Oil & Energy
When Will Long Queues Disappear From Filling Stations?
Fathoming the intrigues of oil politics in Nigeria has remained a fundamental contradiction. With an economy that is heavily dependent on crude oil revenue, Nigeria has wobbled consistently in the production, distribution and utilization of petroleum products. This is more disturbing because Nigeria is about the sixth largest producer on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) template, and the ninth largest gas producer globally.
Nigeria appears the only oil and gas producing country where consumers battle endlessly to get petroleum products. Indeed, long queues have remained a ubiquitous feature of the nation’s filling stations. Every attempt by government to normalize the process has met with stiff resistance by what seems a cartel, their proxies, agents and accomplices, who feed fat on the skewed system. But the scramble for petroleum products is now a predominant ethos despite attempts to put the situation under control.
In Port Harcourt and its environs, petroleum products are almost always scarce at the available filling stations dotted all over the city and its suburbs as customers find out at every blink of the eyes that their gates are locked under the pretext that they don’t have supplies. Even the filling station operators have cashed in on this unfortunate malady to exploit customers through various unsavoury means.
The Tide can now authoritatively state that this festering situation has given rise to a retinue of black market operators. In fact, the filling station attendants obviously prefer to sell products to the black market cartel, who procure the products at higher prices. The black market operators, also expressly make the products available to would-be customers at exorbitant rates, even as the genuine marketers are complaining of lack of supplies. This, indeed, is the irony.
Take a visit to TOTAL Filling Station at Elele Alimini in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, for example. The romance between black market operators and fuel pump attendants is conspicuous. A retinue of youths, who have embraced the hoarding and hawking of products as a pastime, besiege the station with hundreds of jerry cans on a daily basis to buy fuel for retailing at cut-throat prices. Motorists could be seen stranded in queues for hours or even days as they wait in vein under the scourging sun to be attended to. But, alas, TOTAL is not alone in this matter. Other major marketers are also culprits in this saga. However, the independent marketers are worse in this game.
Most filling stations across the state, particularly in the major cities or urban centres, relish in this show of shame. The filling stations prefer to sell in jerry cans. Why? Simply because the black market vendors of petroleum products pay more to get the products. For example, a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which is commonly called fuel, officially sold at filling stations for N65, is pumped to the jerry cans of these illegal fuel racketeers at N70 per litre. The cartel takes the products across the filling station’s fence, on the road, and sells the products easily to desperate motorists or other end users for as much as between N96 and N105 per litre. In fact, a 20-litre petrol bought from the filling station at N1,800, is usually sold just a few metres away from the filling station it was originally bought at a minimum of N3,800. At some times, that 20-litre fuel goes for as much as between N5,000 and N6,500. These are the daily occurrences within Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and its environs.
Let’s take a typical Port Harcourt scenario, for instance. At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega Station at Lagos Bus Stop in the heart of the city, a hoard of illegal products dealers and marketers surround the circumference. They buy PMS, kerosene, and diesel in jerry cans directly from the mega station. Just immediately after that, they beat a cautious retreat across the road, where they display their products for sale to potential buyers. The illegal market here is booming, very lucrative, but dangerous and life-threatening because of the flammable substances they deal on.
While some motorists queue to get products from the mega station, others, who do no want to waste their precious time queuing to get fuel from the station, end up with the hawkers of products nearby. There, they procure the products just as they ask. They only need to negotiate appropriate prices, mostly at cut-throat rates, with the syndicate, who control a huge market within the precinct. From petrol, kerosene to diesel, the products are almost always available, even in the face of acute scarcity. Elsewhere in Port Harcourt Township, where there is a well known filling station, the story is the same.
A drive through Station Road/Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs Road will reveal similar atmosphere, particularly between Station Bus Stop and Loko Bus Stop, or the popular Post Office Bus Stop. On this stretch are Mobil, Oando, AP, TOTAL, and Conoil filling stations. Petrol hawkers make brisk business on a daily basis here.
