NNPC Deploys 150 Trucks Of PMS To Tackle Fuel Queues

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has deployed over 150 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit from the depots to tackle the rising fuel queues in some parts of the country.

Fuel queues returned to the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday as motorists spent hours at filling stations waiting to buy PMS.

There were long queues in most of the filling stations on Friday, while some were completely shut down due to scarcity of the product.

But sources within the NNPC told THE WHISTLER that the development was caused by the challenges being experienced by truck drivers in the distribution of petroleum products.

It was gathered that some bad portion of the roads in the country and general inadequacy of bridging fees payable to marketers were also responsible for the hitches.

The Federal Government had last month released N58bn as part of response to claims by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria that bridging claims of N500bn could lead to a fuel crisis

The inadequate bridging cost, according to sources have made some of the truck drivers to convert their tankers to flat beds.

It was learnt that there was breakdown of movements last week due to blockage on Lolomari road in Port Harcourt.

Source also confided in this website that truck drivers complained of road congestion and traffic along Ekpoma- Benin way due to the breakdown of some trucks which blocked the main road.

In the same vein, there was an accident on Thursday along Gadar Murtala bridge in Kogi state which caused serious hold up on the bridge.

It was gathered that at Lapai in Niger state, some trucks broke down on the road which contributed to the hold up around the Area.

There was also serious hold up along Abuja-Lokoja road at Koton – Karfe in Kogi state.

Amid prediction of higher fuel cost by the Institute for Energy Security (IES), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has intensified the distribution of the product to address energy setbacks partly triggered by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Over 336.73m litres was released through 70 load-out depots between May 2 and 8, while another 564.92m litres went into the market between May 9 and 16 through same load-out depots.

In 2022 alone the national oil company released over 4 billion liters and maintained a price of around N165 per litre at the pump stations.