– Reassures fuel scarcity to end in few days
– Orders over 2.1 billion litres of petrol
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Abuja — Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC on Thursday appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), to explain steps being taken by the Corporation to end the current fuel scarcity across the country.
Kyari, while briefing the Committee, said the current long queues for petrol will end in a few days, as NNPC has placed significant orders of over 2.1 billion litres of methanol-free petroleum for nationwide distribution.
According to him, measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country, adding that the expected product is methanol-free.
He pledged that NNPC would cooperate with the committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA to get to the root of the matter.
He expressed deep empathy with Nigerians on the current situation and assured that adequate measures have been put in place to maintain supply sufficiency and prevent future occurrence.
The federal government had last Tuesday said methanol, a chemical additive, found in recently imported fuel exceeded Nigeria’s specification, resulting in a shortage of petrol and queues reappearing in major cities.
Kyari explained that the situation came about as a result of the discovery of methanol in the PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by the NNPC and its partners.
The NNPC boss said the reason tests did not reveal methanol presence was because Nigeria’s testing mechanism does not cover methanol.
He also noted that methanol discovery was made by its inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations.
“We are a law-abiding company. There is no way we could have known about the methanol presence. The only way we could have known about it is if our suppliers, in good faith, disclosed it to us,” he said.
“In this particular instance, the discovery was made by our inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations and brought it to our attention.
“Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS,” Kyari said.
He noted that the NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantine them to forestall further damage.
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