By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has appealed to Nigerians, especially motorists, to stop panic buying of premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol.
The NNPC made this plea in a statement issued on Tuesday, assuring that it has enough fuel to address the supply shortage being experienced in the country at the moment, saying there are one billion litres of the product in stock.
The NNPC Group Executive Director (Downstream), Mr Adetunji Adeyemi, was quoted in the statement as saying that, “NNPC has over one billion litres of certified PMS stock that is safe for use in vehicles and machinery.”
According to him, the NNPC is also expecting about 2.3 billion litres of petrol in the country by month-end.
“NNPC Limited wishes to reassure Nigerians that it has put adequate measures in place to accelerate the nationwide distribution of PMS earlier disrupted by the quarantine of methanol-blended petrol,” he further noted amid concerns over the scarcity of the product.
To ensure seamless access to petrol, the NNPC also directed its depots and outlets to begin 24 hours operations.
“In order to accelerate PMS distribution across the country, NNPC limited has commenced 24 hours operations at its depots and retail outlets nationwide,” he said.
He also noted the “NNPC has constituted a monitoring team with the support of the authority and other security agencies to ensure smooth distribution of petrol nationwide.”
Business Post understands that the move comes on the heels of concerns over the availability of fuel. For days, long queues have resurfaced across cities in the countries.
Observations across Nigeria show motorists spend hours trying to fill up their tanks while commuters have been left stranded.
In cities like Lagos, transport fares have been hiked and gridlock has become commonplace especially in filling stations.
Modupe Gbadeyanka