact of the fresh supply.

“By Thursday, we will start seeing the impact of the current development in fuel supply,” he said.

The NPPC, in a statement on Monday, said it had supplied 33 million litres of petrol to MOMAN for onward distribution to filling stations in the Lagos metropolis and beyond.

The acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, stated that the extra volume of 25,000 metric tonnes of petrol, the equivalent of 33 million litres, was supplied to the marketers as part of measures by the corporation to end what he called artificial scarcity of the product.

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While we intensify our ongoing direct monitoring of fuel stations across Lagos and its environs, we are providing the extra volume of product to eliminate the noticeable queues arising from the induced scarcity,” he said.

The NNPC appealed to marketers and members of the public to refrain from hoarding and panic buying of petrol.