Petrol: Black Market Booming In Minna As Litre Sells For N420
An acute shortage of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) has hit Minna, the capital city of Niger State as oil marketers fear purchasing adulterated fuel from importers.
When our reporter visited AYM Shafa filling station, Kpakungu on Tuesday, there were long queues as some motorists confirmed they slept at the station. Although the filling station was not dispensing fuel as of the time of the visits, the motorists said they were confident the fuel station had petrol in stock.
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Similar scenes greeted our reporter at A.A. Rano, Kpakungu; Bovas, Tunga and Forte oil, Limawa junction. Other stations including, NNPC fuel station, Talba Estate; Mobil station, along airport road and Total filling station, Gurara junction were under lock and key.
The development, THE WHISTLER learnt, has resulted in a spike in transportation costs across the city as motorists resort to black marketers who sell for as high as N400 per litre.
Aminu, a tricycle operator told this website that he bought a litre of petrol at E.C.E filling station along Maitumbi road for N270 per litre as against the government-approved average price of N165 per litre.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had earlier imported 300 million litres of petrol to close the supply gap created by the withdrawal of the contaminated petrol grade as THE WHISTLER earlier reported.
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However, marketers are reportedly reluctant to get the imported fuel over fears that it could also be contaminated.
A highly placed source in the oil downstream sector confided in THE WHISTLER that the scarcity was as a result of heightened concerns by independent oil marketers to purchase methanol-blended petrol.
“Marketers are afraid of buying the bad petrol imported into the country. The ones who have already purchased it have their capital tied down, they don’t have space to store the good one. It’s a bad thing for everybody,” he said.
Recall that methanol blended petrol was imported to Nigeria after four companies purchased and imported the product from International Trader, LITASCO and delivered through the LITASCO loading port terminal in Antwerp in Belgium.
NNPC has since recalled the product from circulation while stating that cargoes of clean petrol are being shipped into the country daily to bridge the gap created by the withdrawal.
