Abuja fuel queues disappear, NNPC pumps 67 million liters

Queues for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly referred to as petrol, suddenly disappeared in most parts of Abuja, Niger, Nasarawa and other states on Wednesday, following the release of about 67 million liters of PMS by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to marketers.

Virtually all of the major gas stations that previously had long queues were free of queues on Wednesday, as most filled up on the cars seen at their various outlets.

This came as the NNPC revealed that some of its daily supply of 67 million liters of PMS was being smuggled not only by trucks to neighboring countries, but also by seagoing vessels.

Our correspondent noted that the Nipco, NNPC, Salbas and some other outlets on the busy Kubwa-Zuba Expressway were distributing products to motorists and had no queues. But that was not the case on Tuesday.

Outlets in Nyanya, Nasarawa state, and Zuba, Niger state, also sold products to motorists and had no queues on Wednesday, unlike the previous day, when very limited service stations operated.

Explaining the fuel supply data for the country since January 2022, at a meeting with stakeholders in Abuja, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC, Mele Kyari said: “Every time we have been consistently below 60 million liters of evacuation for more than three days, come , we will have a crisis across the country.”

He added: “We know there may not be a valid so-called consumption figure, but we know the evacuation figure. Whenever the evacuation rate falls below 60 million liters per day, you have a crisis.

“Remember, in early 2022, when we had the contaminated fuel, the evacuation dropped to an average of 56 million liters and we had a crisis. We managed to ramp up by adding volumes to the market to fill the gaps. So we reached normalcy.

“I remember in October when the flood happened, trucks couldn’t go to their destination, especially from the south to the north and our evacuation fell below 60 million, and you can remember what happened.”

Kyari stated that NNPC has since done everything possible to keep the supply or output consistently above 60 million litres, as he claimed that there was no shortage of fuel entering the market, but that the products may have been misdirected.

“What is also very practical is that the fuel is smuggled from Nigeria to other countries. This is no secret. But it can only be done by all of us in this room or by people who buy from us,” he said.

Nigerian petrol is smuggled via seagoing vessels

Kyari continued: ‘So there is no doubt that our fuel ends up in other countries, including in sea containers. We now have evidence that some of our clients are actually bringing investors to other countries and we will get to the bottom of this.

“The competent security services of the government will handle this. But this is the reality we are dealing with. You have cross-border smuggling, in the form of tours or whatever we call it, the product leaves our country and creates the challenges we see today.

“So the 66 or 67 million liters that you’ve always seen includes all of these, the cross-border smuggling volumes. And it means that every time we fail to satisfy those markets, it will affect your domestic market. This is the reality we are dealing with.”