NNPC reveals those allegedly behind fuel scarcity
- NNPC says rumours about purported planned increase in the pump price of petrol is contributing to the current fuel scarcity
- Spokesperson for the corporation, Ndu Ughamadu, says fuel queues will normalize by Friday, December 22 and disappear by weekend
- The national president of NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese, claims that there might be a hidden reason for the emergence of long queues at filling stations all over Nigeria
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has blamed the current petroleum scarcity in the country on marketers of the product.
The group managing director of the company, Maikanti Baru, in a statement by Ndu Ughamadu the NNPC spokesman on Thursday, December 21, also said part of the problem was the rumours about purported planned increase in the pump price of petrol.
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He stated that some marketers, in their quest to cash in on the situation, suddenly started hoarding products, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
“But we swiftly swung into action by doubling our supply nationwide. At the time the rumour started, we had about 30-day sufficiency.
“The normal daily supply to the nation is 700 trucks, equalling about 27-30 million litres per day,’’ Mr. Baru said.
He assured that the corporation had doubled its daily supply of petrol, from daily 700 trucks (about 27 million – 30 million) litres per day supply to 80 million litres since the current hiccup in the supply chain was noticed a few days back.
He further assured Nigerians that the NNPC had enough products sufficiency that would last up to 30 days.
Ughamadu said the fuel queues will `normalise’ by Friday, December 22 and disappear by weekend.
Mr. Baru, who expressed joy at PENGASSAN’s call-off of its planned strike, urged motorists not to engage in panic buying as the corporation had more than enough products for domestic consumption.
Assuring that the fuel situation would fizzle out this week, Baru warned marketers against hoarding, stressing that any filling station found wanting in this regard would lose its entire products to motorists.
He commended NNPC’s sister agencies, the Department of Petroleum Resources and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, for their support in helping NNPC tackle the menace of hoarding by filling stations.
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Corporation and the Benue Government on the Agasha-Guma bio-fuels Projects, Baru said that at least a billion litres petrol-laden cargoes were expected by December.
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He said the Bio-fuels Project would provide employment for the teeming youths in the state.
“I believe that Benue has what it takes to lead the country in the bio-fuels industry.
“I hope that your state will soon move from food basket to fuel basket of the nation,” Mr. Baru noted.
The Agasha-Guma bio-fuels project aims at developing Integrated Sugarcane Plantation and Fuel-Ethanol/Sugar/Power Plant Complex in Benue through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
Meanwhile, the national president of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Igwe Achese, has hinted that there might be a hidden reason for the emergence of long queues at filling stations all over Nigeria.
Achese called on both the federal government, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to tell Nigerians the truth about the cause of the ongoing scarcity, The Independent reports.
He added that none of the two labour unions in the oil sector are on strike and there is no justification whatsoever for the unavailability of fuel in filling stations.
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Source: Naija.ng