NNPC, Reps assure Nigerians of fuel availability during Yuletide

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the House of Representatives have assured Nigerians that there will be no incidence of fuel scarcity during the upcoming Christmas period and even up to the New Year.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya, gave the assurance yesterday, in Lagos, during an inspection tour of the newly-rehabilitated Ijegun-Egba access road.

The road project was funded by the petroleum product depot owners operating in the community to help alleviate the plight of the residents, and also ease movement of petroleum products in and out of the community. Speaking to journalists at the tour, Kyari who led the inspection team to the area, said over 2.6 billion litres of petrol was available to carry Nigerians throughout the festive season.

He, however, allayed fear of any scarcity of fuel arising from distribution glitch, saying the corporation has a robust supply plans to make sure such does not occur.Kyari said: “We have over 2.6 billion litres of product in tank and in marine in the country, PMS in particular. We have a robust supply plan that stretches well across the Christmas period and into the New Year and actually forever. Our plans are robust, so we have no fear what so ever of any supply disruption, as Nigerians will go to Christmas peacefully.”

He said the era of sharp practices by unscrupulous persons in the supply and distribution activities has gone, adding: “I have never seen this level of alignment of stakeholders as we see today, and I know that those sharp practices of the past are gone for good.”

Commenting on the intervention by depot owners on the Ijegun road, Kyari said: “Definitely respite has come… There is a wider engagement of all stakeholders including NNPC, the Federal Ministry of Works, the Deport Owners, and the Lagos State Government to make sure that we have a lasting solution to this.”

According to him, up to 20 million litres of white product are loaded out of from Ijegun depots every day.Also, Gaya, who said he would go back to the House to intimate his colleagues about what he had seen, however, said: “We assure Nigerians, we will make sure that we do everything possible to make things very easy for Nigerians in this festive season”.The National President, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Williams Akporeha, pledged its commitment to support the NNPC and the Nigerian Army Corps of Engineers to put an end to challenges hindering the downstream sector.

The Chairman, Ijegun-Egba, Satellite  Tank Farm Owners Association and Managing Director, Emadeb Energy,  Debo Olujimi, expressed satisfaction with the level of support and collaboration from the NNPC and other stakeholders in ensuring that the challenges of operators were addressed.He said: “Well, we are very happy as depot owners. A combination of all the depots is close to 600 million litres, and as I speak to you, on the average, we are doing between 18 and 20 million litres. The collaboration in terms of what we need, in terms of support, we are already getting it from the NNPC, the Lagos State Government and every stakeholder.

“The way things are going, for the end of the year, there will strictly be robust and 24 hours operations out of here. Where we have issues on the road, the Lagos State in combination with the federal government and NNPC here are already taking care of it. Going forward, we can only assure the residents and all the stakeholders within Ijegun that everything here will be smooth and that their lives are safe and secured.”