Motorists in the major cities of Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun faced long lines at stations, forcing them to wait for hours, in order to purchase fuel.
Long lines were seen at various filling stations in Lagos and Ogun states on Monday, June 20, including Mobil, Capital, Fatgbems, Enyo, TotalEnergies, and NNPC.
Despite the fact that these stations had items that sold for N165/litre, motorists struggled to get fuel with which to run their businesses.
In addition, lineups formed in states bordering the FCT, including as Nasarawa and Niger.
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Long lines formed at several fueling stations in the Federal Capital Territory, including the NNPC, Mobil, A.A. Rano, AYA Ashafa, and Enyo, among others.
Hundreds of motorists swarmed the few filling stations that distributed gasoline in various states, standing in long lines for hours.
Fuel merchants blamed the situation on a decline in supply, claiming that demand for gasoline was currently higher than what the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited could supply.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been the sole importer of fuel into the country for more than four years.
Speaking on the development, the President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, said;
Lagos is having queues today, Kaduna is almost not having any PMS in its retail outlets.
So, it is simply a situation of demand overwhelming supply. The supply process is not efficient to be able to meet the demands for products.
Asked to explain whether there was not enough product, Gillis-Harry replied;
Well, clearly, if there is product, it should be delivered. However, I know the authorities are doing their best to make sure that everyone is monitored and encouraged to sell products at the approved pump price.
But there are no products in the retail outlets, which is why there will be queues. So, it clearly shows that demand has overwhelmed supply.
Nigeria consumes an estimated 60 million litres of fuel per day. However, findings showed that by PPMC’s record, marketers loaded as much as 106 million litres per day as of April.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Akeem Balogun, in a statement on Monday, said that considering the current price, it is impossible for the product to be sold at N180 per litre.
Balogun advised members to sell at a sustainable price within their environment adding that they should ensure that the price is on their pump.
“Distinguish marketers, the Chairman and executives in conjunction with some senior members of our unit, organised a press conference where we explained our predicament with the current price of PMS at private depot. We explained that with the current price, there is no way we can sell less than N180 per litre.
