In those days, there were no filling stations like today and Nigeria had no refinery at all, we didn’t produce petrol until 1965.
Here is how it worked:
Petrol was imported.
Shell D’Arcy, the joint venture of Shell and BP, got the sole exploration license in 1936 and also controlled import and marketing. Before that, companies like Socony Mobil and Paterson Zochonis imported it as “Motor Spirit”.
It came in tins, not pumps. It arrived in Lagos and Port Harcourt in ships as 4-gallon tins packed in wooden cases, 2 tins per case. You bought it like kerosene. Rich owners sent their driver or steward to the UAC, Kingsway Stores, or the Shell depot on the marina to buy sealed tins.
Bulk sales were by drum. If you owned a transport company, you bought a 44-gallon drum and had it delivered to your compound. The driver used a hand-crank bowser, a tall hand pump on top of the drum – to fill the car. The hand-crank pump filling station only started appearing in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano on main roads in the late 1930s/40s along the few tarred roads.
It was very expensive and rationed. During WWII 1939-1945, petrol was under strict colonial government control and coupons were issued. Black market “fa-ya-wo” petrol in tins was common.
So early owners like Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Herbert Macaulay, or the northern Emirs didn’t “branch a petrol station”, they bought tins from a European trading store and stored them at home.
COURTESY: jimidisu.com
