In a bid to checkmate hoarding and scarcity of fuel during the yuletide season, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti K. Baru, has said the Corporation is reserving over two billion litres of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) for distribution to Nigerians.
“As we speak, NNPC has over two billion litres of petrol and we want to sustain this level from now on till the end of the year and beyond”.
“This volume would give the country product sufficiency of about 60 days, well above the standard 30 days sufficiency threshold”.
Baru said the Corporation would ensure a hitch free end of year movement for motorists, as well as reduce queues of vehicles and jerry-cans at filling stations.
In a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, the NNPC stated that availability of PMS will prevent the unwholesome occurrence of sharp practices such as round tripping, hoarding and products diversion.
Nigeria consumes 53.4million litres of PMS daily, with Lagos being the highest consumer with 8.98million litres per day. With 2bn litres of PMS, there will be adequate supply of petrol for approximately 38 days.
In 2014, during the Yuletide season, there were queues in different filling stations, as car owners waited for hours to fill their car tanks, thereby causing traffic.
Meanwhile, a marketer said “This is not real, there is fuel everywhere, but some of our colleagues are deliberately hoarding the product to put pressure on motorists to buy at a higher price in the case of scarcity”.
Meanwhile, black market sale thrived as fuel hustlers were seen clustered at every strategic junction with gallons of the commodity chasing motorists.
Motorists bought 10 litres of fuel between N2000 – N3000, while those who could not afford buying at that rate spent long hours waiting in long queues for their turn.
In 2015, in a renewed effort to arrest hoarding and diversion of petroleum products by some unscrupulous marketers, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation engaged security agencies to assist in the monitoring of fuel truck-out to retail outlets.
Filling stations that sold above the approved price were sanctioned, while those who hoarded fuel, their product was distributed free of charge to the public.
