By Dipo Olowookere
The fire incident which occurred at Apapa loading jetty in the early hours of Monday, September 18, 2017, will not affect supply of petroleum products, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured motorists and other consumers of petroleum products across the country.
A statement issued yesterday in Abuja by the NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, stated that already, the state-owned oil firm has deployed a team of engineers to the jetty while the repair of the affected parts would commence immediately.
Mr Ughamadu explained that the fire was sparked from the activities of hoodlums who were scooping fuels spilled from ships discharging fuels at the jetty.
He said the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, who has been fully briefed on the incident, described the occurrence as unfortunate, assuring that NNPC has more than 1.6 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, enough to last for 48 days.
Dr Baru also said the corporation had in stock, sufficient quantity of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), otherwise referred to as kerosene, as well as Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) to serve the country.
NNPC advised motorists not to engage in panic paying, adding that they report any challenge they may have in the course of purchasing to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) which is statutorily empowered to deal with such issues.
DPR has offices located in all parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the government is working assiduously to arrive at an amicable resolution of outstanding issues with the industry unions.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka