In view of the recent fuel scarcity that hit the nation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its downstream subsidiary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) have revealed that they have up to 1.2 billion litres of petrol in stock. This means that better days might just be ahead.
Managing Director of PPMC, Mr Haruna Momoh, released a statement that said that the NNPC had enough stocked petrol to serve the nation for another 31 days sufficiently, going by the 40 million litres daily consumption of the product in the country.
The statement read that “21 additional vessels laden with petroleum products are in offshore Lagos waiting to berth. NNPC has made adequate arrangements to ensure energy sufficiency in the country and reassured motorists that the noticeable queues at the filling stations would thin out in the days ahead”.
According to Momoh, the NNPC has also made provision for the adequate supply of diesel and kerosene which would last the nation for another 18 days. He said that as part of efforts to ensure petroleum products’ sufficiency and distribution, the NNPC embarked on aggressive Reception Depots rehabilitation in 2011.
“As at today, 18 depots out of the 23 depots have been fully recovered with the exception of Makurdi, Yola and Maiduguri due to the activities of pipeline vandals,” he said.
The PPMC MD disclosed that the corporation suffered petroleum products losses worth N40.8bn through pipeline vandalism in 2014. He also said that no business could survive such a loss and still remained a growing concern adding that there was a marginal increase in pipeline vandalism while stressing that there was a noticeable increase vandalized points as in 2013, the corporation recorded 3,517 vandalized points but in 2014, the figure increased to 3,774.
He said that “as at today, 97 pipeline vandals are undergoing prosecution”. Momoh expressed regret that since the cases started a few years ago, none of the accused persons had been convicted for economic sabotage. He called on Nigerians from all walks of life, especially those living in communities where the pipelines run through, to protect them in national interest.
