Threat by oil marketers to shut down depots over unpaid subsidy may not cause scarcity of petrol as the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) promised to make the product abundantly available across the country.

During an oversight visit to the NNPC headquarters in Abuja yesterday, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Joseph Akinlaja, urged the corporation to ensure that Nigerians travel effortlessly at this period of the year.

The marketers had threatened to shut down their depots if government failed to pay the subsidy arrears owned them, a situation, which could trigger scarcity of petroleum products.

But the NNPC said as part of the zero-scarcity strategy, it had over 170 million litres of PMS in stock at some of its depots across the country following successful rehabilitation of the facilities along with connecting pipelines to forestall dependence on private sector depots.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, reassured Nigerians of the corporation’s preparedness to ensure zero-scarcity of petroleum products during the festive season and beyond.

Represented by NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Henry Ikem Obih, Baru lauded the House committee for its support when there was fuel supply hiccups from November 2017 to the early part of this year.
He disclosed that adequate measures have been deployed to avert any form of supply challenge, stressing that even if NNPC were to stop importing fuel as from today, there was enough stock of petrol in the country to last for 45 days.

Akinlaja said the strategies deployed so far to make petroleum products available to Nigerians throughout the end of year festivities and beyond was commendable.

“We are impressed by the presentation and we are sure there will be no war room here again because of products scarcity. You have done very well and I’m happy that Nigerians are going to travel effortlessly at this period of the year.”