Jerry cans return to Petrol stations, as scarcity bits harder, petrol skirts N1000/litre

Adewale Akintaro

Queues have returned in full swing , as commuters crowd the bus stops waiting forlornly for vehicles to convey them to their various destinations.

The few vehicles that surface jerk up the fare by between 20 to 50 percent. The picture painted above has returned to most states in Nigeria with residents resorting to buying petrol in jerrycans, fondly referred to as ‘kegs’ as black market prices soar towards N1000 per litre.

Investigstions by EnergyDay revealed a cascade of snaky line of motorists around petrol stations, some waiting for hours only to be turned away due to lack of the product, despite assurance from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Ltd that the logistics issue had been resolved.

A top official in Nigeria’s downstream sector told EnergyDay that the petrol scarcity will end before the end of this week.

He averred that the current petrol scarcity is caused by hitches in the logistics operations of NNPC Ltd.

“We have solid assurances from NNPCL that the scarcity will fizzle out at the end of the week “, he said.

Billy Gillis-Harry, the president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) said its members do not have access to petroleum products.

“Well, from my perspective as a retail outlet owner and representing all the retail outlet owners who are members of PETROAN, I can tell you that our challenge is that we do not have access to the product,” Gillis-Harry said on Monday during Channels TV’s Morning Brief breakfast programme.

“So, once the product is available in all the depots, and we are being issued our products, we will certainly complement NNPC’s efforts to make sure that all the stations are wet and we are doing that consistently.

“Even in this season, at this time, NNPC in the last few weeks have squeezed in loading barges to encourage everyone including the NNPC stations and PETROAN members and even IPMAN members and we are taking products bit by bit to our various stations.”
According to investigations by our correspondents, few petrol stations with fuel are selling between N750 to N1000/ per litre.
” I don’t understand why this administration that many of us thought would be better than Buhari’s has decided to go the long haul in punishing Nigerians “, a driver who identified himself as Daniel told EnergyDay.