- Severe petrol scarcity has disrupted businesses across Nigeria, with long queues at filling stations in major cities.
- Marketers attribute the scarcity to logistics challenges and inadequate supply from NNPC.
- NNPC blames the scarcity on disruption of ship-to-ship petrol transfer due to a thunderstorm, flooding of truck routes, and panic buying by motorists.
Newsypeople- The present fuel shortage in Nigeria has created problems for businesses and made consumers very frustrated. Both marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) are putting blame on each other for this situation, causing long lines at petrol stations and higher prices.
The NNPCL says the reason for petrol shortage is because a recent thunderstorm caused problems with moving petrol between ships.
This storm also made it hard for ships to dock at jetties, load trucks, and move petrol to gas stations. The company explains that during heavy rain and lightning, they cannot load petrol since petroleum products can easily catch fire. Also, there are rules from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) that say loading in these weather conditions is not allowed.
But, marketers say they cannot enter the NNPCL website to make orders for petrol. The Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) says people should not panic or buy and store extra fuel.
They explain that many stations do not have enough product because bad weather and thunderstorms caused delays in moving products from one ship to another.
The shortage has become more difficult because flooding on truck roads is stopping petrol from getting to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from coastal places. Private depot owners in Lagos have raised the price of petrol from N630 to N720 per litre, and gas stations are charging up to N800 per litre now.
The House of Representatives say they will do a forensic investigation about why fuel is scarce. The NNPCL is working together with important people to fix the transport problems and make sure petrol supply goes back to normal in areas having issues.
See the news below…
𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐍𝐍𝐏𝐂, 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 https://t.co/VX0d1o3sUo
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) July 9, 2024
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