In a bid to arrest the niggling scarcity of petroleum products, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has ordered depots with petroleum products to commence massive truck out of the products to petrol stations across the country.

The DPR, in a statement signed by its Director, Petroleum Resources, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, also directed petrol stations in strategic locations to operate on a 24 hour basis throughout the Easter holidays and beyond.

According to the statement, the DPR had constituted special intelligence monitoring teams nationwide to ensure prompt delivery of petroleum products to filling stations, adding that the teams would enforce government-approved price regime and ensure the right quantity and quality of products are dispensed.  “The DPR, hereby, directs all depots with liftable petroleum products to truck out massively to designated filling stations as programmed while all filling stations in strategic locations shall continue to operate 24 hours during the Easter holidays.”

The DPR warned that the N2milion sanction against fuel depots found engaging in overpricing of petroleum products and N100,000 per dispensing pump sanction against filling stations found to be selling above the regulated price and other related offences are still in force.

However, in spite of the warning from DPR, some filling stations across the country still sell petrol far above the pump price. In Lagos, some stations sell at N150 per litre; in some it’s N130 per litre. Our correspondent who toured the state said petrol attendants use calculators to compute the amount of fuel sold to the publics.