THE ongoing fuel scarcity across the states has hit most of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) filling stations as marketers anticipate products from Dangote Refinery this month.

On Friday, July 5 fuel scarcity resurfaced in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city and spread to other states including Lagos where the product is mostly loaded to other parts of the country.

While most of the independent marketers and other private filling stations have run out of stock, the filling stations owned by the country’s sole importer of petroleum products, NNPC, appeared to be running out of stock.

On Thursday, July 11, The ICIR observed that most of the NNPC filling stations were not open to sell fuel to motorists.

Along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, from the Redemption Camp City point to Abeola Garden and along Ojodu-Berger to Ogba, The ICIR observed that the NNPL filling stations were not open to sell petrol to motorists.

Some independent marketers and private filling stations along the same corridor were also not selling fuel. A few that were selling, have increased their pump price.

A Conoil filling station at the Redemption Camp City in Mowe, Ogun State was pumping petrol at N650 while an Adova, formerly AP filling station directly opposite it was selling at N655. Along that same corridor, Petrocam filling station was selling at N740.

Relating the current pump prices with the market survey The ICIR did in April this year, the pump price of petrol has been hiked by filling stations.

The increase in the pump price of petrol has further hiked the cost of transportation across many routes in the states.

On Tuesday, July 9, The ICIR observed that transporters were charging N1,000 from the Seven-Up bus stop to Obalende/CMS for a journey that used to cost about N500. From a motor park at Zenith Bank roundabout in Victoria Island to Oshodi, transportation fare has risen to N1,000 and N1,000 also from Berger at Oworoshoki to Mowe.

Mohammed Bulala, a commuter waiting to board a bus at Agogbala, an adjoining town along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, to Kara, a cattle market before Berger-Lagos, told The ICIR that he now pays more for transportation to and fro his journey.

“I used to pay N400 but it is N600 Danfo drivers are collecting now. Okada people used to collect N500 and they will carry two people but now it is N1,000 per head.”

A bus conductor who yelled at commuters at the bus stop, later told The ICIR reporter that the situation was also hurting transporters.

“We spend time queueing at filling stations. We buy the fuel at a higher price. You can’t blame us. Go and blame the government,” the bus conductor who gave His name as Sunday, said.

In Abuja, most filling stations have adjusted their pump to sell at about N690 with the long queues still visible in most retail outlets and commuters fastly adjusting transport fares from one part of the city to the other.

Commenting on the development, the  National Public Relations Officer of the Independent Petroleum Market Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Ukadike Chinedu told the ICIR  that the supply from the NNPCL has commenced but is still a bit slow and affected by higher demands for the products.

“NNPCL is giving products to marketers. There are still issues around epileptic distribution which shows that the supply hiccups are not sorted. It is taking longer before the products get to the marketers. We are not fully independent as we are still dependent on the products supplied to us by the Federal Government through NNPCL.

Meanwhile, the NNPCL had blamed the ongoing fuel scarcity on flooding and logistics challenges.

It said specifically that the flooding disrupted the ship-to-ship transfer of petrol, between mother vessels and daughter vessels and weather conditions affected berthing at jetties, truck load-outs and transportation of products to filling stations, disrupting supply to filling stations.

Due to the flammability of petroleum products and in compliance with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) regulations, it was impossible to load petrol during rainstorms and lightning, the NNPCL said.

It has been a week and the fuel scarcity situation appears to have gradually intensified across the states.

Industry experts believe that the ongoing fuel scarcity may not be unconnected to the Dangote refinery’s plan to start the production of petrol.

The vice president at Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Devakumar Edwin, had on July 7 reiterated that the refinery would start production of petrol this July.

Dangote refinery had fixed 10 to 15 July to pump out its maiden petrol product and start selling to marketers.

The ICIR reported that the planned kick-off of petrol products by the Dangote refinery raises concerns over NNPC’s price-control regime despite the deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.