NNPC Efforts Yielding Results As Petrol Queues Disappear In Lagos, Abuja, Ogun, Other States

Residents of Abuja, Nasarawa, Lagos, Ogun and other parts of the country are heaving a sigh of relief following the disappearance of fuel queues at the filling stations that dispensed the product.

It was observed that most filling stations in Abuja and neighbouring states have been dispensing the product after receiving petrol, a development that cleared the queues for petrol by motorists in the capital city and its environs.

Findings revealed that filling stations that had been shut for over two weeks due to supply gap, have opened for operations.

Retails outlets in the satellite towns of Abuja such as Bwari, Lugbe, Kubwa, Zuba, Kuje and others that had experienced product shortage during the course of last week were seen dispensing petrol to motorists on Sunday.

Residents who spoke to THE WHISTLER during separate telephone interviews commended the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd for ensuring prompt supply of petroleum products to the filling stations.

A resident who gave her name as Grace Aina said that the she bought petrol at the filling station located at NNPC Ushafa within 15 minutes of getting to the station.

She said, “I have not gone out with my car now for over a week because of the fuel situation in the country. But today, I noticed that many filling station have statues selling gn product and I was surprised that the queues have reduced.

“I got to NNPC in Ushafa and within 15 minutes, I was able to buy fuel in my car. I commend the government for intervening in the fuel supply crisis because we are approaching elections and it will be bad to go into the polls with such crisis.”

Another resident, Martins Ehigie said that the fuel queues in his area has also reduced.

He said, I live in Lugbe and work in Central Area. This morning, while driving to work, I decided to stop at a Total filling station and I was excited when I saw fewer people buying petrol.

” I thought the station was not even dispensing but on approaching the gate, I saw the filling station attendants beckoning on me to come buy petrol. I felt excited because I was able to full my tank and pay with POS. “

Similarly, petrol queues have disappeared at filling stations in Lagos and Ogun States as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited continues to work round the clock to address the country’s over four-month petrol scarcity.

Checks by THE WHISTLER on Friday in some filling stations in Lagos and Ogun States, showed that there were no queues.

However, while the major oil marketers were selling petrol at N185/litre, the independent marketers were selling between N260/litre and N340/litre.

A motorist, Abiodun Adigun, told THE WHISTLER that he was happy that the queue has disappeared, but complained that the Independent marketers were not selling at regulated pump price of N185/litre.

“I am happy that one no longer has to spend hours in queues, but something has to be done about the independent marketers. The government has to make them comply with the regulated pump price of N185/litre,” Adigun said.

Another motorist, Kunle Adeyemo, said that he spent about one hour in queue at one of the filling stations of a major marketer this morning to buy the product.

“I spent about one hour in queue at Mobile filling station around Abule Egba this morning. Long queues have disappeared. It is longer what it used to be,” Adeyemo said.

Also speaking to THE WHISTLER, Olalekan Bakare, a commercial bus driver who plies Oshodi route, said that he did not witness any queue this afternoon when he bought petrol at Enyo filling station in Alakuko area.

Bakare said, “I bought fuel this afternoon at Enyo filling station at Alakuko area. There was no queue, and they are selling at regulated pump price of N185/litre.

On Tuesday, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, while making appearance on Channels Television’s special election programme “The 2023 Verdict”, had apologized to Nigerians for the lingering queues being witnessed in different parts of the country, and promised that the national oil firm was working to address the problem.

“I apologise for the situation. On behalf of all of us, the stakeholders in the oil and gas industry. Definitely, not surely exclusive. Having said this, it is unfortunate. It’s a glitch – we are responsible to [resolve] this glitch. We will resolve this,” Kyari had said.

He noted that there was going to be changes within the next one week. “I’m not saying that you’re going to have zero queues within the next one week,” he added. “No, I can’t guarantee that because a number of things are out of our control.”

The NNPC Limited boss also informed that the company has ramped up evacuation, adding that it has been supplying more than 70 million litres into the market against the regular evacuation of up to 63-64 million litres.

“We know that the solution is excess supply. Once we are able to do excess supply across the country, across locations, you are going to resolve this issue, which is exactly what we’re doing now,” he said.

“We’re ramping up evacuation today. On a daily basis, we are doing more than 70 million litres into the market against the regular evacuation of up to 63-64 million litres.

“This will work and we believe that the ease that we’re seeing in many locations today – I don’t want to cite specific locations but I know that we’re seeing ease across the country. This is easing up.”