TheCable

Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, says the ongoing petrol scarcity will end soon.

The minister said this while briefing journalists after a meeting with some key leaders in the petroleum industry on Thursday. 

Sylva, who spoke shortly after meeting with Mele Kyari, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer, Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said the supply disruption was unplanned. 

Last month, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had confirmed that methanol above national specification was imported into the county.

Amid efforts to recall the off-spec petrol from circulation, the supply chain was disrupted, causing long queues at filling stations.

“This kind of supply disruptions are like accidents, they are not desirable, we do not expect them to happen, but they happen once in a while,” he said. 

“This administration has done well as far as fuel supply is concerned. I am quite happy to hear from the NNPC GMD and CEO of NMDPRA on all they have been doing to ensure the scarcity is controlled.

“From what they have told me, in a few days, there will be normalcy, everybody is putting efforts to ensure that supply disruption is overcome.

“On my part as minister of state, I share their commitment to ensuring that this problem is totally overcome.”

According to him, the disruption is further exacerbated by the practice of hoarding by marketers.  

“From all the figures shown to me, the supply is there, so why are they hoarding it, in the next few days, we will be able to overcome those unscrupulous elements and make sure products get to Nigerians,” he said.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had urged Nigerians to avoid panic buying, adding that it had up to 1.79 billion litres of petrol on the ground.