The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has advised Nigerians to stop panic buying of fuel as there is enough stock to serve the entire country throughout the festive period and beyond.
Chief Executive Officer, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed gave the advice during an inspection visit to some petroleum depots in Apapa, Lagos State.
Mr Ahmed said NMDPRA has “enough stock” on shorter vessels coming into depots.
“The depots we have visited so far have been actively loading trucks,” he stressed.
According to him, “the lowest of the depots were loading about 70 trucks a day; and from 70 a day to 120 trucks a day.”
Mr Ahmed also explained that the essence of the visit was to monitor and ensure “equitable distribution of petroleum products” to address the current fuel scarcity.
The choice of Lagos is based on the fact that the state is the hub of petroleum Depots in the country, he added.
“Over 60% of the depots are located in Lagos,” he said. “We have faced the issue of scarcity across the nation. I found it necessary that as NMDPRA boss, we should come and ensure that there are even distributions across the nation of petroleum products, especially gasoline.”
He expressed optimism that the fuel scarcity would soon be a thing of the past as most of the facilities had enough stock and were dispensing to tankers without restriction.
The managements of the six major petroleum Depots visited and their subsidiaries said they have enough stock and would continue to dispense the product.
While the facility with the least supply had 2 million liters of fuel, the biggest one had 28 million liters.
The CEO of NIPCO plc, Suresh Kumar reassured the regulatory body of his company’s preparedness to dispense the product.
In separate interviews, the terminal managers of the various depots insisted that they were prioritizing all the zones of the country in the distribution of the products, with at least 100 trucks daily per facility.
Reporting by Innocent Onoh; Editing by Fany Olumoye, Julian Osamoto and Tony Okerafor