BY BANYO TEMITAYO
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has increased the daily loading of Premium Motor Spirit across the country from 550 to 1,661 trucks.
This action was taken in a bid to eliminate long queues in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru.
He quoted the Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Musa Lawan, as saying that there were about two billion litres of PMS in strategic depots across the country to keep the nation well supplied for two months if no drop of fuel was imported in that period.
“We have embarked on massive load out. Today, we trucked out 1,661 trucks from all depots across the country. Reports reaching us show that they have already started arriving at the filling stations. We believe that this would ease out the queues,” he stated.
The PPMC MD added that a 24-hour situation monitoring committee had been set up to track the movements of trucks from the depots to the various filling stations across the country, assuring that the queues would thin out in the next few days.
According to him, the disruption in the distribution chain was caused by the strike embarked upon by Petroleum Tanker Drivers over compensation.
He assured that normalcy would soon return to the filling stations, following the intervention of the Group Managing Director of NNPC, the suspension of strike and the resumption of loading, including the extension of loading time.
Recall that the GMD’s intervention on Tuesday led to the suspension of the strike by the PTD for one week.
Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, had also said, after a meeting at the State House that with the resumption of loading, normalcy would soon return across the country.
He said the ex-depot price of petrol would remain the same for the month of May, urging marketers not to engage in an arbitrary price increase.
