Hope Of Fuel Queue Disappearance Rises As NNPC Releases Additional 381 Million Litres To Nigerians

Hope of the disappearance of fuel queues across the country has been rekindled as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd on Saturday released details of the distribution of additional 381.88 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit to Nigerians.

The figure was released by the NNPC through its verified twitter account.

The product, according to the PMS Evacuation Report of the NNPC, was lifted from the depot and distributed to Nigerians through retail filling stations within a one-week period covering February 21st and 26th.

The release of the 381.88 million litres of petrol to Nigerians by the NNPC, represents an average daily distribution of 63.65 million litres.

This is in addition to the 387.5 million litres of petrol which was released to Nigerians during the week covering February 14th to February 20th.

A breakdown of the NNPC weekly national evacuation report showed that 80 per cent of all the distribution took place at the top 20 high loading depots.

It stated that the remaining 20 per cent of the evacuation took place at the other loading depots.

The top 20 high loading depots that were used to evacuate the PMS are Pinnacle-Lekki which evacuated the highest volume of 40.25 million litres, AA Rano (22.43 million litres), AYM Shafa (19.23 million litres), Prudent (17.78 million litres), 11 PLC (17.78 million litres), Rainoil Lagos (15.93 million litres), and Avidor (15.63 million litres).

There is also Fynefield with 12.39 million litres, Bull Strategic (12.2 million litres), Matrix (11.99 million litres), Koenamex (11.99 million litres), and Pinnacle (11.76 million litres).

The rest are NIPCO (10.78 million litres), Swift (10.01 million litres), Total Apapa (9.5 million litres), TSL (9.19 million litres), Sobaz Nig Ltd (8.94 million litres), Mainland (8.88 million litres) and Ardova (8.83 million litres).

The NNPC had last Wednesday assured Nigerians that it had sufficient stock of petroleum products for distribution across the country.

The Company also said that it had over 1.7 billion litres of PMS both on marine and on the land and does not have any plan to adjust the current price of PMS in the market.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari had given the assurances while addressing Editors in a joint press briefing with Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

The GMD had blamed the current fuel queues at the filling station on panic paying and called on Nigerians to buy what they need per day.

He added that the NNPC is working assiduously with partners to ensure the product reaches every part of the country.

According to him “NNPC is further intensifying efforts to resolve distribution hitches being experienced in some parts of the country due to logistics issues, we have engaged depot operators to load product round the clock to accelerate the restoration of normal distribution.

“We have capacity now to load from all depots, we are currently running 24 hours loading from all our depots and we believe this will close the gap created by panic buying. We hope this will bring normalcy to the system soon.”

The GMD also disclosed that the NNPC has engaged the services of government security agencies to ensure that all products loaded at the depot get to the right destination and affirmed that sanctions will be meted to any operator selling above the stipulated pump price.

“We sincerely apologize to our people and urge Nigerians to continue to be patient as we strive to return the situation to normalcy.

“As the supplier of last resort, NNPC has continued to sustain adequate petroleum products supply and distribution to the nation despite challenges associated with the unending waves of pipeline vandalism, product theft and cross-border smuggling of PMS.

“In line with the existing laws of the land, NNPC Ltd is deeply committed to ensuring energy security for the country,” the GMD said.