The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASAN), embarked on indefinite strike on May 18.
The two unions were protesting the inability of the government to meet their demands.
The demands included inability by government to carry out turn-around maintenance of refineries and reduction in the pump prices of petroleum products in line with the slump in global prices of crude oil.
The DPR’s spokesperson, Mr Saidu Mohammed, told NAN on Wednesday that filling stations in Abuja received 5.5 million litres (about 167 trucks) by Tuesday night.
Mohammed said that Suleja Depot, which serves Abuja and its environs, had more than enough fuel to meet the needs of consumers.
The spokesperson expressed the hope that the situation would become normal before the weekend and warned motorists against stockpiling petroleum products.
NAN reports that the scarcity has eased off as many petrol filling stations in Abuja have stocks and are selling.
Many stations on the Airport Road with stocks were selling the product on Wednesday.
In the same vein, Total opposite NNPC towers, Oando filling station near National Planning Commission and Total filling station opposite Twelve Apostles Catholic Church in Area 10 among others were selling the product.
All the stations were selling at the official pump price of N87 per litre as against N150 or N250 per litre during the scarcity.
However, long queues existed at the filling stations.
At the NNPC Mega Filling Station on Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Central Area, three lanes of long queues of vehicles blocked the flow of traffic on the road .
The situation was also the same in all filling stations on Airport Road and the Forte Oil adjacent the NNPC where the queue stretched to the UAC fence.
The ConOil and Total filling stations opposite NNPC headquarters had long queues that encircled the Bureau of Statistics Complex to Unity Bank building back to NNPC.
The availability of petrol has yet to end the activities of black market operators, who sold the product between N120 and N200 per litre depending on the bargaining power of the buyer.
However, stations outside Abuja, especially in Suleja, Kuje and Zuba-Gwaglada Road, still sold petrol above the official price except at stations belonging to major oil marketers.
Fares that rose by between 100 per cent and 200 per cent during the period of acute scarcity have also come down by 50 per cent.
A taxi driver, Mr Samuel Uye, plying the Airport Road, said he had reduced the fare by 50 per cent because of the availability of fuel.
“In the morning we collected N200 from passengers but this afternoon we have reduced it to N150 instead of N100 because we still buy fuel above official pump price.
“I used N13,000 to fill my tank instead of N6,000 on a normal day,” he said.
Source: Abuja facts
Source: Abuja facts
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