Business
NNPC calls for patience as fuel scarcity bites hard
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Wednesday urged Nigerians to exercise patience as the corporation works assiduously to restore normal supply and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) across the country.
The NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari stated this when appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream).
He said: “We regret this situation. It is completely unavoidable, we didn’t see it coming. We apologise to Nigerians. We didn’t see this coming.”
The NNPC chief said the fuel scarcity was caused by the discovery of methanol in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by NNPC and its partners.
Kyari added: “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.
READ ALSO: NNPC commences distribution of 1bn litres of fuel to ease scarcity
“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.”
He assured Nigerians that measures had been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution, saying the NNPC had placed orders for 2.1 billion litres of methanol-free PMS to ensure the queues in filling stations vanished in a few days.
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