We Have 20 Days Petroleum Sufficiency – NMDPRA To Tinubu

Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), in a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, disclosed that there is a guarantee of 20 days of petroleum sufficiency for the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, said this on Tuesday, after meeting with Nigeria’s president to discuss fuel scarcity that hit Abuja and other parts of Nigeria.

Ahmed told President Tinubu, in the Presidential Villa, that the recorded fuel scarcity was caused by logistics disruption caused by rough seas and flooding caused by rain in Lagos.

Ahmed said the 20 days includes 12 days offshore and over 8 days onshore of petroleum sufficiency.

“I briefed the President that we have like 20 days petroleum sufficiency, 12 days offshore and over 8 days sufficiency of petroleum onshore,” Ahmed said.

Giving further details on what led to the scarcity and how logistics affected loading of petrol, he said that the offshore, ship-to-ship loading could not continue due to the volatile nature of the high sea at the time.

“Obviously offshore, there was a lot of soil and destabilization and it was very difficult to continue our STS, that is shipping operations in terms of ship-to-ship transfer because of safety. So the ship-to-ship transfer operations were suspended because of the volatile nature of the high sea at the time.

“So those two days of delays, because of safety reasons, created that gap and that gap manifested. On top of that as well, there were floods in Lagos that disrupted truck loading and truck movement because of the floods so the trucks were now more likely held back,” Ahmed said.

Naija News had reported that the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), also blamed the recorded fuel scarcity on rainfall and bad roads.

National President of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi, also clarified that marketers would make fuel available to Nigerian consumers as soon as possible.

Maigandi, however, disclosed that price adjustment may be observed across the nation as depots price for marketers also increased.