Another Fuel Scarcity Looming In Nigeria, Says Seplat CEO

Nigeria will probably be hit by fuel shortages in three weeks as the government doesn’t have enough money to pay for gasoline subsidies, according to the head of Seplat Petroleum Development Co Plc.

“In three weeks we will be back to scarcity because we simply don’t have the money to pay for the subsidy,” Austin Avuru, chief executive officer of Lagos-based Seplat, said on Thursday at a Bloomberg conference at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Nigeria almost ground to a halt last month during the country’s worst fuel shortage in ten years due to a dispute between oil-product marketers and the Jonathan government. The shortage left service stations closed, aircraft grounded, and businesses unable to operate.