The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited started its week with an assurance to Nigerians that the distribution of petrol would soon normalise after its belated recall of contaminated fuel imported into the country last week.

The NNPC Group Executive Director (Downstream), Adetunji Adeyemi, gave the assurance at a briefing in Abuja, while concerted efforts were being made to end the challenges in the supply of petrol.

Mr Adeyemi stated that the company was expecting over 2.3 billion litres of petrol in the country by the end of February and that over one billion litres of the product were currently being distributed nationwide.

He assured that the product being dispensed at various filling stations in the country was safe, as the expected 2.3 billion litres would restore the sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.

Mr Adeyemi explained that to accelerate PMS distribution across the country, the company had commenced 24 hours’ operations at its depots and retail outlets.

He disclosed that NNPC had constituted a monitoring team with the support of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and other security agencies to ensure the smooth distribution of petrol nationwide.

In the meantime, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream)’s chairman, Abdullahi Gaya, assured Nigerians that his committee would handle companies who imported methanol-blended petrol into the country.

A statement by NNPC’s spokesman Garba Deen Muhammad quoted Mr Gaya as responding to a question from one of the committee members in that regard.

Mr Gaya spoke during an engagement with the management of the NNPC organised by his committee on the current fuel situation in the country.

While briefing the committee, the NNPC chief executive officer Mele Kyari explained that the situation came about due to the discovery of methanol in the petrol cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by NNPC and its partners.

According to

Mr Kyari, tests did not reveal methanol presence because Nigeria’s specifications do not include methanol.

“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, made the disclosure to us,” claimed Mr Kyari. “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.”

He added, “Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS.”

Mr Kyari also explained that NNPC moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantine the same.

While assuring the committee and Nigerians that measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution, the NNPC CEO said the company had placed significant orders of over 2.1 billion litres of methanol-free petrol to ensure the queues vanish in few days.

He pledged that NNPC would co-operate with the committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to get to the root of the matter.

(NAN)