By Etuka Sunday
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at the weekend announced that it has pumped additional 956, 501,315 million litres of premium motor spirit (petrol) to the market as part of efforts to restore normalcy to the fuel situation in the country.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim said the Corporation currently has 24.4 days sufficiency of pms.
“The nation has 956,501,315 million litres of petrol which is equivalent to 24.4 days sufficiency and this will continue to increase to over 30 days sufficiency before the end of march, “ Dr. Ibrahim revealed.
He reassured Nigerians that the NNPC, as the nation’s supplier of last resort is working round the clock to wet the nation with petroleum products in order to mitigate the hardship encountered by motorists on fuel queues.
The NNPC spokesman called on Motorists to avoid panic buying assuring that everything humanly possible is being done to restore sanity to the supply of petrol.
He called on marketers and other players in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry to join hands with the NNPC to wet the market with the product.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have jointly cautioned petroleum marketers against hoarding and diverting petroleum products, warning that anyone caught in the net will face the full wrath of the law.
The two petroleum regulatory Agencies also called on Nigerians to show sufficient vigilance and thwart desperate efforts of some unpatriotic Nigerians who are creating artificial scarcity in the face of sufficient supplies.
In a statement by the two agencies, they assured Nigerians that they are alive to their responsibilities, with DPR threatening to withdraw the licence of any marketer found hoarding or diverting products, while PPPRA threatened to blacklist any such marketer.
PPPRA assured that it has made adequate arrangement to ensure sufficiency of all petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit, called petrol, stating that as at the weekend, the nation has 956, 501, 315 liters or 24.4 days sufficiency of PMS, adding that this will increase to over 30 days before the end of March.
