By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company(NNPC) Limited has said it regrets the hardships it caused Nigerians by the importation of off-spec Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
While appearing before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari said the struggles for fuel would end by next week, adding that efforts were being made by the company to correct the anomaly.
“I was very clear during my first media review, and let me also repeat again for this purpose; first, we did not know that this product contained methanol. We absolutely did not know and your investigation will give you the reality at the end of the tunnel. Once you have this situation and you withdraw volumes in the market, you will have supply disruption and it comes with consequences.
“We are very conscious of the consequences that will come with it – the queues that you are seeing, the disruption of the economic activities that are very obvious, and the liquidated damages that can be a legal process where you may not even be able to recover your possession. So, we are aware of this. We regret this situation and it is completely unavoidable. We didn’t see it coming. I have apologised to Nigerians that we didn’t see it coming,” Kyari said.
