Following the release of approximately 67 million litres of PMS by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to marketers on Wednesday, the lines for Premium Motor Spirit, also known as gasoline, abruptly disappeared in the majority of Abuja, Niger, Nasarawa, and other states.
On Wednesday, there were essentially no lines at any of the major filling stations, despite the fact that the majority of them were dispensing gasoline to the cars seen in their various outlets.
This occurred at the same time that the NNPC disclosed that some of its 67 million liters per day of PMS supply was being smuggled not only by trucks to neighboring countries, but also by marine vessels.
On the busy Kubwa-Zuba Expressway, our correspondent saw that the Nipco, NNPC, Salbas, and a few other stores were dispensing goods to motorists and had no lines. On Tuesday, however, this was not the case.
In addition, stores in Nyanya, Nasarawa State, and Zuba, Niger State, sold goods to drivers on Wednesday with no lines, in contrast to the situation on Tuesday when there were only a few filling stations open.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, explained the fuel supply data for the nation since January 2022 during a meeting with stakeholders in Abuja. He said, “Anytime we go below 60 million litres of evacuation consistently for more than three days, we’ll have a crisis across the country.”
“We know there may not be a true so-called consumption figure, but we know the evacuation figure,” he continued. There will be a crisis any time the daily evacuation volume falls below 60 million liters.
“Remember, we had a crisis early in 2022 when we had the contaminated fuel, and our average evacuation volume dropped to 56 million liters. By adding volumes to the market to fill the gaps, we were able to ramp up. So, we returned to normal.
“I remember the flooding in October, when trucks couldn’t get to their destinations, especially moving from the South into the North, and our evacuation went below 60 million, and you can remember what happened.”
As he argued that there was no shortage of fuel entering the market, rather the products may be in the wrong location, Kyari stated that since then, NNPC had done everything possible to keep the supply or evacuation above 60 million litres consistently.
The fact that fuel from Nigeria is smuggled to other nations is one thing that is also very practical. This is public knowledge. However, it can only be accomplished by either all of us in this room or by customers,” he said.
Nigerian gasoline is smuggled using marine vessels
There is no question that our fuel travels to other nations, including in marine containers, continued Kyari. Now that we have proof that some of our clients are actually bringing investors to other nations, we can investigate why this is happening.
“This will be handled by the proper government security agencies. But this is the situation we find ourselves in. Cross-border smuggling exists; whether it takes the form of round-tripping or another name, the product leaves our nation and causes the problems we see today.
“Therefore, all of these volumes of cross-border smuggling are included in the 66 or 67 million liters that you have always seen. And that implies that your domestic market will be impacted whenever we are unable to satisfy those markets. This is the situation that we are in.