On the very busy Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway, the craze for the market is palpable. From Leventis Bus Stop through Eleme Junction, the unending sight of products hawkers is almost permanent. In fact, Aba Road has another high concentration of illegal products hawkers in Port Harcourt. Both day and night, these hawkers are there, at your beck and call. This is the popular road that connects Port Harcourt, nay, Rivers State, to other neighbouring states to the East, West, North and even South. Within a 16-kilometre stretch of this road from Isaac Boro Park, are three Conoil stations, one Oando station, three Texaco stations, two AP stations, four TOTAL stations, three Mobil stations, an NNPC mini-Mega Station at Oil Mill Junction, and about six independent filling stations between Oil Mill and the former toll gate, some metres away from KM16.
The Tide spoke to some motorists, illegal products dealers, filling station attendants, and other stakeholders, who voiced their concerns on the lingering trend. Motorists, who spoke to The Tide at some of the filling stations, alleged that most of the fuel attendants and station managers, reserve certain pumps for black market operators, who buy in jerry cans and drums, in some cases. They claimed that most of the fuel attendants prefer to sell to those with jerry cans because they add their commissions to the approved pump price of products, thereby jerking the prices up. They also say that the long queues noticed at most filling stations are as a result of the fact that the fuel pump attendants don’t sell to vehicles immediately they find their way into the stations. They, therefore, blamed the persisting problem on government agencies charged with the responsibility of checking the situation, lack of adequate personnel to monitor and enforce the laws.
As for some of the illegal products dealers, they argued that buying in jerry cans makes their returns faster. They agree that although there is a lot of risk involved, they have to continue with the business because that is the only way they can earn some money to feed their families and make ends meet. They also agree that the risk may be enormous, but argued that there is nothing they can do for now, given that it is not easy to get paid employment in the country today.
But the filling station managers and fuel attendants continue to pass the buck. They argue that the long queues are as a result of inadequate product supplies. They also argue that although they sell to vehicles as they come in, but that the criminal elements, who buy in jerry cans for resell, harass, threaten and intimidate them, if they don’t sell to them as quickly as possible. They said some of the criminals hovering around filling stations, posing as gate men in some cases, oftentimes, take over the sale of products at the stations. They claimed that it is for this reason that some of them have gone the extra length to engage the services of armed police men to man the gates or mount checks at the pumps to ward off any intruders and those who may want to assault them.
However, some stakeholders disagree. They told The Tide that the filling station managers and attendants are aiding and abetting the situation. They leveled series of allegations against the operators of the filling stations, including hoarding, selling more to with jerry cans, and encouraging illegal bunkering and hawking of products. They challenged government agencies responsible for monitoring, enforcement, and regulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry to brace up to the deteriorating situation so as to save Nigerians from the lingering fuel crisis. They also urged government to repair existing refineries to enable them operate at full capacities, augment and bridge supplies through importation, and check hoarding of products.
Honestly, the government needs to do more to normalize the situation. At the state level, the Rivers State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources should live up to its mandate. The Petroleum Products Monitoring Task Force has been reportedly dissolved, but it needs to be reconstituted, reinvigorated, strengthened and empowered to prosecute law breakers and other offenders. The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) inspectors, monitoring teams and agents should intensify efforts at getting the various filling stations to play by the rules, even if it means shutting down and prosecuting filling station managers, pump attendants, and dealers who compromise.
At the national level, the lead provided by the Petroleum Minister, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, two weeks ago, in a terse warning to the management of NNPC to address the problem of fuel scarcity in major cities in Nigeria or face sanctions has yielded positive result in Abuja. The queues that hitherto, permeated all filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) suddenly disappeared, some few days after the warning. In Lagos, Port Harcourt, and elsewhere, the situation has yet to return to normalcy. This is why an integrated approach is required to address the ugly situation, and make it easy for Nigerians to enter the filling stations, get whatever products they want, and leave without much ado. It is a matter of mustering the political will to act. And the minister has already shown it. Others must follow suit. This is only when the long queues will disappear from the filling stations across Nigeria.
When Will Long Queues Disappear From Filling Stations?
OIL & ENERGY
Taneh Beemene
Fathoming the intrigues of oil politics in Nigeria has remained a fundamental contradiction. With an economy that is heavily dependent on crude oil revenue, Nigeria has wobbled consistently in the production, distribution and utilization of petroleum products. This is more disturbing because Nigeria is about the sixth largest producer on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) template, and the ninth largest gas producer globally.
