Off-Spec Petrol And Campaign Of Calumny Against NNPC

Despite the discovery of methanol-blended petrol above the required standard and the swift withdrawal from circulation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, some mindless malevolence and catty comments have unfortunately been trailing the regulator’s remedial measures towards restoring normalcy.

The comments especially in the form of editorial and commentaries, no doubt, smack of a sponsored campaign ostensibly to destroy the institution and by extension, the leadership even when it is obvious that the organization was not the direct importer of the “adulterated petrol.” NNPC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, discovered the contaminated petrol in circulation and announced its withdrawal almost immediately.

The off-spec petrol was imported into the country by four oil marketers through four Premium Motor Spirit cargoes under the NNPC’s Direct Sales Direct Purchase arrangement.

The four companies that supplied the methanol blended petrol are MRS which made the importation through a vessel named MT Bow Pioneer, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium through vessel identified as MT Tom Hilde, Oando through a vessel named MT Elka Apollon, and Duke Oil.

The product was purchased from International Trader, LITASCO and delivered through the LITASCO loading port terminal in Antwerp in Belgium.

It is instructive to state that immediately the discovery was made, the NNPC quickly stopped oil marketers from distributing the petrol. In achieving this, the NNPC made sure that all the cargoes that were suspected to have methanol were quarantined.

Similarly, those cargoes that have been discharged were also quarantined, while all the trucks that have left the depots were tracked and intercepted. It also restocked the depot with more cleaner fuels and has also sent officials to inspect all the filling stations to ensure that they do not have the petrol that have excessive methanol.

As remediation and intervention, NNPC imported 300 million litres of clean petrol to distribute to the independent marketers and its own outlets across the country.

For those exhibiting tantrums and orchestrated “fireworks’’ for what they called NNPC’s alleged negligence, the misinformation is a disservice to readers and Nigerians for seeking to brand it as an inefficient, untransparent business entity.

Whereas the NNPC under the leadership of Mele Kyari and since the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, has never imported ‘bad petrol’ and has for the past two years sustained a seamless and uninterrupted supply of petroleum products particularly petrol. This is as against the inherited situation of persistent fuel scarcity as well as the obnoxious kilometer-long queues at filling stations where Nigerian motorists have to spend several nights at the filling stations just in a desperate bid to get petrol.

On this contaminated fuel saga, the authorities did not need to be suspicious of the petrol being imported under the crude-for-fuel contracts known as the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) initiative since they have been importing the commodity from the same source, Belgium.

It stands to reason that of what benefit is it for NNPC to restock after the Christmas and New Year festivities to ensure the unbroken chain of supply in the new year with ‘adulterated petrol’?

The crux is would the NNPC be able to recoup its investment if it brought in such contaminated fuel? Will it be oblivious of the fact that damages will be paid to motorists and other users? Should it not occur to the new management of the limited liability company that it will be antithetical to its objective of more turn-over for the country in fulfillment of its mandate having declared surplus in trade in billions of naira as published in the first-ever audited report?

Not explaining away that there might have been an “error” somewhere in the supply chain, it is, however, premature and unsavory to apportion blame, heap abuses and invectives on the managers of the outfits who have been engaging in good business practices that have been giving the nation good profit.

Little wonder why laudatory comments were not made when NNPC published its audited report in 2021 which was proudly presented to Nigerians by President Muhammdu Buhari, the first since the inception of the organization.

It is, to say the least, a hackneyed campaign to pull down, destroy and vilify the NNPC with Kyari as the target. The traducers and smearers who ostensibly are being sponsored should look at the issues dispassionately, not taking a position or being judgmental even when no empirical facts or evidence point to that.

Obviously, the importation of petrol and other products is pocket-unfriendly for Nigerians, it must be pointed out that the several decades of abandonment of the nation’s four refineries is an inhibiting factor.

Fixing the refineries in the country requires humongous funds which the industry, until recently with the presidential assent to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) facilitated by relevant stakeholders, could not finance.

Again, those traducing NNPC leadership in the press – ongoing media trial – should give Petroleum Industry Act a chance and watch if corporate governance, transparency and accountability will not be its watchword as its books are now more open to public scrutiny than ever before.

By implication, damaging reports about the new “baby’’ and its leadership can send wrong signals to both local and foreign investors in the avowed commitment to develop the industry and make it the biggest revenue earner for Nigeria in the long run.

The crux is that some people are uncomfortable with the PIA giving the running of the industry wholly to technocrats with the president (Petroleum Minister) superintending.

However, there is nothing absolutely wrong with scrutinizing the operations of the company and blowing the whistle if infractions are committed.

But the perfidious and treacherous moves to attack and derail the PIA is, no doubt, ill-conceived, ill-founded without facts and figures. It is business unusual by the Kyari team to re-invent NNPC Ltd, put the vicious circle of energy crisis and the importation of adulterated petrol to an end and terminate the bugbear of petrol subsidy.

Just like President Buhari has directed an investigation into the incident, as a responsible corporate entity of government, NNPC will play by the rules.

However, it must be made abundantly clear that no effort is being made to “rationalize and do damage control”.

Issuance of quality certificates at loading port (Antwerp, Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicating that the gasoline (bad petrol) complied with Nigerian specification did not emanate or originate from NNPC and if there is no proven case of negligence or dereliction or slacks by quality detectors, the needful should be applied.

Odumegwu, a Public Affairs Analyst wrote in from Lagos

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of THE WHISTLER.