The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] has debunked the rumour going round that the country may be hit by another round of petrol scarcity, says it has enough stock of the commodity to last for 38 days.
Some people have expressed the fear of a possible looming scarcity following the recent increase in fuel pump price.
Allaying the fears, one of the agencies under the corporation, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) announced that the available PMS depot stock as at July 7 is 1,469,146,806 litres with an estimated daily national demand of 38,200,000 litres is sufficient for 38 days.
The regulator announced that the cumulative depot stock is a combined number owned by the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and major independent marketers.
Lagos is listed as the state with the highest stock. As at July 6th, 2020, there are 687,932,669 litres with 54 depots and 1,303 trucks carrying an average of 33,000 litres. Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has 56,224,948 litres.
As for discharges volumes of PMS vessels by 7 July at depots. Lagos had discharged 34,224,000 litres followed by Warri at 20,453,134 and Calabar/Eket at 11,021,000 totaling 65,718,134.
The data shows that Nigeria currently has enough PMS stock and does not run the risk of a possible scarcity, at least for now. It also shows that the recent increase in fuel pump price was not due to possible looming scarcity, as some people had feared.
Recall that last week, the Federal Government increased fuel pump price to N143.80 per litre after a review of the “prevailing market fundamentals in the month of June and considering marketers’ realistic operating costs”.