Some oil marketers have disclosed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is running out of supplies of petroleum and that if something urgent is not done, fuel queues may to return filling stations across the country.
They urged the petroleum company to ramp up importation and beef up petrol supplies across the country in order for them to access the products and then sell to consumers.
According to them, NNPCL depots that feed private depots across the country ran out of supplies over the weekend following the mopping up of available supplies and expressed hope that the products may be available this week to prevent the shortage of the Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol.
Recall that before now, Investors King had reported that filing stations had experienced huge crowds following scarcity of the product.
There were fights among buyers as fuel attendants reportedly extort consumers before selling the product to them.
However, last week, the queues reduced after President Muhammadu Buhari directed the NNPCL to make petrol available to marketers directly. Buhari also asked marketers to sell products at N184 per litre.
While members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and NNPCL Retail outlets sold products at N185 per litre to consumers, members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) flouted the directive of the Federal Government as they sold products between N200 to N250 per litre.
Speaking on the low supply by NNPCL which poses threat to availability of the product at retail outlets, an oil marketer said the directive of President Buhari has been functional as the petroleum company has started supplying petrol to oil marketers, the product is yet to go round.
The oil marketer disclosed further that NNPCL depots ran out of supplies over the weekend, but expressed optimism that the products would be available this week in order to prevent return of queues and scarcity of petrol at retail outlets.
Corroborating this disclosure, the Chairman IPMAN Satellite Depot, Akin Akinrinade, said some independent marketers had last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday loaded the product, but added that they could not load on Saturday because NNPCL depots did not have products.
He said queues have reduced drastically at filing stations, and that there are more products in the country. For him, NNPC has started attending to their needs since Buhari gave the directive.
Akinrinade also noted that NNPCL had completed repairs on its moribund products pipeline at Satellite, adding that IPMAN members on the axis would start loading products through the pipeline.
Explaining the reason why some oil marketers sell above the official price, the National Controller Operations, IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi, some of its members still had old stock in their tanks of which they bought above N172 per litre.
He said his members would soon be selling at N185 per litre once they start loading at N172 per liter and commended NNPCL for its approach in tackling fuel scarcity.