. NNPC apologises, promises to restore normalcy
. Marketers pledge support to ease scarcity
The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), yesterday, assured Nigerians that his Committee will handle companies who imported methanol-blended Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into the country.
The Committee’s Chairman, Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya, said this during an engagement with the Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd., organised by the Committee on the current fuel situation in the country.
While briefing the Committee, the Chief Executive Officer/Group Managing Director (CEO/GMD), Mele Kyari, apologised for the current hardship caused by the recent importation and subsequent withdrawal of off-spec premium motor spirit (PMS), also called petrol.
Kyari explained that the situation came about as a result of the discovery of methanol in the PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by NNPC and its partners.
He argued that the tests did not reveal methanol presence because Nigeria’s specifications do not include methanol.
He said: “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.
“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. Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS.”
Accordingly, he said the NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantined them.
While assuring the Committee and Nigerians that measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country, the NNPC CEO said the company had placed significant orders of over 2.1billion litres of methanol-free PMS to ensure the queues vanished in a 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, to maintain supply sufficiency and prevent future occurrence.
MOMAN extends operation hours
In support of the NNPC’s efforts to contain petrol scarcity and restore normalcy, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), has directed its members to extend their services to between 18 to 24 hours daily.
MOMAN’s Chairman, Olumide Adeosun, said in a statement that member jetties, depots, and filling stations will work within this extended hours until queues eased across the country in Lagos.
Adeosun said: “Most importantly, MOMAN members have committed resources towards enhanced operations and associated activities to reduce the burden of the current fuel scarcity to our customers.
“Towards this purpose, MOMAN members shall extend opening hours of jetties, depots, and filling stations to a minimum of 18 hours a day and where possible up to 24 hours a day in high density and flagship locations where the security situation permits.
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.
“MOMAN members shall operate these extended hours until the excessive queues subside.”
Adeosun noted that MOMAN experts were active contributors to the technical and commercial committees set up by the regulatory authorities.
According to him, the committees are saddled with re-stocking fuel supplies, resolving the blending of the contaminated product, and identifying losses suffered by customers, operators and third parties.
He said MOMAN’s committee of chemists were also working with designated laboratories to double-check the quality of product (re-blended or new) before they are released into the fuels supply chain.
DAPPMAN is working with NNPC to ensure that adequate stocks of ‘on-spec’ petrol are made available to Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the nation.
DAPPMA promises distribution of on-spec fuel
Similarly, the Chairman, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Winifred Akpani, said members are also working with NNPC, “to ensure that adequate stocks of ‘on-spec’ petrol are made available to Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the nation.
While empathising with the public over the current situation, she also said members “have worked assiduously with the regulatory authorities from the onset to curtail further distribution of the off-spec fuel in all DAPPMAN depots and retail outlets.
“DAPPMAN also seconded versatile professionals to the Technical and Commercial Committees setup by the regulators (NMDPRA), and stakeholders who have initiated best practices ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ to ensure not only that the off-spec products are quarantined, professionally processed, tested and certified good for distribution to the market.”
To this end, Akpani said: “DAPPMAN depots and retail outlets have commenced, within the security and safety limits allowance, extended hours of loading from our various depots and in all our retail outlets until the situation normalises.”
Both MOMAN and DAPPMAN urged consumers to desist from panic buying as products are being delivered to retail outlets.
