NNPC breaks silence over fuel scarcity in Lagos and other cities

The current fuel shortage in Lagos, Abuja, and some other major cities has now been explained by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

The NNPC has laid the blame for the lack of fuel and long lines at the filling stations on some road improvements taking place in Lagos, in what appears to be their first public response to the crisis in the downstream oil business.

Adeyemi Adetunju, executive vice president for downstream at NNPC, announced this during a news conference on November 29, 2022, in Abuja.

Adetunju did point out that the bottleneck is reducing as a result of the NNPC scheduling trucks and vessels to unconstrained depots while closely monitoring large-scale load outs from depots to other states.

‘’The recent queues in Lagos are largely due to ongoing road infrastructure projects around Apapa and access road challenges in some parts of Lagos depots. The gridlock is easing out and NNPC has programmed vessels and trucks to unconstrained depots and massive load outs from depots to various states are closely being monitored.

“Abuja is impacted by the challenges recorded in Lagos. NNPC retail and key marketers have intensified dedicated loading into Abuja to restore normalcy as soon as possible.” Adetunju said.

Nigerians were reassured by the top officer of the NNPC that measures are being made to guarantee that normalcy returns as soon as feasible.

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He said, “We want to reassure all Nigerians that NNPC has sufficient products, and we significantly increased product loading, including 24-hour operations in selected depots and extended hours at strategic stations to ensure products sufficiency nationwide.’’

“We are also working with the NMDPRA, MOMAN, DAPPMAN, IPMAN, NARTO, PTD, and other industry stakeholders to ensure normalcy is returned.”

The NNPC, according to Adetunju, “holds a national gasoline storage of over 2 billion liters. This is sufficient for more than 30 days.

Nigeria is experiencing a persistent fuel shortage, which has resulted in lengthy lines at gas stations in numerous regions of the nation, leaving many commuters and drivers stuck.

A few days ago, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) announced that it was collaborating with the NNPC to enhance the distribution of gasoline throughout the nation.

According to the MOMAN, association members would be working overtime and on the weekend to fill in product supply shortfalls and ship out more products than usual.