Fuel queues creeping back on Lagos as marketers lack forex for importation
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Fuel queues are resurfacing at filling stations in Lagos and Ogun and some other states in the South West as depots are running out of stock.
Fuel shortage and long queues have been rare post-subsidy removal, and the latest occurrence is not seen in Abuja and other Northern states.
However, commercial capital Lagos is adrift, as queues of motorists, particularly on the Oshodi-Ojodu Berger Expressway and sections of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway stretch into the roads and slow down vehicular movement.
North-West filling station had the longest queue on Tuesday, dispensing petrol at N568 per litre. Queues were shorter at Eterna filling state (N568/litre), NNPC (N568/litre), TotalEnergies (N570/litre), and Mobil (N570/litre).
Conoil, Enyo, and Oando stations at Berger in Lagos did not have petrol to sell, likewise Worldoil, Fatgbems, and Quest stations in neigbouring Ogun which shut down.
Akin Akinrinade, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Satellite Depot Chairman, disclosed the depot has not loaded products for three weeks and even the NNPC Retail depot is providing skeletal service.
“From our end, the issue has been with the pipeline vandalism which we raised an alarm over since July. Satellite depot has not loaded any product in the last three weeks, and whenever there is a problem here, it is going to affect Lagos and the whole of the South West,” he lamented in a statement.
“Although I don’t know what has been happening in other depots, from what we gathered yesterday, even NNPC Retail has been operating skeletal product dispatching. The NNPC Retail loaded just three to four trucks to Ikoyi on Monday. No product was dispatched to other places. I don’t know about other depots.”
The NNPC Retail has 21 depots across the country, nine in the North, 12 in the South. But the NNPC reported in December 2022 it had abandoned the depots due to pipeline vandalism, and now relied on private depots to dispatch products.
The NNPC has since been fixing the depots, including the one in Satellite, Lagos which resumed operations last year, but was again vandalised in July 2023.
Managers of Ejigbo Satellite Depot have raised the alarm over incessant activities of pipeline vandals on System 2B pipeline in front of Good Luck Estate in Idimu, Lagos.
“IPMAN Satellite Depot are constrained with a heavy heart to announce the vandalism of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited pipeline at Idimu in Alimosho LCDA of Lagos State, in front of Good Luck Estate,” Akinrinade said.
“This continuous vandalism is a setback to the effort of IPMAN and NNPCL to ensure uninterrupted supply of petrol to Lagos and the entire South West region of Nigeria.”
Another problem is that some depot owners are not able to source costly foreign exchange (forex) to import fuel products.
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Demand greater than supply
Many filling stations have shut down because they could not afford to buy products due to high prices, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
“Stations are now cutting down costs because most don’t have enough money to buy products to distribute to their outlets. That is why you see that those with more than one station had to close down some of them,” a source disclosed.
Another source said “the economy is tough right now and marketers have been unable to import products. Emadeb had teamed up with some other marketers and brought in about 27 million litres.
“But since then, who else did you hear has brought in the product? We are now back to the era of NNPCL being the sole importer, and would still continue to dictate what the market price would be.”
A senior member of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) reiterated demand is now greater supply.
“NNPCL has reduced importation. And the whole idea was for private individuals to also augment what NNPCL brings in. But marketers are not importing. So NNPCL still remains the only importer,” he said.
NNPC spokesman Garba-Deen Muhammad disclosed in June the company would cut down on fuel imports in August once the Dangote Refinery begins to supply products in July or August.
The NNPC owns a 20 per cent stake in the Dangote Refinery.
“NNPC Limited is bringing in products from outside Nigeria as a matter of necessity, not as a matter of choice. We would have preferred that we produce here; refine here and we sell and provide the energy security that the country needs,” Muhammad said.
“Because of the circumstances that surround our refineries, we cannot allow the country to be grounded. So we have to buy wherever we can get and sell. So if Dangote products are available, why should we not buy from Dangote?
“There is absolutely no reason. And that is the reason why we are interested in the Dangote Refinery. We are co-owners, shouldn’t we do business with our partners rather than do it with other people?”
Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, also disclosed in June the NNPC had cut down on imports.
“The market is open already, we have to follow the regulations,” he stressed. “So we have rolled out policies that are user-friendly. Some of them (marketers) have already started putting their applications in place.
“This is because we don’t want to create a gap. NNPCL is slowing down on their importation.”
Since the end of fuel subsidy on May 29, pump price has risen from an average of between N180 and N200 per litre to between N614 and N700.
