The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has said that Nigeria currently has 20 days sufficiency of petrol, and advised against panic buying.
It said orders had been placed on 300 million litres of refined Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, to replace the adulterated fuel undergoing mop-up.
The regulatory agency said it was also working round the clock to address the challenge thrown up by the importation of substandard petrol into the country.
Fuel scarcity has hit major cities in Abuja and Lagos this week, and the government said on Tuesday that it had discovered a recently bought stock contained excessively high methanol above Nigeria’s specification.
The regulatory agency on Wednesday met with marketers in Lagos in a bid to raise distribution and remove the substandard fuel from the supply chain.
The chief executive officer of the agency, Farouk Ahmed, attended the meeting, as well as top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN).
Ahmed said a technical team was working on resolving the issue. He also said the government had a 10-day shortage in its fuel reserve.
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 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the NNPC carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres just to close to gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system,” he said.
“All in all, as at today, we have about 20 days sufficiency of PMS in the country. Our ideal days of sufficiency is 30 but the withdrawal of the vessel created the gap in our 30 days sufficiency.
“Again, with aggressive importation by the NNPC, this will be closed in a few days from 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 or early Friday, Lagos will be cleared.”
According to him, there is a 9,000 metric tonne vessel that is currently about to discharge at the Apapa Port.
He said this vessel would be providing petrol to major marketers including OVH Energy, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Con Oil and Ardova Plc.
Ahmed said there were vessels on ground to supply products to DAPPMAN members while the technical team would continue to work on how to salvage the withdrawn products in their depots.
Also, the Federal Government on Wednesday said it had initiated the process to investigate the supply of adulterated petrol to country, which had reportedly damaged many cars’ engines.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister said that the President was briefed on the matter and that the aim was to get to the bottom of the matter.
He cautioned against drawing conclusions before the investigation is completed.
Fielding question on whether the issue was discussed at the Council meeting and whether the suppliers will be punished, Sylva said: “The issue did not come up in Council, but of course, you will recall I was here yesterday (Tuesday) to brief Mr President on the issue. I’m not in a position to disclose the identities of the companies, but there are some issues and we are actively tackling it.
“Nobody has, before now, checked for methanol in our fuel, it’s not very usual and this is the first time this is happening and NNPC is very much up to the task.
“I will also convey your question to NNPC and maybe the Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, but we’re actively handling it and I want to assure you that the problem will be a thing of the past very soon.”
The minister assured that government would consider compensating those who may have been adversely affected by the bad fuel.
Asked whether the companies behind importation of the adulterated fuel will be sanctioned, the Minister said, “I didn’t expect you to rush to any conclusions. There’ll be a major investigation to unravel everything and then let’s really get to the bottom of it before we can come back and tell you what is going to happen to the culprits.
“We know that some people’s vehicles must have also been damaged, that is also going to be taken into consideration in dealing with the situation.”