In Three Weeks, NNPC supplies 1.523bn litres of Fuel
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited latest updates on the evacuation of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, revealed that the oil firm evacuated 1.523 billion litres of PMS between May 16 and June 5, 2022 in order to keep the country fuel-rich.
Despite this huge supply volume, motorists continue to queue up daily at filling stations around Abuja and its environs, and many outlets still do not dispense petrol due to a lack of products.
Also, the presence of PMS black marketers on major roads in Abuja has remained a normal sight for weeks, as they hustle to meet the fuel supply needs of motorists but at higher prices than the regulated rate.
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Figures obtained from NNPC showed that between May 16 to 29, 2022, the oil firm recorded an average national evacuation of 69.04 million litres. This implies that NNPC evacuated about 966.56 million litres during the two-week period.
Additional data from the company indicated that it evacuated a total of 556.71 million litres between May 30 and June 5, 2022. A summation of the volumes of fuel evacuated from May 16 to June 5 showed that 1.523 billion litres was supplied across the country.
NNPC, being the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for several years, had often described itself as supplier of last resort and had continued to assure Nigerians that it had enough supply despite the queues in filling stations, particularly in Abuja.
The National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, noted that “It is due to the problem of logistics. There are products and I say this because if there are no products, you will find out that within two to three days the queues will hit Port Harcourt and Lagos,”
“Anytime you see serious scarcity is when it hits Lagos and Port Harcourt. So the problem has to do with logistics, there are concerns about gridlocks in some loading areas due to the overlapping effect of what happened in the downstream oil sector some months ago.
“But I know that the NNPC is trying as much as possible to load products to Abuja and its environs.”
Ukadike further revealed that statistics at the disposal of IPMAN showed that products were being evacuated from depots in large volumes to various parts of the country.
He said, “I want to be sincere with you on this, because if you look at most of the barges of trucks that I have their statistics which have loaded between Port Harcourt, Calabar and Lagos, you will find out that NNPC is giving more volumes and priority to marketers who are loading in these areas.
“You will also find out that in Port Harcourt depots, they are also giving priority to trucks that are going to Abuja and environs. So I believe that before long, Abuja will be wet with products.”
