The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has listed names of firms allegedly responsible for importing adulterated petrol into the country.
Speaking after the federal government said an investigation would be carried out, NNPC’s Group Managing Director Mele Kyari said the fuel came from Antwerp in Belgium.
The NNPC which manages fuel imports through the government’s Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase vendors, listed the vendors as MRS, Oando, Duke Oil and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium.
Kyari who disclosed that tests conducted by NNPC’s quality inspectors, including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G before discharge showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specifications, further revealed that none of the tests conducted included a check to ascertain the percentage of methanol in the product before release.
He said;
“On 20th January 2022, NNPC received a report from our quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium.
“Cargoes quality certificates issued at load port (Antwerp-Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicate that the gasoline complied with Nigerian Specification.
“The NNPCquality inspectors including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G conducted tests before discharge and also showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specification.
“As a standard practice for all PMS imports to Nigeria, the said cargoes were equally certified by inspection agents appointed by the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA).
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium & our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for Percent methanol content & therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors’’
The NNPC GMD said in order to prevent the distribution of the petrol, the company promptly ordered the separation of all un-evacuated volumes and the holding back of all the affected products in transit (both truck & marine).
Kyari added;
“All defaulting suppliers have been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC Ltd is working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority to take further necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations.”
FG imports 300 million litres of Petrol to address fuel shortage
The Federal government has imported 300 million liters of petrol into the country to close the gap created by the contaminated petrol withdrawn from depots and filling stations.
The Federal Government made this known through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority NMDPRA.
The Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Farouk Ahmed, said at least six vessels of petroleum products have been ordered by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC). Ahmed said the agency has been able to work with the technical team that included the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, the NNPC and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria to address the issue.
“We have vessels that have arrived in the country recently. At least six arrived in the last few days ordered by the NNPC, carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres, just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.”he said
Ahmed added that the country currently has petrol volume in-store that can last for 20 days and that a 9,000MT vessel is currently about to discharge at Apapa port to major marketers including OVH, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Conoil, and Ardova Plc.
“Our ideal days of sufficiency are 30 but because of the concern that made us withdraw the vessels; this created the gap in our 30 days sufficiency. Again, with aggressive importation by the NNPC, this will be closed in a few days, according to the data we got from the NNPC’s import programme.
Loading is also ongoing in most of the depots that have confirmed spec products; so, there is no need for panic. Hopefully, by tomorrow, Lagos will be cleared.
So, once these vessels complete discharging and start pushing the products to marketers, I believe Lagos will be cleared by Friday. We have got that assurance from the marketers.
Also, most of these vessels will also be providing volumes to most of the members of the key members of DAPPMAN” Ahmed said
