By Patience Bassey, Blessing Isong And Ichinang Ola
Long queues are currently greeting fuelling stations in Calabar over the increasing scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) better known as fuel.
CrossRiverWatch correspondents visited most of the petrol stations in the metropolis with long queues of vehicles and those buying in containers spilling onto major roads
The number of petrol stations closing shop in the city have been on the increase since news broke that adulterated PMS with high methanol content was imported into the country.
Many stations sold PMS between the regular NGN165 and NGN180 per liter last week.
That continued until earlier this week when it inched near NGN190 per liter when it became obvious that due to the increase in landing cost of the product as well as the increase in depot prices will lead to some form of scarcity.
However, controversies continue to trail the shortage as many link it to the Russian invasion of Ukraine while others cling to Nigeria’s inability to construct or rehabilitate already existing refineries as the reason for the shortage.
On Friday morning, several fuelling stations visited were selling between NGN190 and NGN230 per liter while black marketers were selling at between NGN300 and NGN350 per liter.
As a result, commercial drivers have resorted to hiking transport fare by 50 percent or more depending on the routes. The commercial drivers offering cab services within the metropolis have added an extra NGN50 to the regular fare.
Routes which were charged at NGN100 have now increased while those charged at NGN150 before are now between NGN200 and NGN250. An example is Ekpo Abasi roundabout to Ikot Ansa
Also, a drop from 8 Miles to Watt market which was NGN150, now goes for NGN200; from Mobil MCC to Watt market now goes for NGN100 instead of NGN50; from Rabana roundabout to Atimbo is now NGN100 instead of NGN50. Also, from Effio – Ette roundabout to Ekpo Abasi now goes for NGN200 instead of NGN150.
As of the time of filing this report, long queues with high pump sales and high transport fares continue to rage.
Below are images from the fuelling stations visited.
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