Fuel queues to end soon, Osinbajo assures Nigerians

Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo has stated that the long queues being experienced in filling stations across the country will disappear in a few days as the Federal Government has taken adequate steps to bridge the supply gaps that fuelled the current scarcity of petrol.

This is also coming as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has reassured Nigerians that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has imported more petrol, stressing that the queues would soon disappear in Lagos.

The vice president, who gave this assurance during a visit alongside Kachikwu to three terminals of major marketers (Total, OVH Oando and Mobil) in Apapa Lagos on Christmas day, said the sad episode of petrol queues should end in the next couple of days, as supply has increased.

According to him, the ultimate solution is to have adequate supply going everywhere, and that is why major marketers have been urged to complement the efforts of the NNPC to arrest the crises.

The corporation’s target as stated by the NNPC Managing Director, Retails, Mr. Yemi Adetunji, has also increased as more supplies are discharging.

However, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), OVH Energy, Oando’s down stream’s licensee, Olaposi Williams, who was optimistic with the daily loading of 150 trucks, remarked that there is a vessel waiting to be discharged but the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) officials were not on ground.

Reacting to this, Kachikwu promised to give immediate directives to the regulatory bodies not to hold down any vessel, as formalities could be done after.

“All the majors have to commit to work to time, because by Wednesday, I want Lagos and Abuja clean,” the minister added.

Osinbajo, who blamed the current crises on the winter phenomenon, explained that during this season, premium for fuel increases in many parts of the world, which translates to import challenges, hence short deliveries.

He, however, guaranteed that this won’t transform to increase in price as the Federal Government has no such intention because it has an objective not to subject Nigerians to the pain of increase in fuel price.

“So any hoarding in anticipation of that is a waste of time and resources,” he said.

Similarly, the Manager in charge of the Total Nigeria Terminal, Mr. Ernest Umunah, also noted the importation gap as the cause of the fuel crisis and appealed that marketers should be given more incentives to avert the problem.