The queues for petrol in major cities across the country will not disappear completely until next month, oil marketers have said. This is
coming as motorists and other petrol seekers still formed queues in front of many filling stations that had the product on Friday and Saturday in Abuja, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kwara, Kaduna, Niger and Nasarawa states.
The fuel queues, which had reduced in Lagos and the adjoining states from Monday, became longer on Friday as many stations ran out of the supply. Some filling stations belonging to independent oil marketers cashed in on the situation to raise the price of the product.
It was sold for between N140 and N160 at outlets along the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway, especially at Arepo, Ibafo and Mowe ends. In Abuja, one of our correspondents observed that some filling stations managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and those operated by major and independent oil marketers also had long queues of motorists waiting to be served fuel.
Some members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria on Friday attributed the queues in many locations to the time taken to load trucks at depots. One of the marketers that spoke on condition of anonymity said, “The loading process at depots takes time. In some depots, about 10 trucks are being loaded at a given time.
While the first 10 trucks will be loading, another set of 10 trucks will have to wait, and this takes about three to four days. “Therefore, the locations where these trucks supply products to will have limited petrol during this period of waiting; and definitely, you will find queues at those locations.”
Asked to state when the fuel scarcity situation would likely improve, the marketer said, “There is no way this situation will not drag on up unil May. I say so because it takes about two weeks for vessels to come into Nigeria and today is already April 15 and we are made to understand that some vessels are coming.
“So, the May deadline, which the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, initially gave, is actually when we will see significant improvement. However, the funny thing is that people are beginning to adjust to the situation.”
Another marketer, who is a member of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, told one of our correspondents that recently about three drivers were crushed to death while struggling to get product at a tank farm in Lagos and stressed that the fuel supply situation had yet to improve considerably. He said,
“The fuel importation and supply situation have not improved significantly, and that is the truth. You are only talking of Lagos and Abuja; do you know what is
