By Innocent Onoh
Nigerians have been advised to stop engaging in panic buying of petrol as there is enough stock to serve the entire country throughout the festive period and beyond.
The Chief Executive Officer , Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA,
Mr. Farouk Ahmed gave the advice during an inspection visit to some petroleum depots in Apapa, Lagos.
“We have enough stock on shorter vessels coming into depots.
“The depots we have visited so far have been active loading trucks.
“The lowest of the depots said they were loading about 70 trucks a day. From 70 a day to 120 trucks a day.
“I have the comfort to tell Nigerians that the Yuletide will be celebrated with abundant supply of petroleum products”, he assured.
Mr. Ahmed explained that the essence of the visit was to monitor and ensure equitable distribution of petroleum products as part of efforts to address the current fuel scarcity.
According to Mr. Ahmed, the choice of Lagos is based on the fact that the state is the hub of petroleum Depots in the country.
“Over 60 percent of the depots are located in Lagos. We have faced the issue of scarcity across the nation. I found it necessary that as NMDPRA we should come and ensure that there is even distributions across the nation of petroleum products especially gasoline or PMS”.
He expressed optimism that the fuel scarcity would soon be a thing of the past as most of the facilities had enough stock and were dispensing to tankers without restriction.
The managements of the six major petroleum Depots visited and their subsidiaries said they have enough stock and would continue to dispense the product.
While the facility with the least supply had 2 million litres of fuel ,the biggest one had 28 million litres.
The CEO of NIPCO plc, Mr. Suresh Kumar futher reassured the regulatory body of his pledge to dispense the product.
Another depot facility owner Mr. Oyebamiji Tunji who also said they had enough supply, however blamed the scarcity on panic buying.
In a separate interviews, the terminal managers of the various depots insisted that they were prioritizing all the zones of the country in the distribution of the products, with at least 100 trucks daily per facility.
They called on the NNPC to keep up the good work by meeting their demands to avoid stock out.
The depots visited were Total Energies, Mobil, Conoil, Nipco, Aiteo and HOGL.
