Kerosene Scarcity Hits Lagos

Kerosene, a major domestic fuel being sought by many households, has disappeared from virtually all filling stations within Lagos and its environs.
The Tide finding revealed that while the product could not be got at the petrol stations activities are in top gear in the local retails outlets where the price has gone beyond the reach of common man.
Our finding revealed that in some filling stations supplied with the product, preference are often given to retail outlets operators by the petrol attendants against the consuming public.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that some petrol dealers are cashing on the irregular supply to divert the product to the retails outlets where they could easily make more gains.
It was learnt that some sales representatives in the service of major oil marketing firms indulged in the diversion exercise because of their personal interest.
At the retail outlets the four litter volume goes for between N680 to N700 against the official rate of N240 per four litres or N60 per litre.
A petrol attendant with one of the major marketers told The Tide that supply of kerosene by the Pipeline Product and Marketing Company (PPMC) an arm of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has not been on regular basis.
“We had supply over a month, which is just 10,000 litres, that is after staying for over four months without supply” the attendant lamented.
According to him, no one can state categorically when the next consignment would come as the little supplied were being rationed among all the filling stations in Lagos and its environ.
He noted that out of the little volume received from NNPC, the interests of the consumers in the Northern parts of the country were taken care of .
Efforts by our correspondent to contact the Head of Public Relations, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Levi Ajuonuma was abortive as his mobile phones were always busy for contact.