BY Bunmi Aduloju
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has appealed to Nigerians to avoid panic buying of petrol as queues mount at filling stations in Lagos.
On Tuesday, TheCable sighted queues at filling stations in Ibeju Lekki.
Motorists seeking to fill their tanks were also subjected long queues at Fagba area of Ogba as well as Badore, Ajah.
A commuter who spoke on the petrol scarcity, complained that commercial buses hiked fares due to the situation.
TheCable had earlier reported that queues for petrol have surfaced in Abuja over the widespread flooding situation in the country.
Speaking on the development, Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer (CEO), NMDPRA, on Tuesday, said the downstream operators were on top of the situation.
He said the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) had confirmed the level of fuel stock.
He quoted them as saying they had sufficient stock, adding that the situation will return to normalcy by Wednesday (tomorrow).
“l spoke with the MOMAN’, executive secretary this morning and he told me they have sufficient stock,” NAN quoted Ahmed as saying.
“I have directed them to start evacuating the product immediately to filling stations.
“NNPC has also confirmed sufficiency and they have commenced evacuation.
“From now till tomorrow the situation will be back to normal. I don’t know what is happening but we are on top of the situation.”
Ahmed, therefore, appealed to Nigerians to avoid panic buying as all efforts were being made to resolve shortage in some filling stations in Lagos and its environs.
On his part, Mike Osatuyi, national operations controller of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), attributed the scarcity to unsteady supply in the past few days.
As a result, Osatuyi said depots prices had risen from N165 to between N177 and N178 per litre in Apapa and its environs.
“The marketers will only sell what they buy. If the price of petrol increases, we add our transportation cost and other charges to the selling price,” he said.
He appealed to NNPC and NMDPRA to supply enough petrol across the country to ease scarcity.
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