The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has linked the petrol queues partly to constrained movements of trucks to load the commodity in Lagos as a result of ongoing road construction in the state and assured that it was working with other marketers to end the crisis.
The company explained that the projects around Apapa and access road challenges in some parts of Lagos depots had adversely affected the loading of petrol to Abuja and other parts of the country.
Speaking on the downstream sub-sector’s situation during a media briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, NNPC’s Executive Vice-President, Downstream, Mr. Adeyemi Adetunji, clarified: “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 loadouts 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”, he added.
Adetunji assured the public that efforts were being intensified to ensure that normalcy returns to the downstream subsector very soon since the NNPCL has a fuel (PMS) stock of over 2 billion litres, which could last more than 30 days.
He stressed: “We want to reassure all Nigerians that NNPC has sufficient products, and we significantly increased products 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”, he added.
