In a statement on Tuesday, February 16, 2022, NNPC said it had commenced 24-hour operations at its depots and retail outlets to restore regular supply and distribution of petrol across the country.
The statement read, “NNPC Ltd wishes to reassure Nigerians that it has put adequate measures in place to accelerate the nationwide distribution of PMS earlier disrupted by the quarantine of methanol-blended petrol.
“As of today, NNPC has over One (1) billion Liters of certified PMS stock that is safe for use in vehicles and machinery.
“To accelerate distribution across the country, we have commenced 24-hour operations at our Depots and Retail outlets.
“As part of NNPC’s strategic restocking, over 2.3 billion litres of PMS is scheduled for delivery between now and the end of February 2022, which will restore the sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.
“The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot Owners & Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria have also commenced 24-hour loading and dispensing activities in some of their designated outlets.
“NNPC implores Nigerians to avoid panic buying as there is a sufficient volume of PMS in-country and effort is being made to accelerate distribution to all filling stations.”
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The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) said it had received two vessels of petrol as scarcity continues unabated in Lagos and some other states.
In the same vein, oil marketers resolved to start blending over 100 million litres of petrol because the NNPC had reportedly yet to recall all the contaminated PMS, and the commodity had been occupying spaces in the tanks of filling stations
The Nations Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ukadike Chinedu, said that some retailers in Lagos had started blending the adulterated PMS with clean fuel.
Ukadike, however, noted that many filling stations had yet to get new supplies that were enough to blend the adulterated products in their tanks.
He said, according to Vanguard, “Forget what people are saying it will take one two to three weeks to fill in the gaps. It is talking about evacuating and replacing, it is not just about the shortage, it is also about evacuating and replacing”.
House of Reps wade in
The House of Representatives Tuesday, expanded the scope of its ongoing investigation of the crisis caused by the importation of off-spec petrol, asking its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to investigate why long queues were still persisting at the filling stations.
The House is to probe the claim by the NNPC that there is sufficient reserve of standard PMS to ease the tension caused by the adulterated supply.
The queues continue in Lagos
As promises are made and statements are published, and blame game on who imported the adulterated fuel continues, the queues across Lagos, Abuja and a few other states have hardly subsided. Some filling stations do not even sell.
The black market is thriving, selling between 4,000 – 7,000 naira for 10 litres. At the filling stations, attendants collect extra fees to sell to people with gallons, and request motorists to pay extra to buy petrol.
NNPC’s monitoring team is collaborating with the Authority (NMDPRA) and other Security Agencies to ensure smooth distribution of PMS nationwide, and we wonder how that is going, knowing that this ‘extra fee’ has gone on for days now.
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Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram
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