Nigeria appears the only oil and gas producing country where consumers battle endlessly to get petroleum products. Indeed, long queues have remained a ubiquitous feature of the nation’s filling stations. Every attempt by government to normalize the process has met with stiff resistance by what seems a cartel, their proxies, agents and accomplices, who feed fat on the skewed system. But the scramble for petroleum products is now a predominant ethos despite attempts to put the situation under control.
In Port Harcourt and its environs, petroleum products are almost always scarce at the available filling stations dotted all over the city and its suburbs as customers find out at every blink of the eyes that their gates are locked under the pretext that they don’t have supplies. Even the filling station operators have cashed in on this unfortunate malady to exploit customers through various unsavoury means.
The Tide can now authoritatively state that this festering situation has given rise to a retinue of black market operators. In fact, the filling station attendants obviously prefer to sell products to the black market cartel, who procure the products at higher prices. The black market operators, also expressly make the products available to would-be customers at exorbitant rates, even as the genuine marketers are complaining of lack of supplies. This, indeed, is the irony.
Take a visit to TOTAL Filling Station at Elele Alimini in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, for example. The romance between black market operators and fuel pump attendants is conspicuous. A retinue of youths, who have embraced the hoarding and hawking of products as a pastime, besiege the station with hundreds of jerry cans on a daily basis to buy fuel for retailing at cut-throat prices. Motorists could be seen stranded in queues for hours or even days as they wait in vein under the scourging sun to be attended to. But, alas, TOTAL is not alone in this matter. Other major marketers are also culprits in this saga. However, the independent marketers are worse in this game.
Most filling stations across the state, particularly in the major cities or urban centres, relish in this show of shame. The filling stations prefer to sell in jerry cans. Why? Simply because the black market vendors of petroleum products pay more to get the products. For example, a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which is commonly called fuel, officially sold at filling stations for N65, is pumped to the jerry cans of these illegal fuel racketeers at N70 per litre. The cartel takes the products across the filling station’s fence, on the road, and sells the products easily to desperate motorists or other end users for as much as between N96 and N105 per litre. In fact, a 20-litre petrol bought from the filling station at N1,800, is usually sold just a few metres away from the filling station it was originally bought at a minimum of N3,800. At some times, that 20-litre fuel goes for as much as between N5,000 and N6,500. These are the daily occurrences within Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and its environs.
Let’s take a typical Port Harcourt scenario, for instance. At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mega Station at Lagos Bus Stop in the heart of the city, a hoard of illegal products dealers and marketers surround the circumference. They buy PMS, kerosene, and diesel in jerry cans directly from the mega station. Just immediately after that, they beat a cautious retreat across the road, where they display their products for sale to potential buyers. The illegal market here is booming, very lucrative, but dangerous and life-threatening because of the flammable substances they deal on.
While some motorists queue to get products from the mega station, others, who do no want to waste their precious time queuing to get fuel from the station, end up with the hawkers of products nearby. There, they procure the products just as they ask. They only need to negotiate appropriate prices, mostly at cut-throat rates, with the syndicate, who control a huge market within the precinct. From petrol, kerosene to diesel, the products are almost always available, even in the face of acute scarcity. Elsewhere in Port Harcourt Township, where there is a well known filling station, the story is the same.
A drive through Station Road/Chief O.B. Lulu-Briggs Road will reveal similar atmosphere, particularly between Station Bus Stop and Loko Bus Stop, or the popular Post Office Bus Stop. On this stretch are Mobil, Oando, AP, TOTAL, and Conoil filling stations. Petrol hawkers make brisk business on a daily basis here.
On the very busy Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway, the craze for the market is palpable. From Leventis Bus Stop through Eleme Junction, the unending sight of products hawkers is almost permanent. In fact, Aba Road has another high concentration of illegal products hawkers in Port Harcourt. Both day and night, these hawkers are there, at your beck and call. This is the popular road that connects Port Harcourt, nay, Rivers State, to other neighbouring states to the East, West, North and even South. Within a 16-kilometre stretch of this road from Isaac Boro Park, are three Conoil stations, one Oando station, three Texaco stations, two AP stations, four TOTAL stations, three Mobil stations, an NNPC mini-Mega Station at Oil Mill Junction, and about six independent filling stations between Oil Mill and the former toll gate, some metres away from KM16.
