By Animashaun Aminat Oluwapamilerinayo
One of the issues of critical concern to Nigeria currently is fuel scarcity, as many struggled to go to work or engage in other daily routines.
Traffic gridlocks appeared across some major parts of the city as many service lanes were closed to traffic due to queues from petrol stations.
Mr Kyari explained that the situation came about as a result of the discovery of methanol in the PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by the NNPC and its partners.
The NNPC boss said the reason tests did not reveal methanol presence was because Nigeria’s testing mechanism does not cover methanol.
He further more said “We are a law-abiding company,there is no way we could have known about the methanol presence. The only way we could have known about it is if our suppliers, in good faith, disclosed it to us,” he said.
“In this particular instance, the discovery was made by our inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations and brought it to our attention.
“Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS,” Mr Kyari said.
He noted that the NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantine them to forestall further damage.
While assuring the committee and Nigerians that measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country, he said the company had placed significant orders of over 2.1billion litres of methanol-free PMS to ensure the queues vanish in a few days.
He pledged that NNPC would cooperate with the committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to get to the root of the matter.
He expressed deep empathy with Nigerians on the current situation and assured that adequate measures have been put in place to maintain supply sufficiency and prevent future occurrence
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