NNPC To Flood The Country With Petrol In Two Days

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Saturday gave the assurance of adequate supply of petroleum products nationwide within the next two days.

Dr Omar Farouk, the NNPC General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, gave the assurance in an interview in Lagos.

He said that the corporation had taken prompt measures to eradicate queues in filling stations.

Farouk said that the NNPC had strengthened its distribution mechanism with 200 trucks daily, in addition to its usual 100 tankers.

“NNPC has taken measures to end the current fuel scarcity being witnessed in Lagos and some other parts of the country.

“Additional 200 trucks of petrol will commence loading and distribution of products on daily basis to ease the ongoing distribution challenges,’’ he said.

Farouk said that the corporation had a stock of petroleum products that could serve the country for many months.

“Currently, about 6.6 million litres of petrol is being distributed across the country on daily basis,’’ he said.

The NNPC spokesman said that one of the major challenges militating against effective distribution of petrol was the shutdown of the System 2B.

He said that the system — which is a major pipeline that evacuates between nine to 11 million litres of fuel from Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin and the northern part of the country – was shut down due to vandalism.

“I want to assure Nigerians that the NNPC has stepped up fuel supply to marketers for effective and efficient supply of fuel to Nigerians,’’ he said.

He called on members of the public to desist from panic buying, saying that there was no reason for possible fuel scarcity.

Farouk also called on the major and independent petroleum marketers to cooperate with the NNPC to ensure that petroleum products were adequately distributed.

He urged the marketers to desist from hoarding the products and dispensing fuel with only one nozzle at their filling stations.

The spokesman said that the Department of Petroleum Resources would not hesitate to close any erring filling station.

He urged that the safety and security of oil pipelines should be the collective responsibility of all Nigerians, and appealed to the citizens to make oil installations safe and secure.

Some filling stations now sell petrol at between N100 and N110 per litre in some parts of Lagos, due to scarcity