The Tide spoke to some motorists, illegal products dealers, filling station attendants, and other stakeholders, who voiced their concerns on the lingering trend. Motorists, who spoke to The Tide at some of the filling stations, alleged that most of the fuel attendants and station managers, reserve certain pumps for black market operators, who buy in jerry cans and drums, in some cases. They claimed that most of the fuel attendants prefer to sell to those with jerry cans because they add their commissions to the approved pump price of products, thereby jerking the prices up. They also say that the long queues noticed at most filling stations are as a result of the fact that the fuel pump attendants don’t sell to vehicles immediately they find their way into the stations. They, therefore, blamed the persisting problem on government agencies charged with the responsibility of checking the situation, lack of adequate personnel to monitor and enforce the laws.
As for some of the illegal products dealers, they argued that buying in jerry cans makes their returns faster. They agree that although there is a lot of risk involved, they have to continue with the business because that is the only way they can earn some money to feed their families and make ends meet. They also agree that the risk may be enormous, but argued that there is nothing they can do for now, given that it is not easy to get paid employment in the country today.
But the filling station managers and fuel attendants continue to pass the buck. They argue that the long queues are as a result of inadequate product supplies. They also argue that although they sell to vehicles as they come in, but that the criminal elements, who buy in jerry cans for resell, harass, threaten and intimidate them, if they don’t sell to them as quickly as possible. They said some of the criminals hovering around filling stations, posing as gate men in some cases, oftentimes, take over the sale of products at the stations. They claimed that it is for this reason that some of them have gone the extra length to engage the services of armed police men to man the gates or mount checks at the pumps to ward off any intruders and those who may want to assault them.
However, some stakeholders disagree. They told The Tide that the filling station managers and attendants are aiding and abetting the situation. They leveled series of allegations against the operators of the filling stations, including hoarding, selling more to with jerry cans, and encouraging illegal bunkering and hawking of products. They challenged government agencies responsible for monitoring, enforcement, and regulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry to brace up to the deteriorating situation so as to save Nigerians from the lingering fuel crisis. They also urged government to repair existing refineries to enable them operate at full capacities, augment and bridge supplies through importation, and check hoarding of products.
Honestly, the government needs to do more to normalize the situation. At the state level, the Rivers State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources should live up to its mandate. The Petroleum Products Monitoring Task Force has been reportedly dissolved, but it needs to be reconstituted, reinvigorated, strengthened and empowered to prosecute law breakers and other offenders. The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) inspectors, monitoring teams and agents should intensify efforts at getting the various filling stations to play by the rules, even if it means shutting down and prosecuting filling station managers, pump attendants, and dealers who compromise.
At the national level, the lead provided by the Petroleum Minister, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, two weeks ago, in a terse warning to the management of NNPC to address the problem of fuel scarcity in major cities in Nigeria or face sanctions has yielded positive result in Abuja. The queues that hitherto, permeated all filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) suddenly disappeared, some few days after the warning. In Lagos, Port Harcourt, and elsewhere, the situation has yet to return to normalcy. This is why an integrated approach is required to address the ugly situation, and make it easy for Nigerians to enter the filling stations, get whatever products they want, and leave without much ado. It is a matter of mustering the political will to act. And the minister has already shown it. Others must follow suit. This is only when the long queues will disappear from the filling stations across Nigeria.
Researchers in Hong Kong and China have developed a new form of battery that is more eco-friendly and longer lasting than lithium ion batteries – and it runs on tofu brine. The new water battery is still in research phases, but if the technology proves to be scalable enough to hit commercial markets, it could be a game-changer for the energy and tech sectors.
“Compared with current aqueous battery systems … our system delivers exceptional long-term cycling stability and environmental friendliness under neutral conditions,” the research team, composed of scientists from the City University of Hong Kong and Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong, said in a paper published this month in Nature Communications.
The researchers found that their battery model can be recharged over 120,000 times. “At over a hundred thousand cycles, this could mean a single water-based battery could last at least a decade or so,” states a recent report on the breakthrough from Interesting Engineering. “For applications like grid storage (solar farms, wind balancing), that’s extremely valuable,” the article went on to say.
This kind of lifespan would represent a drastic improvement over the battery technologies that dominate today’s market. Lithium-ion batteries degrade after between 1,000 and 3,000 charge cycles. This could prove revolutionary, as finding an alternative to lithium-ion batteries to power rechargeable devices is a major priority for Big Tech and the global energy sector.
