... Increases Supply to Other States Across Nigeria
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
successfully cleared the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol
queues in Abuja and Lagos with the commitment to increase truck-outs to other
states to restore normalcy to the petrol supply and distribution across the
country.
Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti
Baru, made this disclosure Friday after visiting some filling stations in
Abuja.
“As far as truck out is concerned, we have more than doubled
the number of trucks that are going out into the country. Yesterday, we loaded
and distributed products from coastal and strategic inland depots like Jos. We
loaded I,733 trucks yesterday and the actual normal number of trucks we
required to keep the country wet is about 700 but we have been doing 800 to 850
trucks before the petrol scarcity. We have stepped up the number of truck-outs
to 1,733 as a minimum and we have sustained this for a week and there will be
more than enough products for motorists in the weeks ahead,” Dr. Baru revealed.
The NNPC helmsman said the Corporation would remain focused
at ensuring that all the other state capitals are wet with petrol latest by
Sunday.
Dr. Baru said that the petrol scarcity was self-inflicted
following the sharp practices of some unscrupulous marketers who took to
hoarding and diversion of the product.
“We have maintained our position that this scarcity is
self-inflicted by marketers. The NNPC has more than 30 day sufficiency of
supply of petroleum products, especially PMS and at the current consumption
rate of about 27 to 28million litres per day, we should be very comfortable
until the end of January 2018 even if we don’t import a drop of petrol into
this country,” Dr. Baru reassured.
Dr. Baru appealed to marketers who have diverted petroleum
products to please be mindful of their brothers and sisters and stop
profiteering, stressing that they bought PMS at N133.28k per litre apart from
their profit margin and a transportation cost of N7.20k per litre.
He urged the marketers to listen to the voice of reasoning
to avoid the long arm of the law catching up with them, adding that the
Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigeria Security and Civil
Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been mandated to invoke the law against any
defaulting marketers.
He appealed to motorists to cooperate with the NNPC in
restoring normalcy to the petrol situation by reporting marketers who sell PMS
above N145 per litre to the emergency lines of the DPR and NSCDC.
The highpoint of the visit to the filling stations by the
GMD and his management team was the handing over of two motorists who were
caught with 30 jerrycans in their navy colour golf saloon car to NSCDC for
prosecution at the NNPC Super Mega Station at Kubwa expressway.
0 Comments