BEVERLY HILLS, November 13, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured that it has enough volume of petrol in stock to satisfy the nation’s domestic consumption requirement, noting that the prevailing fuel queues in some major cities across the country have nothing to do with the lack of supply of petroleum products.
This is in spite of the fact that Apapa in Lagos is almost grounded by tanker drivers that have waited for days to lift product from the various depots.
The truck drivers formed double lanes on the bridges leading to the depots thereby causing serious gridlock on account of lack of petrol at the depots. Motorists are finding it difficult to move on account of this gridlock, from and to Apapa.
Justine Ezeala, executive director, commercial, Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, while speaking at a press conference convened to update the public on the current fuel supply situation, said a projected volume of 1.4 billion litres of petrol were available for distribution to fuel stations across the country all through the month of November.
Ezeala said that as part of the extra measure in place to tackle the artificially induced queues, PPMC had increased the volume of petrol being trucked out to fuel stations across major cities in the country, adding that most of the 37 NNPC retail mega stations across the country had been directed to commence 24-hour service.
“NNPC Retail has 513 retail outlets all over the country, and the strategy is that every one of these stations is designed to have products at all times. In addition, we have decided that most of the mega stations will adopt 24-hours operation model and where for security reasons that cannot be met, we are going to have extended hours of operation in such location starting from 5am and end till about 10pm daily,” he said.
Oladipo Fagbola of NNPC Retail, while throwing more light on the operations of the NNPC Retail, said in addition to the commencement of the 24-hour service, the company had opened up some hotlines to enable members of the public provide useful feedback and intelligence on the operations of mega and affiliate filling stations across the country. The hotlines, according to him, include: 08057008021, 08052195801 and 08100941174.
He urged members of the public to provide useful information to assist the Corporation achieve its mandate and responsibility to the fuel consumers.
