THE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has mandated private depot owners to give priority to Lagos State in order to end the present scarcity of petroleum in the state and its environs.
Mrs Ijeoma Otti-Onyeri, the Assistant Director, Retail Outlets Monitoring, Downstream Division, DPR, gave the mandate during the inspection of some depots in Lagos.
Otti-Onyeri observed that most of the trucks loaded in all the depots visited were more of outside Lagos. She said this had resulted into queues of motorists in many filling stations resulting to scarcity of the product.
“There is panic buying because there is speculation that there will be increase in the pump price of petrol, that is why we have to monitor depots to find out if there is fuel.
“From what we have seen in Obats, Dee Jones, Sahara, Nipco and Aiteo depots, we have observed that all these depots have stock that can last for five to seven days. The issue now is for them to concentrate on local distribution than the one going to other states.
“We are all aware that if the scarcity of the product reduces in Lagos, the noise on scarcity of fuel will go. The concentration should be in Lagos metropolis,” she said.
She called on marketers who complained of buying at N141 per litre to report with evidence to the department so that the DPR can act on it.