The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday announced that it had programmed to bring in two cargoes of petrol per day for the rest of this month in order to boost supply and eradicate the fuel queues that had resurfaced in many cities across the country.

It said each of the cargoes would carry 50 million litres of petrol, making a total of 100 million litres that would be brought in daily for the rest of February to increase supply and replenish strategic reserves.

“Also, to enhance supply, 45 million litres of petrol were discharged from ships into jetties across the country yesterday (Wednesday),” the corporation said in a statement issued by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja.

It stated that prior to the discharge of 45 million litres, there were 324 million litres of petrol on land and 432 million litres in marine storage, making a total of 756 million litres, enough to last for 22 days at 35 million litres daily consumption rate.

“The jetties that received the 45 million litres shipment include NACJ, Apapa; Bop, Apapa; Techo Jetty, Lagos; Dutchess, Oghara; Vine Jetty, Calabar; Chipet Jetty, Lagos; and ECM Jetty, Calabar,” the statement added.

It further stated that to ensure efficient distribution of the product to depots in the hinterland, the Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company, a midstream subsidiary of the NNPC, had been mandated to fix relevant pipelines to facilitate seamless pumping, in addition to the trucking arrangement that was in place.

The corporation assured motorists and other users of petrol that with the measures in place, the fuel queues being experienced in many cities would soon be a thing of the past.

Although it assured Nigerians that the queues would disappear, our correspondent observed that the fuel scarcity situation in Abuja and neighbouring states did not improve on Thursday.

Massive queues formed by desperate motorists were still seen at the few petrol stations that dispensed the commodity in the Federal Capital Territory as well as Niger, Nasarawa and Kaduna states.

Many filling stations, especially those operated by independent oil marketers, were shut, as fuel attendants stated that they had no product to sell.

Petrol queues in the listed areas have persisted since the end of the fourth quarter of 2017, and motorists in these locations now factor in the number of hours to spend in filling stations as they struggle to purchase the product