The rationing of petrol to allow for even distribution of products has led to increase in queues at the filling stations, which was made worse by another pipeline vandalisation near Ijegun, a suburb of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Long queues, which had reduced significantly over the weekend, returned early Monday morning, with marketers complaining of inadequate supply of products.
However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has insisted that it is capable of meeting local demand for petrol, even as the major marketers have refused to import the scarce product until their N18bn debt by the Petroleum Support Fund is fully paid.
Investigations by our correspondent showed that many retail outlets were still closed, while the few with products had long queues.
Though many Nigerians believe that marketers are deliberately fuelling scarcity as a ploy to force government to increase prices of petroleum products, the marketers said the situation has nothing to do with any idea to increase prices.
�The issue now is not of price increase because it is not on the card at the moment. The fact is that the NNPC, which is the sole importer of petrol for now, does not have enough product to go round, so we have do some rationing to see that more areas get the product an official of one of the major marketers told our correspondent in confidence.�
The pipeline vandalisation, which according to NNPC sources occurred about 5.a.m. on Sunday, had cut off supply to Mosimi, which only recently had resumed pumping of product, following the repairs the same pipeline after it was earlier vandalised.
According to the source, �We expect the line to be repaired by tonight (Monday), and by tomorrow (today) or Wednesday latest, we will resume pumping to Mosimi.�
The source, however, added that there were some quantities of products at Ejigbo Satellite Depot and Ibadan, which will hold up till tomorrow, pending the repairs of the damaged pipeline.�
Our correspondent learnt, however, that besides the latest vandalisation, the scarcity was also caused by the inability of the NNPC vessels to arrive as expected, particularly, during the Yuletide period, when demand was at its highest.
According to NNPC Depot sources, �The corporation did not do its projections well. Normally during such festive period, the NNPC will do a projection of how long the stock will last. If there is a problem, they go to the marketers and depot operators to find out what they can offer, but they did not do their calculations well this time around, especially as the marketers refused to import.�
Meanwhile, while the PSF debt remains hanging, give marketers who import the scarce product some relief to ginger them into importing more in order to ease the current scarcity of petrol in the market.
Besides, some of the independent depot operators like MRS, Yinka Folawiyo have brought in some quantities to augment NNPC�s supply.