Farouk Ahmed, head of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) on Wednesday said Nigeria currently has Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) that could serve the nation for 20 days.

He therefore advised against panic buying by the public.

The downstream petroleum regulatory agency boss said work was ongoing with other stakeholders to address the issue of substandard petrol imported into the country.

Mr Ahmed made this known during a meeting with downstream industry stakeholders on Wednesday in Lagos.

He said the imported PMS was discovered to contain methanol above the specified volume , adding that  a technical team of stakeholders was working towards resolving the issue.

He said: “Today, I am happy to say that loading has been going on in most of the depots because we have been able to identify, isolate and quarantine the limited amount of gasoline that was affected by the methanol volume that was discovered.

“We have vessels that have arrived in the country recently.

“At least six arrived in the last few days ordered by the NNPC carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.

“All in all, as of today, we have about 20 days sufficiency of PMS in the country. Our ideal days of sufficiency is 30 but the withdrawal of the vessel created the gap in our 30 days sufficiency.

“Again, with aggressive importation by the NNPC, this will be closed in a few days from the data we got from the NNPC’s import programme.

“Loading is also ongoing in most of the depots that have confirmed spec products so there is no need for panic. Hopefully by tomorrow or early Friday, Lagos will be cleared.”

According to him, there is a 9,000MT vessel that is currently about to discharge at the Apapa Port.

He said this vessel would be providing PMS to major marketers including OVH Energy, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Con Oil and Ardova Plc.

Mr Ahmed said there were also vessels on ground to supply products to DAPPMAN members while the technical team would continue to work on how to salvage the withdrawn products in their depots. 

The meeting had in attendance top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN).

(NAN)