A petroleum expert, Chief Martin Onovo, has described Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, as incompetent.
The former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), in an interview with SaharaReporters, said he holds this view of the NNPC GMD due to a comment the latter made about the country’s testing of methanol content in petroleum products.
Last Wednesday, during a media briefing, Kyari, amid the adulterated fuel saga in the country, said the country does not test for methanol in petrol.
The GMD had claimed methanol-blended petroleum motor spirit (PMS) was imported from Antwerp, Belgium, by four direct sales direct purchase (DSDP) suppliers, namely MRS, Oando, Emadeb Consortium, and Duke Oil, a subsidiary of NNPC.
According to him, the off-spec petrol cargoes were able to get into the country because Nigeria does not usually test for methanol content.
Kyari explained that quality inspectors certified the product to have met the country’s specifications at the point of import in Belgium and at the point of arrival in Nigeria.
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium and our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for per cent methanol content and therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors,” Kyari said.
But in his reaction, during an interview with SaharaReporters, Onovo described this as a “professional error” and “incompetence” on the part of Kyari.
Onovo said he was very ashamed when he heard Kyari’s statement as the latter ought to know better due to his position at the NNPC.
According to Onovo, the Quality Certificate has a compositional analysis that tests for everything including methanol as the component cannot be tested in isolation.
He said: “That Nigeria has the capacity to test for methanol, is very false, I was ashamed when I heard the GMD of NNPC say that.
“I don’t know why people in public office in Nigeria always think that they’re talking to illiterates. I was shocked, if, at the level of a GMD, we can have that level of professional error or incompetence, it is shocking.
“And then that’s why you understand why the country is not going well because mediocrity can never outperform excellence.
“Normally, the Quality Certificate has a compositional analysis, that is the right way to do it and that is the way it is done. You don’t go testing for methanol alone, you’ll have the full record of whatever is contained in the product and whatever, in what quantity each one is contained.
“That is how quality certificates are made and I am shocked that the GMD of NNPC does not know how quality certificates are made. Quality certificates are made for products with the full identification of components and their quantities and that is how specifications are guaranteed.
“I’m surprised he said their test schedules do not test for methanol; you don’t go testing for a single component. These are multi-component products.”
