…IMPORTS 300 Million Litres Of Petrol TO HALT Shortage
The Federal Government has commenced steps to open investigation into the importation and supply of adulterated fuel into the country.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had announced the immediate withdrawal of a dangerous Petroleum motor spirit product from the market on Tuesday night.
The Authority had said that the product was mixed with a higher quality of methanol above Nigeria’s specification.
The adulterated fuel had caused huge damage to car engines and other equipment of unsuspecting owners who were unfortunate to buy and use the product.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, said on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting that the government had commenced to
uncover the circumstances surrounding the importation of the dangerous product into the country.
He said, “There will be a major investigation to unravel everything. We need to get to the bottom of it before we can come back to tell you what will happen to the culprits.’’
Sylva was silent on the identity of the company the culprits.
Meanwhile, the Federal government has imported 300 million liters of petrol as a replacement for the contaminated fuel which was withdrawn from depots and filling stations.
The Chief Executive Officer, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, said that the NNPC has ordered six vessels of petroleum products.
“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NNPC, carrying a total volume of close to 300 million liters, just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system,” he said.
Ahmed said that the country has petrol volume in-store that can last for 20 days.
He gave the assurance that a 9,000MT vessel was about to discharge at Apapa port to major marketers including OVH, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Conoil, and Ardova Plc.
“Our ideal days of sufficiency are 30 but because of the concern that made us withdraw the vessels; this created the gap in our 30 days sufficiency. Again, with aggressive importation by the NNPC, this will be closed in a few days, according to the data we got from the NNPC’s import program.
“Loading is also ongoing in most of the depots that have confirmed spec products; so, there is no need for panic. Hopefully, by tomorrow, Lagos will be cleared.
“So, once these vessels complete discharging and start pushing the products to marketers, I believe Lagos will be cleared by Friday. We have got that assurance from the marketers.
“Also, most of these vessels will be providing volumes to most of the members of the key members of DAPPMAN” Ahmed said