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in with 300 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) meant to close the gap created by the contaminated petrol withdrawn from depots and filling stations.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NNPC, carrying a total volume of close to 300 million litres, just to close the gap created by those vessels we have withdrawn from the system.”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