Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) during an engagement with Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited led by its CEO/Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, organised by the Committee on the current fuel situation in the country, Wednesday
House Committee to ‘handle’ companies responsible for methanol-blended petrol, as Kyari assures normalcy ‘in few days’
Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director, NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari has expressed deep empathy with Nigerians on the current scarcity situation in the country occasioned by the recall of four cargo-load of methanol-laden petrol from the market.
This is also as the NNPC Limited chief assured that adequate measures have been put in place to maintain supply sufficiency and prevent future occurrence.
Briefing Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) during an engagement with Management of NNPC Limited, organised by the Committee on the current fuel situation in the country, Wednesday, Kyari explained that the scarcity came about as a result of the discovery of methanol in the PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria under the subsisting commercial contract operated by NNPC and its partners.
According to the CEO, the reason why tests did not reveal methanol presence was because Nigeria’s specifications do not include methanol.
Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) during an engagement with Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited led by its CEO/Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, organised by the Committee on the current fuel situation in the country, Wednesday
“We are a law-abiding company. There is no way we could have known about the methanol presence. The only way we could have known about it is if our suppliers, in good faith, made the disclosure to us
In this particular instance, the discovery was made by our inspection agents who noticed the emulsification at the filling stations and brought it to our attention.
”Subsequent investigation revealed that the four cargoes which are all from the same source also contained methanol-blended PMS,” the CEO added.
He said NNPC then moved swiftly to trace all the affected products and quarantine same.
While assuring the Committee and Nigerians that measures have been put in place to accelerate fuel supply and distribution in the country, he said the company had placed significant orders of over 2.1 billion liters of methanol-free PMS to ensure the queues vanish in few days.
He further pledged that NNPC would co-operate with the Committee and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to get to the root of the matter.
Responding, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya assured Nigerians that his group will ‘handle’ companies that imported methanol-blended Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into the country.
Gaya was responding to a question from one of the Committee members in that regard.
