Sam Ikeotuonye
Lagos — Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mele Kyari, says measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country.
He stated this as he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to explain steps being taken by the NNPC to arrest the fuel scarcity across the country.
According to him, NNPC had placed orders for over 2.1 billion litres of methanol-free petrol for nationwide distribution.
Speaking on the recent discovery of methanol in petrol cargoes brought into the country and made available to some fuel stations, Kyari pledged that the NNPC would cooperate with the committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, to get to the root of the adulterated petrol saga.
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 fuel scarcity.
The federal government had last Tuesday said methanol, a chemical additive found in a recently imported fuel exceeded Nigeria’s specification, leading to the withdrawal of the product and subsequent shortage of petrol and queues at fuel stations in major cities.
The NNPC boss said the reason tests did not reveal methanol presence in the recently imported petrol stock 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,” he added.
Kyari noted that the NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantine them to forestall further damage.
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