Malam Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director (CMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC), has reassured the public that there will be enough Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to meet demand at filling stations across the country.
Kyari offered an upbeat appraisal of the problem during a meeting with the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petrol Tanker Drivers (PTD) in Abuja on Wednesday.
During the ceremony, he stated, “We would like to assure Nigerians that we have a enough supply of Premium Motor Spirit.”
“Currently, we have over 1.7 billion litres of fuel in our hands both in marine and on land.
“This will ensure that scarcity created by panic buying will now be freed so that normalcy will return to filling stations across the country.”
He also indicated that the regulatory authority had started loading and dispatching trucks at all of its depositories to alleviate the current shortage.
“This means that we have the capacity to load out excessively from all depots. We have put in place measures to ensure 24hrs loading in all depots.”
He apologized to Nigerians for the challenges they had at gas stations and urged customers to simply purchase the amount of petrol they required.
Last month, the NNPC’s CEO reaffirmed the company’s commitment to resolving the issue and expressed optimism that the crisis would be resolved.
“The situation you’re seeing today, I can assure you by next week, it will vanish. All things being equal, because of distribution issues that we may not have control over, including the movement of trucks, otherwise, we have robust supply arrangement to make sure we exit this situation,” he said as of then.
Despite his assurances, huge lines formed in gas stations around the country days after the crisis appeared to be under control. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there are fears that the scarcity may persist. The warring region’s oil ships have been in the sea for longer than predicted.