Grapevine

NNPC battles deepening fuel scarcity, black market booms

But despite the national oil firm’s assurance that the queues for petrol would clear this week, oil marketers said on Sunday that the loading of products at depots had yet to improve.

Black marketers of petrol who sold the commodity in jerrycans took advantage of the situation, as they dispensed PMS for as high as N1,200 to N1,500/litre, depending on the area of purchase.

This came as the sole importer of the commodity (NNPC) blamed the petrol scarcity on evacuation challenges at PMS vessels.

NNPC is Nigeria’s only importer of petrol. Other dealers stopped importing the commodity due to their inability to access the United States dollar required for petrol imports.

The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, told one of our correspondents that the oil firm was working hard to tackle the fuel supply challenges, stressing that the queues should clear by mid-week.