Coming on the heels of the recent fuel scarcity in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its downstream subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), have said that normalcy is being restored in the distribution of petrol across the country.
This is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by Dr Omar Ibrahim, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC.
According to the statement, Managing Director of PPMC, Prince Haruna Momoh, has appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream to give brief it on the fuel situation in the country.
“With respect to fuel situation in the country today, the NNPC/PPMC and other marketers are jointly supplying fuel to the market.’’
Momoh pointed that the long queues are beginning to disappear from most of the filling stations across the states.
“Based on the 40 million litres national daily consumption, the NNPC/PPMC is responsible for 50 per cent of the allocation from the Petroleum Products and Pricing Regulatory Agency.
“Other marketers are responsible for the other 50 per cent.
“The NNPC/PPMC as the supplier of last resort ensured that when marketers withdrew from supplying, the country was sustained with the 50 per cent supplied from the inland and marine strategic reserves,’’ he said.
He explained that the NNPC/PPMC had to dip into its strategic reserves to keep the country wet with the product.
“As at today, the country has 14 days sufficiency and with the involvement of marketers in the importation of fuel, the strategic reserve will be restocked to 30 days sufficiency by month end.’’
However, he stated that the NNPC/PPMC maintained inland and marine strategic reserves so as to ensure energy sufficiency in line with the corporation’s mandate.
On the cause of the recent “tightness’’ in fuel supply, Momoh attributed the problem to the delay of subsidy payment to oil marketers.
He said that the Major Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria suspended importation of petroleum products to the country because of the delay.
Momoh, however, said that the marketers had recently been paid the subsidy claims for the third and fourth quarters of 2013 to the tune of N41 billion.
He said with this development, the marketers had stepped up supply of the product to the market.