Queues resurface as petrol scarcity spreads

Long queues of desperate motorists searching for petrol returned to some parts of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states on Tuesday as the nation appears to have returned to the era of scarcity of the product.

Though the situation was generally dismissed as panic buying in some quarters, checks by our correspondents showed that queues had returned to many filling stations in Lagos as motorists were seen making frantic attempts to buy fuel in anticipation of the situation getting worse from Wednesday (today).

Specifically, queues were seen at the Total filing stations located at Acme and Oregun areas of the state; the Mobil filling station at Ogba; and Oando stations along the Oworonshoki–Tollgate end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The Forte oil filling station located in Oregun and other many other stations around the area shut their gates against customers.

Similarly, motorists were seen queuing for long hours to purchase petrol at the few filling stations that were selling the product in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Queues resurfaced in some parts of Lagos last week over fears of an impending petrol scarcity, but the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association had described the situation as panic buying, while insisting that there was no scarcity of petroleum products in the country.

However, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria said the delay by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to release the first quarter import allocations was already putting pressure on the available fuel in stock and that depots owned by the major marketers were already drying up.

The Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, had said last week, “There will be fuel scarcity in the country if the major marketers’ supply is not replenished because we account for 60 per cent of the national product demand across the country.”

Culled from Punch