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The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) has said that at least six vessels of petrol ordered by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company(NNPC) Limited has arrived in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO), NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, disclosed this on Wednesday, adding that the vessels came in with 300 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol, meant to close the gap created by the contaminated petrol withdrawn from depots and filling stations.
NMDRA had on Tuesday said the limited quantity of petrol with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification was discovered in the supply chain.
Ahmed, said the agency had been able to work with the technical team that included Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, NNPC and Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria to address the issue.
He said: “Today, I am happy to say that loading has been going on in most of the depots because we have been able to identify, isolate and quarantine the limited amount of gasoline that was affected by the methanol volume that was discovered.
“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NNPC, carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres, just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.”
According to him, the country currently has petrol volume in-store that can last for 20 days.
“Our ideal days of sufficiency is 30 but because of the concern that made us withdraw the vessels which 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,” Ahmed said
The CEO also explained that there is a 9,000MT vessel at Apapa port that is about to discharge to major marketers including OVH, TotalEnergies, 11 Plc, Conoil and Ardova Plc.
“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 key members of DAPPMAN,” Ahmed added.