Nigeria opens reserves to ease fuel shortage

LAGOS, Mar 4 (AFP): Nigeria said on Tuesday it had released fuel from its reserves to ease a crippling shortage that has caused long queues of vehicles at petrol stations across the country.

Omar Farouk Ibrahim, spokesman for the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said 33 million litres of petrol were released to the Lagos area on Monday.

"We are going to release another 33 million litres today (Tuesday)," he told AFP.

The NNPC said that 40 million litres of fuel are consumed every day across Nigeria and that tankers were heading to the country from overseas to bring fresh supplies.

"We hope to put this ugly situation behind us before the end of the week," he said.