Nigeriens frustrated by ongoing fuel shortage

For almost a week, Niger's service stations have been short of enough premium fuel to meet local demand.

As a result, long queues of cars and motorbikes have been forming at those that do have a supply.

Fuel is rationed by the Niger Petroleum Company, SONIDEP, and some people say this does not make their day-to-day activities any easier.

Moussa Kassou says he drove all to the way to the Boukoki quarter of the capital, Niamey, only to be told that there was no petrol.

“Now someone has just called to tell me to come to Wadata. Someone with a litre of petrol. For two or three litres you have to waste a litre and a half, it's a nightmare,” he says.

Experiencing a fuel shortage is unusual for Nigeriens. An oil-rich country, its first refinery was built in 2011.

Today, due to a number of factors, it is unable to meet the national demand, estimated at over two million litres a day.

Some people worry about the lack of transparency in fuel management.

‘We don't have much information on this because the authorities, who are obliged to give us full explanations, are not doing so. We're at a loss. We don't have any real information,” says Niamey resident Assoumane Hamadou Souley.

While SONIDEP blames the situation on a stock shortage, this argument is dismissed by transport operators who are the most impacted.

In addition to the scarcity of fuel, they are seeing their number of clients go down.

The Taxi and Urban Transport Drivers' Union (SYNCTAXITU), believes the state should increase daily production to meet demand.

“We think that the state must take a step forward in terms of production, because if we are told that there are 25 trucks for the city of Niamey, I don't think that's enough,” says its General Secretary Agali Ibrahim.

“Today, as soon as they stop oil smuggling, everyone goes to the pumps. And when everyone's at the pumps, what's there can't be enough.”

Tanker trucks are expected to increase from 24 to 100 a day in the capital alone.

Organisations are also calling on the government to open the borders with Benin and Nigeria to access temporary supplies.