Amid fears of declining global demand of petroleum, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency has assured Nigerians of sufficient timeproducts.
According to a statement signed by the agency’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, Nigerians have nothing to fear despite the rising fear of Coronavirus spread affecting the global oil demand.
He said that the agency’s January 2020 report on Oil and Gas sector operations showed that the national supply of petrol was at 1,828.62 billion litres, while Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) were at 423.27 million litres and 96.70 million litres respectively.
Mr Saidu also said that the average PMS Days Sufficiency in January was at 41.34 days, AGO at 45.04 days, HouseHold Kerosene (HHK) at 9.36 days, while ATK and LPFO were at 53.73 and 33.75 days respectively
He said an activity highlighting report for week 21st – 27th February 2020, revealed that the average days’ Sufficiency stood at 42.28 days for PMS, AGO was 44.73 days while HHK was 20.36 days and ATK 36.22 days.
Also, during the said week, the total volume of PMS and AGO discharged were 551.01 million litres and 84.84 million litres respectively.
“Also, Crude oil prices in January averaged $63.51, $64.06 and $58.29 per barrel for Brent, Bonny and WTI respectively, as against the December average prices of $67.02, $65.94 and $60.67 per barrel.
“Available data for week 4 of February 2020 indicated declines in the prices of Brent, Bonny and WTI, which averaged $57.17, $57.14 and $52.86 per barrel respectively.
“The Report showed that constant monitoring of products supply and distribution by the Agency as well as the entrenchment of responsive pricing policy through monitoring of trends in market fundamentals and updating pricing template contributed to product availability nationwide,” he said.
He added that sharp practices by some operators were greatly reduced as a result of vessel tracking, efficient scheduling and monitoring by PPPRA independent cargo surveyors and field operatives.
The agency also ensured that the NNPC and other Marketers maintained strict compliance to approved guidelines for importation of petroleum products.
It also reassures the public that it will continue to work with other relevant parties towards maintaining efficient petroleum products supply in the country.
The Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak which started from China is now in 50 countries and things seem to be getting worse.
So far, the number of people killed worldwide by the coronavirus has exceeded 3,000.
As of Monday, almost 90,000 confirmed cases have been reported globally, with the numbers outside China growing faster than inside China.
The disease had spread across China, with the Asian country reporting the highest number of cases from the outbreak.
However, things began to change in the last two weeks as cases slowed down in China but started rising in other parts of the world.
SOURCE: veracitydesk.com.ng