The adulterated petrol imported into the country by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited would be re-blended to reduce the methanol in it and bring the product up to standard, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has said.
The NMDPRA said the blending would cost money, adding that for every 200 litres of the adulterated product, 800 litres of petrol with good quality would be required for the blending.
The regulator had on Tuesday said a limited quantity of PMS with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification was discovered in the supply chain.The Chief Executive Officer, NMDPRA, Mr Farouk Ahmed, while visiting some depots in Lagos on Wednesday after a meeting with industry stakeholders, said at least six vessels, carrying 300 million litres of petrol, ordered by the NNPC had arrived in the country to close the supply gap created by the withdrawal of the contaminated product
He said, “It will cost some level of money to do the blending because the off-spec material cannot be just thrown away because of the environmental effect it will cause. Eventually, all the material will be re-blended to very good quality, and it will be certified and recertified before it goes into the market.
“We have learnt lessons of extra due diligence because there are no excuses. I will not make any excuses. The fact is there were mistakes made because we received a product that was off-spec, even though there was a surveyor that actually went on board and took samples. Because this parameter was not indicated, they didn’t capture that parameter. So, going forward, we have to try and look at all parameters, all the components of imported products.
“The component that was in excess was methanol; what we agreed was that for every 200 litres of the affected volume, we need about 800 litres to blend. The issue is the quality; it is not toxic. It is not something that can destroy the environment. It is just a matter of how its effect on machinery like vehicles.”
Ahmed said the regulator had been able to work with the technical team that included the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, the NNPC and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria to address the issue.
He said, “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.
“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 to gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.”
According to him, the country currently has petrol volume in store that can last for 20 days.
He, however, said, “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.
“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.”
According to Ahmed, there is a 39,000MT vessel that is currently about to discharge at Apapa port to major marketers including OVH, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Conoil and Ardova Plc.
He said, “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.
“Also, most of these vessels will also be providing volumes to most of the members of the key members of DAPPMAN.”
