By Omotayo Edubi
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has assured Nigerians of its ability to restore sanity in the supply and distribution of quality petrol across the country within a short period.
Mallam Mele Kyari, The Chief Executive Officer/ Group Managing Director of NNPC, disclosed this on Thursday at the end of a meeting with some oil marketers to find resolution on the issues generated by the recent supply and discharge of methanol blended petrol in some Nigerian depots.
Kyari said that defaulting suppliers have been served with notice for remedial actions and NNPC is working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) to take necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations.
The NNPC CEO said that on 20th January 2022, the company received a report from its quality inspector on the presence of mix particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium.
He noted that cargo quality certificates issued at loadport (Antwerp-Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicated that the gasoline complied with Nigerian Specification.
“The NNPC quality inspectors including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G conducted tests before discharge and also showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specification,’’ he said.
Kyari noted that as a standard practice for all PMS imports to Nigeria, the said cargoes were equally certified by an inspection agent appointed by the NMDRA.
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium and our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for Percent methanol content and therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors,’’ he stated.