Oil marketers have resolved to start blending the over 100 million litres of adulterated Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, which was imported into Nigeria over two weeks ago.
It was gathered on Tuesday that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had yet to recall all the contaminated PMS, as the commodity had been occupying spaces in the tanks of filling stations.
As a result, marketers said the situation had made it difficult for filling stations to take delivery of new products to sell to their customers, a development that worsened the scarcity of petrol, resulting in massive queues in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Niger, Nasarawa and many other states.
The Nations Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chief Ukadike Chinedu, told our correspondent that some retailers in Lagos had started blending the adulterated PMS with clean fuel.
Asked whether the NNPC had recalled all the contaminated PMS as reported in some quarters on Tuesday, Ukadike replied, “That is not true.”
He added, “I also want to tell you that in our members’ filling stations, some of the ones I know in Port Harcourt, Ichie and Obigbo in Rivers State, as well as a few in Abuja, I have their names and numbers, the (adulterated) products are still in their tanks now.
“And they have been running helter-skelter to see whether they will be able to get fresh products to blend the ones in their tanks and push all of it out to the public.
“This is because we got information that some of our members who are in Lagos are bringing in fresh products to blend with the contaminated ones and neutralise the sulphur and methanol.”
Ukadike, however, noted that many filling stations had yet to get new supplies that were enough to blend the adulterated products in their tanks.
“But unfortunately up till now they (filling stations) have not got new supplies and that is one of the basic reasons for the scarcity you see here and there across the country,” he stated.
On whether marketers have the capacity or equipment to blend the adulterated products with clean fuel, Ukadike replied that they were ready to try it, since the NNPC had yet to recall the products.
He said, “The NNPC has a blending plant which could have done this thing clinically and make it more appropriate. But we have waited for weeks now and nothing has been done.
“You know, we don’t have testing machines, so marketers just want to do this permutation, considering the huge amount spent on the purchase of the products and in order to help to address petrol scarcity.”
The scarcity of petrol persisted in Abuja and neighbouring states on Tuesday, as Ukadike told our correspondent that the situation was also pronounced in many states.
It was, however, gathers that to address the situation, over 2.3 billion litres of PMS would arrive the country between now and the end of February 2022.
Sources at the NNPC stated that this would restore sufficiency, and even above the national target of 30 days.
“As of today, the NNPC has over one billion litres of petrol in stock, and the PMS being dispensed today at the various filling stations in the country is safe,” the source, who pleaded not to be named due to lack of authorisation, stated.
The official stated that in order to accelerate PMS distribution across the country, the NNPC had commenced 24 hours operations at its depots and retail outlets.
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Tuesday debunked reports that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered that a query be issued to the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, over the importation of adulterated fuel into the country.
A media report had on February 9 claimed that Buhari, who doubles as the minister of Petroleum, had directed the Minister of State, Mr Timipre Sylva, to issue a query to Ahmed.
However, an authoritative source within the Presidency told State House correspondents on Tuesday that it was time to set the records straight.
The source said, “There was no directive to issue a query. What Mr President is interested in is for all the stakeholders to team up and resolve the issue that has brought untold hardship to Nigerians, who queue for hours on end to get petrol.
“The President is aware that the Minister of State, the Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, the NMDPRA head, and everyone involved, are working together to resolve the issues, at the shortest possible time.”
The official added, “Forget the story of any query being issued. It is not correct. Yes, Mr President is unhappy with what happened, but he didn’t direct that a query be issued. The story is not correct.”
The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, expanded the scope of its ongoing investigation of the crisis caused by the importation of off-spec Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, asking its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to investigate why long queues were still persisting at the filling stations.
Specifically, the House is to probe the claim by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited that there is sufficient reserve of standard PMS to ease the tension caused by the adulterated supply.
The Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu, had raised a point of order to decry the hardships caused by the shortage of fuel in the Abuja metropolis.
Elumelu said, “I wanted to come under Order 8 Rules 4 and 7 for us to discuss this issue of the lingering fuel crisis in Nigeria. I agree that the NNPC said they had enough but it (the situation) does not seem to tally with their submission that they have enough fuel. There are still some lingering fuel crises in the whole of Nigeria.
“Today, it was even difficult for me to get here because all the roads are totally blocked by those wanting to get fuel, and there is no fuel. There is already an existing committee saddled with the responsibility of investigating the issue of adulterated fuel.”
The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, who upheld Elumelu’s order, asked the committee to also probe into the NNPC’s claim and the lingering supply shortage.
Gbajabiamila said, “There is a connection or nexus between that motion of last week on contaminated fuel and what you have rightly brought up – the observation of the long queues. So, the standing Committee on Downstream Petroleum should please take note and expedite their investigation of this lingering crisis.” – Punch.
