LAGOS - Residents in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, spent several hours, the Christmas eve, in front of filling stations as a petrol scarcity bites harder and queues of motorists became longer.

Vehicles queue for fuel at a Texaco filling station on the Lagos-Ibadan highway. Residents in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, spent several hours, the Christmas eve, in front of filling stations as a petrol scarcity bites harder and queues of motorists became longer. [AFP]

Long and unruly queues formed at petrol stations Sunday in many parts of the city as the scarcity grew worse but the state-run oil firm said the queues were as a result of panic-buying.

A woman who had intended to travel Sunday out of Lagos for the Christmas holidays said that she has put off the trip indefinitely because of her inability to pay transport fares hiked by more than 100 per cent.

In Lagos on Sunday, a university undergraduate said that he paid 800 naira (six dollars) for a distance on a taxi-motor that should have cost a maximum of 300 naira in normal time.

"From what we have noticed, the queues are just in the spirit of the season," spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Levi Ajuonuma told reporters.

He said there was high demand for fuel by people who were travelling for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

He said the company had enough stocks to meet the demand and advised users against panic buying.

After spending an hour in a gas queue, an AFP reporter was yet unable to buy fuel. A taxi driver said that he spent four hours in vain in front of a gas station on Sunday.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of crude oil, but depends on imports of petrol for its domestic use. The country's four refineries produce less than 30 per cent of their installed capacity, creating a shortfall in supply.