The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority says it has commenced the evacuation of the adulterated products from circulation to curtail the use of the over 80 million litres Premium Motor Spirit that was shipped into the country.
The indication was given as the authority announced that there was sufficient volume of petrol in the country to last the citizens for 20 days.
During a stakeholders’ meeting with the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Limited, in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, stated that a technical team had been inaugurated to manage the situation.
Ahmed said, “Today, I am happy to say that loading is ongoing at the various depots in the country because we have been able to identify, isolate and quarantine the limited PMS that was affected by the methanol volume discovered.
“At the moment, six vessels ordered by the NNPC arrived the country in the last few days, carrying a total volume of 300 million litres. This is a means to close the gap that was created by those affected volume of petrol we have withdrawn from the system.
“Today, we have about 20 days sufficiency of petrol in the country. Our ideal is to have 30 days volume level because of the concern, we have to withdraw those vessels which created this gap of 90 million litres to 20 days sufficiency. But, with aggressive importation by the NNPC, this gap will be mitigated in the next few days according to the data that we obtained from the NNPC programme.
“Loading is ongoing in most of the depots, so there is no need to panic. Between now and tomorrow, the off specification product will be cleared.
“Currently, there is 39,000 Metric Tonnes vessel that is about to discharge at the Apapa Single Point Mooring and this vessels will be providing products to major oil marketers, including OVH, Total Energies, 11 plc, Conoil, and Ardova, according to loading programme received from MOMAN.
“So, once these vessels complete discharging and start pushing the products to marketers, I believe Lagos will be cleared of shortage. We have gotten that assurance from the marketers.
“Also, most of these vessels that are on ground will be providing volumes to most of the key members of DAPMAN. Of course, we have smaller vessels loading these off specification product which our technical team are trying to address.”
