NNPC Engages Security Agencies To Check Diversion Of Petrol

…Assures Nigerians Of Adequate Stock Of Petrol

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has engaged the services of security agencies to check the diversion of petrol by some unscrupulous oil marketers.

The National Oil Company said this in a statement issued on Friday night and signed by Garba Deen Muhammad, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC Ltd.

The statement said that the NNPC, as part of measures aimed at ensuring adequate supply of the products to Nigeria will be working with security agencies to ensure that all products loaded at the depot get to the right destination.

The NNPC in the statement again assured Nigerians that it had adequate stock of petrol to meet their demands.

In the statement, the NNPC stated that it is working assiduously with its partners to ensure the product reaches every part of the country.

The statement reads, “NNPC Ltd. once again assures Nigerians that it has sufficient stock of petrol product for distribution across the country and its working assiduously with partner to ensure the product reaches every part of the country

“NNPC is further intensifying efforts
to resolve distribution hitches being experienced in some parts of the country due to logistics issues.

“To this effect, NNPC is engaging depot operators to load product round the clock to accelerate the restoration of normal distribution.

“NNPC has also engaged the services of government security agencies to ensure that all products loaded get to the right destination.

“We urge Nigerians to continue to be patient as we strive to restore the situation to normalcy.”

THE WHISTLER understands that the NNPC is currently battling with the issue of diversion of petrol products.

The diversion, according to findings, is not easily curbed when there is an opportunity to sell petrol at the black market.

Due to the scarcity of petrol which was caused by distribution gap due to the withdrawal of methanol-blended petrol, black marketers have been profiting from the sale of the product for about N500 per litre as against the official price of N165 per litre.

Apart from diversion, findings also revealed that some filling stations that had petrol have been dispensing the product with fewer pumps thus making it slower for the products to go round motorists.

A source with knowledge of the development told this website that the NNPC is intensifying it’s monitoring mechanism as well as engaging oil marketers to support and sell from all their pumps in their filling stations.

“Current scenario is that they sell using only a few pumps so that the stock diminishes slowly

“At least 5 major marketers with a good spread can partner with NNPC to cure this,” the source added.

The NNPC had on Wednesday released details of how it distributed a total of 387.59 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit to Nigerians.

The product was evacuated from the depot and distributed to Nigerians through retail filling stations within a one-week period covering February 14 to 20.

The release of the 387.59 million litres by the NNPC to Nigerians, represents an average daily distribution of 55.4 million litres.

A breakdown of the NNPC weekly national evacuation report showed that 80 per cent of all the evacuation 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.