Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has reassured Nigerians that there is an adequate supply of petroleum products across the country and urged the nations to desist from panic buying.
Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, the Group General Manager Public Affairs of NNPC said this in a statement released on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 and he also explained that there is enough product in stock to service the nation adequately for the next 42 days.
He said, “The petroleum products we have in our storage facilities right now can serve the entire country for 42 days if in that period we do not receive further supplies. But the good thing is that we are receiving supplies every day, and I can assure you that there will be enough fuel from now through the period of the Muslim and Christian festivities up to the New Year.”
Dr. Ajuonuma assured Nigerians that there was no reason for the public to entertain fears about possible scarcity and that “the PMS stock in the country can last for 42 days, same for other products”.
He urged all major and independent petroleum marketers to join hands with the NNPC to ensure that the products are adequately distributed across the country to avoid the panic.
He revealed that the NNPC and DPR officials have set up a committee to effectively monitor the supply of the products.
He said; “The committee is already at work. Members are going all over the country to monitor the supply. Any marketer found to be causing a hitch in the supply chain will be sanctioned by the committee.”
Ajuonuma urged Nigerians to disregard all claims that the NNPC is swimming in debts as alleged by Thisday newspapers on Saturday, June 27, 2015.
He said that the corporation was not owing any money and that the story was the figment of the reporter’s imagination.
“Any careful observer of the shipping position given by Daddo Maritime which the Thisday reporter claimed to have relied on for that report would notice that some of the vessels mentioned are small coastal vessels that carry between three to four million litres of products.
“These belong to major and independent marketers like MRS, Rammaniya and Zenon. These are different from international vessels that take up to 30 million litres. For the reporter to lump all of them together to misinform Nigerians is mischievous. The NNPC has at no time brought 58 vessels at a time to create a petroleum armada,” he explained.
He explained further, “In the last three weeks we have been inundated by these blackmailing reports by Thisday on Saturday.
“One wonders who is paying the piper and dictating the tune. But the ethics of journalism dictate that journalists should hear from the other side and get their facts right. But these reports have fallen short of that principle.”
He also said that the corporation would not relent in giving media houses which adhered to the basic tenets of journalism adequate information and that the NNPC does were always open to help the public understand how it operates.
