REVEALED: Reasons for the sudden fuel scarcity
Residents of Abuja, Lagos, Ogun and other major cities in Nigeria are beginning to suffer the scarcity of fuel which surprisingly resurfaced on Monday.
Many Nigerians are left to wonder what actually is the cause or reason for the unannounced scarcity of petrol.
While some are yet to find the answer as to why they’re made to suffer another bad experience arising from fuel scarcity, RovingNaija can report that it is due to the high cost of diesel used by petrol tankers to transport the product. This may sound ridiculous to some people.
Deputy National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Zarma Mustapha said on Punch that the widespread queues in Nigeria were related to the global energy crisis that had dragged on for about four months since the Ukraine/Russia war started.
“The solution to this crisis is to increase petrol price and have it approved because the cost of diesel used in transporting these products to retail stations has risen from about N250/litre a few months ago to around N850/litre currently.
“Because of that crisis, the prices of crude have increased astronomically and Russia, being the largest producer of diesel globally, is inaccessible. So, people are not having access to purchase diesel, knowing full well that our refineries are not working.
“We solely depend on imported diesel, so based on that, the scarcity of diesel has become worse, which is the major product we use in transporting fuel to filling stations.
“The marketers have engaged the government in trying to see how best we can cushion the effects of the rise in diesel price. But, unfortunately, the price has continued to rise and based on that the government made an upward review of the bridging claims.”
He noted that despite the little upward reviews of the bridging rates in May and June this year, the adjustments were still not enough to cover the cost of transporting products.
Mustapha, however, stated that marketers were engaging the Federal Government, adding that it had been confirmed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had enough stock
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