By Dipo Olowookere
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Maikanti Baru, has assured consumers that the agency will ensure there was no shortage of petroleum products across the country.
Mr Baru gave this assurance on Tuesday in Abuja at the end of the 24th, 25th and 26th Annual General Meeting of its downstream subsidiaries, the Nigerian Products Marketing Company (NPMC) and the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC).
He described both subsidiaries as the “sole vehicles through which the NNPC was currently satisfying its obligation of being the supplier of last resort to the nation.”
“We have ensured that we sustain the steady supply of petroleum products across the country and we are doing this onerous task with integrity,” the GMD stressed.
According to him, the splitting of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited (PPMC) into NPMC and NPSC was to commercialize the operations of the company for the better.
Mr Baru noted that the Federal Government and the NNPC had put in place strategies to engage members of various host communities to stem incidences of pipeline infractions, adding that the efforts were yielding positive results.
The companies’ external auditors, Messrs PricewaterHouseCoopers and others, gave the NNPC subsidiary companies a clean bill of health, stressing that their financial statement and operations complied with international best practices.
It would be recalled that the recent strategic intervention of NNPC led to a 42 percent fall in the price of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) popularly called diesel and has continued to sustain the downward trend across the country.
The NNPC has also taken steps to resuscitate some of its critical pipelines and depots such as the Atlas Cove – Mosimi Depot Pipeline, Port Harcourt Refinery – Aba Depot Pipeline, Kaduna – Kano Pipeline and the Kano Depot which have enhanced efficiency in the distribution of AGO.
The agency maintained that efforts were ongoing to revamp and re-commission other critical pipelines and depots across the country.
Another area of intervention that has enhanced supply and distribution of diesel is the corporation’s robust engagement with critical downstream stakeholders such as Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) as well as Independent Petroleum Marketers, leading to the resolution of salient issues.
