The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, has refused to abate despite claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited that it has been releasing hundreds of millions of litres of petrol to address the situation.
In its latest weekly national PMS evacuation report for February 21 to 26, 2022, seen on Sunday, NNPC said it evacuated an additional 381.88 million litres of petrol during the period.
About a week ago, the oil firm stated that it distributed a total of 387.59 million litres of PMS from February 14 to 20, 2022, in its bid to bridge the petrol supply gap.
But despite its claims, the queues for petrol in filling stations that dispensed the commodity on Sunday remained massive in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger, as well as in many other states.
Queues formed by motorists were seen at the Nipco filling station along the Kubwa end of the Kubwa-Zuba expressway in Abuja. In Zuba, Niger State, motorists besieged the few outlets that sold petrol, forming long queues.
The same situation played out in filling stations in Mararaba and Nyanya in Nasarawa State, as petrol users in many other states complained of scarcity in their various locations.
But in its PMS weekly evacuation report for February 21 to 26, 2022, the NNPC said it evacuated a total of 381.88 million litres of petrol, representing an average daily evacuation of 63.65 million litres, while the year-to-date daily average was put at 60.86 million litres.
It said 80 per cent of all the evacuation took place at the top 20 high loading depots, while 20 per cent of the remaining evacuation took place at the other depots.
The top 20 high load-out depots include Pinnacle-Lekki with 43.259 million litres; Aiteo, 22.462 million litres; A.A. Rano, 22.43 million litre; A.Y.M Shafa, 19.232 million litres; and Prudent, 17.788 million litres, among others.
In the next category, the firms that were involved in PMS load-out, according to NNPC, include Gonzaga, 8.23 million litres; Bovas Bulk-Ibafon, 7.761 million litres; PPMC Mosimi, 7.15 million litres; and First Royal, 4.825 million litres; among others.
The scarcity of petrol in Nigeria has persisted for about a month. The development has led to the resurgence of black marketers who sell petrol at between N300 to N500/litre depending on the area of purchase.