Black market petrol sells for N300/litre on scarcity

The scarcity of petrol in many parts of Lagos forced many motorists and other users to turn to the black market where the product was sold for as high as N300 per litre on Tuesday.

Petrol queues around filling stations have seen an upsurge in the activities of black marketers. Our correspondents observed that in many parts of Lagos, the filling stations dispensing petrol had long queues and some had adjusted their prices to sell at N200/litre.

BusinessDay also observed on Monday that some filling stations around Lagos shut down or had queues in the evening.

Ngozi Okafor, a petrol black marketer who resides in Satellite Town, said she bought petrol for N190 per litre from an Eterna petrol station located in Alakija, Satellite Town, Lagos and would sell at N300 per litre during the evening to residents unable to purchase fuel during the day.

Nwaze Chukwuma, a resident of Satellite Town, told BusinessDay that due to the strike by bus drivers, he got home late, and had no choice but to get petrol from the black market. “I spent N4,800 to buy petrol from the black market at N300 per litre,” he said.

Olaleye David, another black marketer selling petrol for N250 per litre, told BusinessDay that a Petrocam filling station, located in Abule Ado, sold the product for N220 per litre, as motorists, cars and residents piled up daily.

Read also: Transport fares rise in Lagos as petrol scarcity bites

He added that the price may rise above N300 if the scarcity persists.

Last week, Chinedu Ukadike, the spokesperson of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, blamed the lingering scarcity on the delay in the arrival of product vessels. He said this has led to a drop in the stock sufficiency level of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) but added that the vessels were just arriving.

He said: “For us, the independent marketers, we are service-oriented, and we normally buy our products from NNPC, private depots, and private tank farm owners and some of them are located in Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt, knowing full well that we import petroleum products in this country, and most of these products are vessel driven depots, and they collect products from ships.

“Recently, NNPC and the PPMC, I think there is a shortfall in the sufficiency they have in stock because some of the mother vessels they are expecting are just arriving there was a little delay and some of the logistics in handling charges in the depots, so these are the issues that have truncated the chain of supply.

“Because some of these mother vessels that were supposed to arrive in Nigeria and be able to distribute and send to these private depots, there was a little delay in payments and receipts and NIMASA.”