Moreover, these tofu-brine batteries could prove safer and more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion batteries. According to the study authors, the full cells are environmentally benign and nontoxic and can be directly discarded to environments according to various standards.” Water based (also called aqueous) batteries can also potentially be cheap to produce as they rely on ingredients that are less rare in addition to being less hazardous.
Lithium is environmentally harmful to extract, prone to fires, and its supply chains are geopolitically fraught. Currently, China alone controls half of the global lithium market, and is rapidly increasing its stake. In 2024, more than eight in ten battery cells on the planet were made in China. This means that finding a battery model that can compete with lithium-ion batteries in applications like grid-scale energy storage and electric vehicles would have revolutionary implications for global markets.
Researchers around the world have been racing to develop battery models that could diversify the market and make it more competitive and resilient. These models range widely in size, components, and application, with models currently under development for next-gen sodium-ion batteries, quantum batteries, nuclear batteries, and even sand and dirt batteries.
Of course, the irony is that the leading alternatives to lithium-ion batteries are also being developed in Chinese labs. If this new tofu-brine battery proves scalable and applicable outside of a laboratory environment, it could just be another step toward Beijing’s goal of near-total domination of clean energy technology value chains and status as the world’s first and premiere ‘electro-state.’
China’s extreme advantage in global battery making gives it a major point of leverage in global economies as the world continues to electrify at a rapid pace. It is estimated that European demand for lithium in batteries will reach kilo tonnes (thousands of tonnes) of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent by next year, and North American demand will reach 250 kit LCE. it’s all but certain that the vast majority of that demand will be supplied by China.
Other nations are aware of the risk of this dependency, and are taking pains to protect and promote domestic battery manufacturing, but these efforts may be too little, too late. “For globally competitive battery manufacturing industries to emerge outside of Asia over the next ten years, companies will need to do far more than ensure regulatory compliance,” summarizes a McKinsey & Company report released in January. “Challenges will need to be overcome on multiple fronts spanning supply chains, talent management, operations and technology.”
By: Haley Zaremba
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) says it will spend N100 billion in 2026 to deploy hybrid mini-grids for government agencies within and outside Abuja.
The Managing Directors, REA, Abba Aliyu, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on the sidelines of the 2026 budget defence session
The approved funds form part of the National Public Sector Solarisation programme, a component of the agency’s broader N170 billion budget proposal for 2026.
The initiative is designed to improve electricity reliability for public institutions while reducing operational costs and easing pressure on the national grid.
Aliyu explained that the agency’s total proposed budget for 2026 stands at N170 billion, with N100 billion of the amount dedicated specifically to the solarisation initiative targeting government agencies.
He said the hybrid mini-grid systems combine solar power with complementary energy sources to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply.
“The total budget size for 2026 operations is N170 billion, out of which N100 billion had been approved for National Public Sector Solarisation.
Aliyu cited the National Hospital in Abuja as an example where similar infrastructure had been deployed to ensure stable power and cut operational expenses.He added that beyond the Solarisation
Recall that earlier in February 2026, REA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy solar power systems to 15 public institutions across Nigeria.
The project will be implemented under the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP), a World Bank-supported initiative aimed at expanding off-grid electricity access across West Africa and the Sahel.
ECOWAS will provide a $700,000 grant to fund the installation of solar photovoltaic systems in selected rural health centres and schools in the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, and Nasarawa States.
Oil & Energy
PIA: TotalEnergies Transfers OLO Oilfield HCDT Obligation To Aradel ……Says HCDT Enabled Completion of 100 Projects In 2 years
In his remarks, the Community Affairs Manager, Aradel Holdings Plc, Blessyn Okpowo, affirmed the company’s commitment to honouring all PIA obligations and continuing Total Energies’ community engagement approach.“We want to say that in line with the PIA, we will honour commitments and duties required of the settlor and we want to work very smoothly with the way TotalEnergies has worked with them,” he stated.
He recognised the Commission’s role in approving the Community Development Plan (CDP) before project start, underscoring regulatory excellence.The parties noted that between 2023 and 2025, the trust has enabled the completion of more than 100 community projects, spanning water supply, electricity, road infrastructure, education, and healthcare with a further 40 projects currently ongoing.