Amidst the current fuel scarcity in the country, indication emerged yesterday that the condition could worsen as a litre of fuel was sold at 300 per litre in some filling stations across the country.
Although the Nigerian national petroleum company has said that “2.3 billion litres of additional premium motor spirit were being imported into the country to complement existing one billion litres as part of measures to address fuel scarcity’’.
The guardian newspaper yesterday gathered that most marketers especially depot owners who had made payment for products since December last year, were yet to receive the consignment.
While the queues appeared to have reduced as at last week, the situation became worse from Friday as many fuel stations were shut down, while those who had fuel had very long queues.
Amidst the disruption in the distribution system, consumers are worried about the lack of monitoring and silence on the part of the Nigerian midstream and downstream petroleum regulatory authority (NMDPRA) in checking the excesses of some of the marketers that had products but selling above the pump price.
Multiple sources across the value chain equally confirmed yesterday that the existing strategy being deployed by the state oil firm in an attempt to enable it to recover cost after being transformed into a limited liability company may further worsen the prevailing situation.
According to the guardian, they added that NNPC was expected to truck out products to most stations in the city centres owned by the major oil marketer’s association of Nigeria(IPMAN) now prefer selling the products at the stations in a bid to recover losses from bank loans and new challenges that include, payment for products in dollars, which they claimed they have to source at the black market.
According to a source who pleaded anonymity, said the national oil company was trying its best to address the situation, he said realities are far from claims being made in the media.
