Fuel scarcity: NNPC assures of 30,000m tons daily supply

As fuel queues begin to fizzle out in the Federal Capital Territory, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has assured that a daily volume of 30,000 metric tons has been secured.

The corporation at the weekend said the volume will keep the entire country wet with petrol for March, urging motorists across the country to desist from panic buying that often results to unnecessary clusters in filling stations.

The NNPC's Group Executive Director for Investment and Commercials, Babatunde Adeniran, who disclosed this when he inspected some filling stations in Abuja, said, 'as for the product, we have products.

'The minister gave an instruction that he wants to see the supply on a 30-day basis and as I am talking to you here we have the supply for March fully and out of the whole 31 days in March we have supply for each day. Nigeria's consumption is one vessel cargo of 30,000MT per day. So, we have 31 vessels already lined up for the month of March, this is aside nine that we have currently that are discharging in various ports and jetties in Lagos, Oghara, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar. 'Part of the things NNPC has done is to make sure the refineries are back on stream, the reason some of the refineries are not working is because the pipelines that are supposed to supply crude to them are not working.'

He was accompanied by the Managing Director of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, PPMA, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue during the inspection. 'As much as we try we still have this hitch especially when a vessel is supposed to come in and the vessel doesn't come in you have a drop and when you have the drop the problem starts,' Adeniran said.

The Station Manager, Conoil, Opposite NNPC Towers, in Central Area said, 'We have seen improvement since the last few days, we received eight trucks yesterday. Today we are still expecting six and the depot chief just called to say they are still working tomorrow. National Mirror.