The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s stock of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, dipped by 5,481,239 litres, according to industry data released on Tuesday.
Although the drop in PMS stock was marginal, queues for petrol persisted in Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger and some other northern states.
Figures obtained from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority on Tuesday indicated that the total PMS stock of NNPC as at November 6, 2022 was 1,912,725,464 litres.
This dipped to 1,907,244,225 litres on November 7, 2022, indicating a drop of 5,481,239 litres, while the total days’ sufficiency was 30.84, according to the NMDPRA data as at November 7
NNPC has remained the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for several years running. Other marketers halted petrol imports due to their inability to access foreign exchange without hassles.
However, the queues for petrol in many northern states did not abate on Tuesday despite the claims by NMDPRA that there were over 30 days’ sufficiency, rather a lot of filling stations were shut due to lack of products to dispense.
It was reported on Tuesday that the cost of petrol had risen to as high as N200/litre at depots.
The report stated that PMS cost, which was about N178 to N185/litre recently, was jerked up by private depot owners due to the drop in supply by the NNPC, among other operational concerns.
Both the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria had told our correspondent that tankers were now spending more than one week on queues for petrol at depots.
This, they said, had led to empty filling stations nationwide, a development that had caused chaos at some of the few outlets that dispensed petrol in Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger and neighbouring states.
The National Vice President, IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, confirmed the reduction in supply by NNPC and the hike in the ex-depot price of petrol at depots in Lagos and Warri, Delta State.
