In a bid to dissuade Nigerians from panic buying, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is insisting that there is no scarcity of fuel as being projected by the return of queues in petrol stations in some parts of the country.
NNPC said Friday that it has enough stock of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, to serve the needs of Nigerians across the country for about 17 days and urged Nigerians to desist from panic buying of the product.
The Executive Director, Commercial, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, Mr. Justin Ezeala, said the country currently has 656.376 million litres of PMS in its various storage platform, while it is expecting additional 756.99 million litres of the product before the end of November.
Giving a breakdown of the figures, Ezeala explained that 66.81 million litres are in PPMC depots; 117.48 million litres in PPMC throughputs depots; 427.971 million litres of marine stock and 44.112 million litres are in the depots of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN.
In addition, he stated that 380.99 million litres are expected to be brought in by the PPMC through import, between now and the end of the November, while other marketers are expecting 376 million litres.
He was confident in assuring that the current stock available in its depots and reserves are enough to serve the country for 16 days, while the products that are being awaited in the next couple of days would serve the country for 35 days minimum.
Ezeala disclosed that the NNPC and the PPMC have increased fuel supply to Abuja and environs and also across the country and would lift about 180 truckloads of PMS to Abuja from about 135 trucks daily.
With these disclosures, he encouraged Nigerians to avoid queuing for fuel if they have no urgent need to buy the product.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
