By Dipo Olowookere
Activities of some cross-border smugglers, marketers and ongoing road construction have been attributed to the lingering scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, in Nigeria.
For almost a year, Nigerians have witnessed queues at petrol stations across the country, with different reasons given for the shortage of the product at various periods.
Since late 2022, there have been long queues, which have defied different solutions and directives of President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum.
Giving an update on the situation on Friday, the federal government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said the inability of Nigerians to purchase fuel without hassle was due to a disruption in the supply of the product caused by the smugglers and oil marketers.
“The current distribution hitch is heightened by activities of cross-border smugglers, who divert PMS meant for Nigerian market to neighbouring countries, where PMS prices are significantly higher than Nigeria’s regulated price,” a part of a statement issued by the agency today said.
It also blamed the construction of roads for the situation, stating that “the ongoing government effort to rehabilitate strategic Nigerian roads ahead of the rainy season has necessitated rerouting of tanker trucks conveying petroleum products to alternative roads, therefore, increasing transit time and associated cost of product transportation.”
Business Post reports that in some parts of Lagos, petroleum marketers sell PMS higher than the official price of N170 per litre. They dispense fuel between N250 per litre and N310 per litre.
It was observed that where petrol is sold at N170 per litre, especially at fuelling stations owned by major marketers, there are long queues of vehicles disrupting the flow of traffic, and at locations where it is sold above the regulated pump price, there are no or fewer queues.
To tackle the petrol scarcity, the NMDPRA said it was “engaging and collaborating with the Nigeria Customs Service to address the diversion of the product by smugglers to other countries.”
It assured that there was “PMS sufficiency of over 1.6 billion litres as of January 26, 2023, both on land and marine.”
“NNPC (the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited) has additionally made a firm commitment to supply more volume of PMS for the months ahead to guarantee national energy security and nationwide availability at the government regulated price,” the organisation further stated in the statement.
It emphasised that its monitoring teams have been reinforced to “checkmate the activities of erring marketers who are distorting our planned product flow to designated outlets in order to profiteer from price arbitrage.”
Adedapo Adesanya