The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Tuesday said that it will not hesitate to apply appropriate sanctions on marketers engaged in hoarding of petroleum products in their outlets.
Mr Sarki Auwalu, Director, DPR, gave the warning in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lagos.
Auwalu said the warning was necessitated by the emergence of queues in retail outlets in some states of the federation.
Our correspondent gathered that Petrol black marketers on Monday resurfaced in major highways in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
On the Kubwa expressway, many petrol stations such as Gegu Oil, AA Rano, Shema and NNPC petrol stations had long queues with people selling fuel outside the stations.
However, Auwalu maintained that from available records, there is product sufficiency in the country and there was no need for hoarding by any marketer.
“The DPR will not hesitate to apply appropriate sanctions on any outlet found wanting in this regard.
“The regulatory agency has set up a special taskforce to intensify surveillance and monitoring of all retail outlets and depots nationwide to check the anomaly,” he warned.
He, therefore, advised the general public against panic buying.
Auwalu assured them that the DPR would continue to provide its regulatory focus of quality, quantity, integrity and safety for the effective operations of the downstream sector.
