Scarcity forces return of black marketers as petrol sells for N300/litre

The scarcity of petrol witnessed in many parts of Lagos, is forcing many to turn to the black market where petrol now sells above N300 per litre.

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 few filling stations dispensing petrol had long queues and some have adjusted their prices to sell at N200/litre.

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

Ngozi Okafor, a petrol black marketer that resides in Satellite Town said she bought petrol for N190 per litre from an Eterna petrol station located in Alakija, Satellite Town, Lagos and sells at N300 per litre during the evening, when most residents were 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 N4800 to buy petrol from the black market, at N300 per litre,” he said.

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

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

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Last week, Chinedu Ukadike, the spokesperson of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), 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 NNPC Limited but added that the vessels were just arriving.

“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 fully 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 Nigeria and be able to distribute and send to these private depots, there was a little delay in payments and receipts and NIMASA,” he said.

He noted that although the flood had subsided as some depots were out of stock.