There were fears yesterday that vehicular queues which reappeared in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) might spread to major cities in the country as the withdrawal of petrol tankers by their owners entered day two today.
Many stations which on Sunday seamlessly sold petrol, shot their gates all through yesterday, leaving motorists and other residents to crowd the few that opened for business.
Those who had the patience to queue at a few independent stations that dispensed petrol at between N648 and N670 per litre, spent hours waiting with others that could not turn to black markets where they paid N850 per litre.
Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, however, met with the leadership of the tanker owners under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) in his bid to prevent the situation from worsening.
The meeting was also attended by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed, as well as leaders of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Major Energy Marketers of Nigeria (MOMEN).
NARTO had in a letter dated February 15 notified NMDPRA, MOMEN, Department of State Services (DSS) of its intention to stop lifting petroleum products from last Sunday because of the high cost of operation.
Before the parley was shifted till today, Lokpobiri informed the members of NARTO, IPMAN and MOMEN that the issues at stake were commercial.
He added that the Federal Government decided to wade in to save the public the pains associated with petrol scarcity.
The minister said the removal of petrol subsidy and the Petroleum Industry Act gave marketers the leverage to fix prices and bear the cost of haulage.
Lokpobiri said: “It should be known that the issues have nothing to do with government.
“It is commercial. We as the government, have to intervene, so that Nigerians will not suffer.
“I believe that Nigerians are already going through hard times, not by any of your making, but as a result of the situation that we find ourselves.
“I thank you for waiting for several hours and for being patriotic.
“The engagements are continuing. We hope we are going to find a solution as soon as possible.”
But the marketers complained that the same government capped the pump price of the petrol, adding that
they said they were at a fix as they could not hike pump price.
