Motorists in Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa, were left angry and frustrated by last week’s fuel shortage that caused major traffic jams in the main cities of the country.

Lines of cars stretched for hundreds of metres at petrol stations that remained open and motorists spent hours queuing to fill their tanks, while some public transport owners took advantage to hike fares.

According to the National Oil Company (NNPC), the shortage was caused by the importation from four marketers to the country of a large quantity of adulterated gasoline with levels of methanol that were too high.

Some motorists and motorbike riders’ vehicles were damaged by the “fuel” and the NNPC had been working for several days to withdraw the contaminated product from the market.

Analysts said the consequences for citizens were disastrous as many used gasoline or diesel generators to power homes and businesses because of the frequent power outages and the cost of transport had risen to such a degree that people had resorted to cycling or walking.

Reuters said although Nigeria was Africa’s biggest producer of crude oil, it depended entirely on imports to meet its domestic gasoline needs, largely because its refineries had produced little or no fuel in the past decade because of poor maintenance.

It quoted Mele Kyari, chief executive of the state oil firm, as saying the NNPC intended seeking damages from suppliers.

AFP said the company had begun a 24-hour supply to end the fuel shortage.

NNPC said in a statement late on Tuesday that measures, including around-the-clock distribution to service stations, had begun.

“To accelerate distribution across the country, we have commenced 24-hour operations at our depots and retail outlets.”

The NNPC said it had enough stock to end the shortage and more supplies were expected by the end of February.

“As part of NNPC’s strategic restocking, more that 2.3 billion litres of PMS [petrol] is scheduled for delivery between now and end of February which will restore sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.”

The company had appealed to Nigerians to avoid panic buying, adding that its measures would restore normalcy in a few days.