Report has indicated that private depot owners have hiked the price of fuel from ₦630 to ₦720 per litre.
This coming as fuel scarcity deepened in Abuja and the adjoining states on Sunday with some filling stations dispensing PMS as high as ₦900/litre.
According to Punch, the scarcity is gradually surfacing in Lagos and Ogun as a number of filling stations in the states have run out of stock as they refused to buy high-priced fuel from the private depots.
Speaking in an interview with the aforementioned publication, the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, said many filling stations did not open for business because they had no fuel in their tanks.
He said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, which is the sole importer of petrol at the moment, should explain to Nigerians what was happening with the product.
“Those that shut their stations do not have fuel to sell. When you don’t have fuel, you cannot open your station. That is the problem. You know the NNPC is the sole importer of this product. I think it is in the best position to tell us what is actually going on.
“Currently, independent marketers cannot buy what the private depots are selling. They are selling fuel between N715 and N720 per litre. How much will marketers sell the product? Look at the cost of bringing it to their depots; with transportation and other depot expenses, it will be too costly for them. That is why the stations are shut down. Some marketers refuse to go and buy because they know the masses cannot afford high-priced petrol in this economy. That is the situation for now,” the IPMAN leader stated.
It was gathered that the third parties, who are private depot owners, used to sell PMS to independent marketers at the rate of ₦630-₦650/litre before now, while the NNPC sells petrol to major marketers at a price below or around ₦600.
Multiple officials confirmed to the the publication that officials of the NNPC stormed the various depots in Apapa on Friday, mandating depot owners to prioritise fuel supply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where the fuel queues were initially noticed on Friday.
On Saturday and Sunday, many trucks were reportedly directed to Abuja to reduce the queues in the FCT, leaving Lagos and other places with little supply.
One of the officials disclosed that the NNPC was rationing PMS to depots due to the fuel supply gap.
When the publication visited some fuel stations across the state, it was observed that some fuel stations had adjusted the prices of PMS upward.
Dealers closed their retail outlets due to their inability to access petrol as a result of the hike in the ex-depot price of the commodity to ₦710/litre by private depot owners.
Motorists besieged the few stations that dispensed petrol on Friday; particularly those operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and some major oil marketers in Abuja and neighbouring states.
It was noted that the situation was extending to Lagos. Out of about 10 fuel stations along the Ikotun to Egbeda axis, only about two stations were dispensing at the time of filing this report.
At Ikotun, one of the outlets belonging to the NNPC that was selling for ₦568 per litre had long queues while others were not dispensing. At the Igando-Ikotun axis, only an outlet belonging to Petrocam sold at ₦820 per litre.
It was gathered that an outlet belonging to TotalEnergies along Mushin Road, in Isolo, sold fuel at ₦615 per litre with a long queue of waiting buyers.
Meanwhile, a Technoil filling station at Isolo Bustop was not selling fuel at the time of filing this report.
Also, the NNPC filling station on the same axis that sold for ₦568 per litre was crowded with cars.
