Why there is still lingering fuel scarcity in Lagos
A few days ago, I took my keg and went to the filling station in my area in Ogba,, hoping to get fuel. I was vaguely aware of queues at filling stations, but I had no idea of the degree of the seriousness of the situation. Working from home had shielded me from the reality of many Lagosians who commute to work daily. I had assumed that the fuel problem had been sorted out a few weeks ago, but to my surprise, more than 100 people were jostling and pushing themselves in a non-existent queue to buy fuel. Commercial yellow-painted buses occupied one side while cars formed a long line by the side of the road turning the two-lane road to one. It was 9.30 pm, and the crowd did not abate.
I crossed to the other side of the road, where there was another filling station. In the past, fuel attendants there would have called anyone walking on the road with a keg to come and buy fuel. That night, they strolled around. “There is no fuel”, an attendant told me. I asked why and he responded: “I don’t know.” It was the same answer I would get from many people who ordinarily were supposed to know.
Background to the problem
On Tuesday, February 8, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said it found methanol above national specifications in the imported gasoline. This came as complaints of bad fuel damaging vehicles and generators were reported on social media. In one video, the fuel had a darker hue, and according to the narrator, it also had a foul smell.
On Wednesday, February 9, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, admitted that adulterated fuel had been imported into Nigeria from Belgium and said, methanol tests were not carried out on them. He said four companies were at fault, and they had been “put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC will work with the authority to take further necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations”.
“On 20th January 2022, NNPC received a report from our quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium,” he said.
“NNPC investigation revealed the presence of Methanol in Four (4) PMS cargoes.”
He listed the companies as MRS, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, Oando, and Duke Oil.
As a result, some fuel stations that had received the adulterated fuel were isolated pending removal of the petrol from their reservoirs while distribution was put on hold.
In a swift move, MRS released a statement saying it was not an importer of petrol. It explained that NNPC through its trading arm, Duke Oil, was responsible for bringing in PMS to Nigeria and supplying to marketers. Neusroom reached out to MRS for additional information but has not responded yet.
Due to the limited availability of methanol-free petrol for sale, fuel became scarce as the available supply could not meet demand. The NNPC yet again released a statement on February 15 assuring Nigerians that it has begun the accelerated distribution of petrol. It assured that as part of its ”strategic restocking, over 2.3 billion litres of PMS is scheduled for delivery between now (February 15) and the end of February 2022, which will restore sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.”
Current situation
Despite the assurance given by the NNPC, the situation has become dire. Since the beginning of March, fuel scarcity has become so severe, especially in Lagos, that the price has gone up. In some filling stations visited in the Ogba area of Lagos, the price had jumped from its N165 per litre official price to N500 unofficially. This has also increased black market sales to about N700.
I was informed by a petrol attendant who spoke on the condition of anonymity in one of the filling stations in the College Road area of Ogba that although they had fuel in their reservoir, they only sell when their manager asked them to.
He said: “Although we have fuel, we don’t sell when the filling station across us is selling. It’s when they finish selling that we get the order to start selling.”
This artificial scarcity helps to keep the price high as demand remains high. By keeping supply low, queues build up at filling stations, thereby increasing panic-buying and, by extension, keeping the price high.
But that is not the only reason for the fuel scarcity, according to the manager of a filling station in Ogba, who gave his name simply as Mumin but asked that his filling station not be named. He said despite the assurance of the NNPC that supply has been increased to meet Nigerian’s consumption, it still has not reached the level required yet.
“Supply of petrol is still very low. Petrol tankers are lined up in Apapa at the depot, but they can’t get supply. We are hearing that ships have not berthed at the port to discharge their supplies. The situation is even worse for independent oil marketers who have to source for the commodity because they don’t get directly from NNPC. If you go to NNPC depots in Ibadan, Ejigbo, Ilorin, you will see that they are not loading. The little we are getting cannot get to everyone.”
When Neusroom reached out to the NNPC contact for information via the official line on its website, the receiver who refused to give his name, referred to NNPC’s latest statement assuring that “it was working to solve the problem and make fuel available to soon as possible.”
Kyari, in another video shared by the NNPC on Wednesday, March 2, said there was sufficient stock and that Nigerians should stop panic-buying. Not many Nigerians agree with him, though. I spoke with one of the car owners who parked his vehicle beside the NNPC filling station in Ogba. he insisted he was not panic-buying and only needed fuel for his business.
“If you speak with half of the people here, they will tell you they only come here to buy fuel because they need it. I am an Uber driver, and my car needs fuel to work. It is not an option. I am not panic-buying. I came to buy what I need to work so I can survive.
“Some people are here to buy fuel for their generator which they use for work since the light is not available 24/7. Even those who buy fuel to power their generator to put on their fan because of the heat are not panic-buying. If it is not important, no one will come and waste time and suffer here.”
Effect
The lingering fuel scarcity has caused a massive traffic situation in Lagos. On roads where there are filling stations, vehicles waiting to buy fuels take one side of the road thereby reducing the number of lanes. This reduces the movement of vehicles thereby causing a buildup of traffic.
The cost of transportation has also risen as a result of the increment in fuel price and difficulty in purchasing it. Although the NNPC has vowed that it will not increase the price of petrol, scarcity has made it go up thereby leading increase in transport fare. For example, a trip from Berger to Ogba which used to cost N100 is now N200. The cost of ride-hailing services have also increased.
It is not clear yet when the lingering fuel scarcity which has hit Lagos the worst will go away as nothing changed in the past one month despite the promise of Kyari and the NNPC. With consumption estimated at more than 50 million litres per day, the situation is expected to continue severely until the government returns back to meeting the average daily demand
