Following the distribution of over 67 million liters of PMS to marketers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Wednesday, the queues for fuel disappeared overnight in the majority of Abuja, Niger, Nasarawa, and other states.
On Wednesday, there were essentially no lines at any of the main filling stations, despite the fact that the majority of them were dispensing gasoline to the cars spotted in their different outlets.
This occurred at the same time that the NNPC disclosed that some of its 67 million liters per day of PMS supplies were being smuggled not only by trucks to neighboring nations, but also by marine boats.
On the bustling Kubwa-Zuba Expressway, a few stores, including Nipco, NNPC, Salbas, and others, were dispensing goods to drivers without any lines.
In addition, stores in Nyanya, Nasarawa State, and Zuba, Niger State, supplied goods to drivers on Wednesday with no lines, in contrast to the situation on Tuesday when there were just a few fueling stations open.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, explained the fuel supply data for the nation since January 2022 during a meeting with stakeholders in Abuja. He said, “Anytime we go below 60 million liters of evacuation consistently for more than three days, we’ll have a crisis across the country.”
“Remember, we had a situation early in 2022 when we had contaminated fuel, and our average evacuation volume dropped to 56 million liters. By increasing volumes to the market to cover the voids, we were able to ramp up. Thus, we returned to usual. As you may recall, during the October flooding, vehicles were unable to reach their destinations, especially those traveling from the South to the North, and the number of people who were evacuated fell below 60 million.
As he claimed that there was no lack of fuel entering the market, rather the items may be in the wrong location, Kyari stated that since then, NNPC has done everything necessary to keep the supply or evacuation of over 60 million liters continuously.
The fact that petrol from Nigeria is being trafficked to other nations is one thing that is also quite practical. This is public knowledge. However, it can only be accomplished by either all of us in this room or by customers,” he said.
There is no question that our petroleum travels to other nations, including in naval containers, continued Kyari. Now that we have proof that some of our clients are genuinely bringing investors to other nations, we can investigate why this is happening.
Nigerian fuel is trafficked to other nations, which is one thing that is also quite practical. This is open knowledge. However, it can only be done by either everyone in this room doing it or by others buying from us,” he said.
There is no question about the fact that our fuel travels to foreign nations in naval containers, Kyari continued. We now have proof that some of our clients are actually transporting investors to other nations, and we’ll investigate the cause of this.
