NNPC distributes 387.5m litres of petrol to normalize supply chains 

Interestingly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) has released details of how it distributed a total of 387.59 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit to Nigerians in its response to handling the supply gap caused by the importation of methanol-blended petrol into the country by four oil marketers.

The product was evacuated from the depot and distributed to Nigerians through retail filling stations within a one-week period covering February 14 to 20.

The release of the 387.59 million litres by the NNPC to Nigerians, represents an average daily distribution of 55.4 million litres.

The figures were released by the NNPC on Wednesday through its verified twitter account.

A breakdown of the NNPC weekly national evacuation report showed that 80 per cent of all the evacuation took place at the top 20 high loading depots.

It stated that the remaining 20 per cent of the evacuation took place at the other loading depots.

The top 20 high loading depot that were used to evacuate the PMS are Pinnacle-Lekki which evacuated the highest volume of 70.8 million litres, NIPCO (22.6 million litres), AITEO (22.3 million litres), Swift (16 million litres), 11 PLC (15.9 million litres), Bovas Bulk (15 million litres) and Frado (14.6 million litres).

There is also Keonamex which evacuated PMS of 13.7 million litres, MRS Ltd (11.9 million litres), Rainoil (11.6 million litres), AYM Shafa (11.2 million litres), TSL (11.2 million litres), Rainoil Lagos (11.2 million litres), and Matrix (10 million litres).

The rest are Conoil Lagos which distributed 9.7 million litres of petrol, AA Rano (8.8 million litres), Bluefin (8.4 million litres), HOGL (8.2 million litres) Ibafon Calabar (8 million litres) and Mainland (7.5 million litres).

The one-week period of February 14 to 20 this year was the most challenging time for motorists because of the supply gap that the country experienced as a result of the importation of the methanol-blended petrol into the country.

The supply of the 387.59 million litres by the NNPC to Nigerians was responsible for the disappearance of fuel queues last weekend in Lagos, Abuja and other states of the federation.

Filling stations that had been shut for over a week due to supply gap, eventually opened for operations last Sunday.

Retail outlets in the satellite towns of Abuja such as Bwari, Lugbe, Kubwa, Zuba, Kuje and others that had experienced product shortage were seen dispensing petrol to motorists last Sunday.

The methanol-blended product, according to the NNPC, was imported into the country by four oil marketers through four Premium Motor Spirit cargoes under the NNPC’s Direct Sales Direct Purchase arrangement.

The four companies that supplied the methanol blended petrol are MRS which made the importation through a vessel named MT Bow Pioneer, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium through vessel identified as MT Tom Hilde, Oando through a vessel named MT Elka Apollon, and Duke Oil.

The product was purchased from International Trader, LITASCO and delivered through the LITASCO loading port terminal in Antwerp in Belgium.

This newspaper had reported that immediately the discovery was made, the NNPC quickly stopped oil marketers from distributing the petrol.

The NNPC intervened by ensuring that the methanol blended petrol did not get to the filling stations.

In achieving this, the NNPC made sure that all the cargoes that were suspected to have methanol were quickly quarantined.

Similarly, those cargoes that have been discharged were also quarantined, while all the trucks that have left the depots were tracked and intercepted.

The NNPC also restocked the depot with more cleaner fuels.

In addition, the NNPC also intensified efforts at increasing the supply of petrol into the market in order to bridge any unforeseen supply gap.

As part of its strategy to restock, the NNPC had stated that over 2.3 billion liters of PMS had been scheduled for delivery before the end of February 2022.

This, the NNPC stated, will restore sufficiency level above the national target of 30 days.