– As NNPC completes withdrawal of Methanol-blended petrol
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Oil marketers have hinted of possible end to the current fuel scarcity, as state oil company, NNPC Limited has imported fresh petrol that met Nigeria’s specification into the country.
SweetcrudeReports gathered that the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS was brought in by an oil tanker, MT USMA last Thursday.
Although NNPC did not immediately give orders for distribution of the product due to various quality control tests it ran on the product to avoid past mistake, however, marketers said the newly imported fuel has been dispatched to depots for nationwide distribution.
Approval for distribution was given to marketers on Saturday, as long queues at filling stations across the country would fizzle out this week, they assured.
“The NNPC brought in a vessel of PMS last week. The oil vessel called MT USMA brought in the PMS which is of Nigerian spec. From the consignment, NNPC allocated about 37 million metric tonnes to be shared by the depots that took the bad fuel as well as other depots.
“The good fuel has been in our tanks since Thursday last week but NNPC had been carrying out tests to ensure the product is of Nigerian spec before we load out. It was just on Saturday that we were given approval to start loading. I must confirm to you that the loading has been massive since that Saturday. At most by end of this week, normalcy will return to the distribution channels across the country.
“I advise consumers to exercise restraint and stop paying more for a pump price or spending the entire day at filling stations trying to buy fuel as there will be more than enough supply to go round,” one of the marketers hinted.
In another development, the NNPC sad it had withdrawn all the methanol-blended petrol from circulation.
It further confirmed SweetcrudeReports findings, that cargoes of clean fuel have already started arriving the country.
According to the Corporation, it made sure all suspected cargoes carrying the contaminated fuel were withdrawn and quarantined, while trucks that already left the depots were tracked and intercepted.
The NNPC said it had also restocked the depot with cleaner fuels and sent officials to inspect all the filling stations to ensure that they do not have the petrol that contained excessive methanol.
The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, had accused Oando, MRS, Duke Oil and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium of being behind importation of the toxic petrol. Kyari emphasized that defaulting suppliers had been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC was working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) to take necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations.
Apart from Duke Oil, the oil companies listed by Kyari as the importers of the contaminated fuel have since denied importing any bad fuel.
President Muhammadu Buhari had stated that the people found culpable in the importation of the bad fuel would be punished. However, Nigerians have not seen any action taken against the importers.
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