BY Bunmi Aduloju
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says about 300 million litres of petrol has been imported to close the supply gap caused by the recall of the off-spec products in circulation.
Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said this on Wednesday in Lagos.
NMDPRA had on Tuesday confirmed that petrol, with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification, was discovered in the supply chain.
According to him, depots have been functional due to the withdrawal procedures carried out to avoid the supply of methanol-laden petrol.
He said with the delivery of the 300 million litres of petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), queues experienced in parts of the country would disappear by Thursday.
“Today, I am happy to say that loading has been going on in most of the depots because we have been able to identify, isolate and quarantine the limited amount of gasoline that was affected by the methanol volume that was discovered,” Ahmed said.
“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NNPC, carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres, just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.”
He noted that there is a 9,000 metric tonnes (MT) vessel that is discharged at Apapa port to major marketers, including OVH, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Conoil and Ardova Plc.
The CEO said when the vessels complete discharging and start pushing products to oil marketers, the fuel queues in Lagos would vanish by Friday.
“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,” Ahmed said.
“Also, most of these vessels will also be providing volumes to most of the members of the key members of DAPPMAN.”
He further said that Nigeria presently has petrol that can last for 20 days.
“Our ideal days of sufficiency is 30, but because of the concern that made us withdraw the vessels which created the gap in our 30 days sufficiency,” he said.
“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 programme.
“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.”
Earlier today, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) had said it would ensure that clean petrol is pushed to consumers to avoid scarcity.
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