…As NNPC CEO Assures Fuel Queues Will Vanish in Few Days
The Federal House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya, has assured Nigerians that his Committee will handle companies who imported methanol-blended Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into the country. The Chairman was responding to a question from one of the Committee members in that regard.
Hon. Gaya spoke during an engagement with Management of the NNPC organised by the Committee on the current fuel situation in the country.
Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Garba Deen Mohammad revealed in a statement today that the CEO/GMD of the oil company, Mallam Mele Kyari, while briefing the Committee, explained that the situation came about as a result of the discovery of methanol in the PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by NNPC and its partners.
According to the CEO, the reason why tests did not reveal methanol presence was because Nigeria’s specifications do not include methanol, the release added.
“We are a law-abiding company. There is no way we could have known about the methanol presence. The only way we could have known about it is if our suppliers, in good faith, made the disclosure to us. In this particular instance, the discovery was made by our inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations and brought it to our attention. Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS,” the CEO pointed out.
He said NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantined same.
While assuring the Committee and Nigerians that measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country, the NNPC CEO said the company had placed significant orders of over 2.1billion liters of methanol-free PMS to ensure the queues vanish in few days.
He pledged that NNPC would co-operate with the Committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to get to the root of the matter.
The NNPC CEO also expressed deep empathy with Nigerians on the current situation and assured that adequate measures have been put in place to maintain supply sufficiency and prevent future occurrence.