The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday urged Nigerians to be patient, as it is working round the clock to ensure that the fuel crisis currently witnessed across the country end within the next two weeks.
The NNPC, in a statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Garba Deen Mohammed, said as at 1600hrs yesterday, one Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) cargo, containing 42 million litres had completely discharged, two more PMS cargos with a combined ‘Remaining on Board’ (ROB) of 44 million litres are currently discharging while another PMS cargo containing 44 million litres is berthed and awaiting discharge.
The NNPC said it has enough products lined up to ensure that the supply gap which created the problem is bridged, while it added that in order to ensure effective distribution, it is working with Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), oil majors and over 1,000 NNPC staff, nationwide to ensure it overcomes the obstacles in the distribution of the products.
The NNPC said its immediate concern was to make petrol available through the interventions and processes put in place so that the queues will disappear within the next one to two weeks, while in the long term, it is working with the Government to put in place machineries to ensure that the refineries are fixed and working optimally, while the pipelines which have been under attack for some time now are repaired.
According to the NNPC, the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement for crude would commence in the first week of April and all these coupled with the fact that the President has given his support to increase the crude supply to NNPC to ensure local sufficiency of products would go a long way to solve the problems in the short and long term.
