Reps implicate AZ Petroleum in 40,000 metric tons oil scandal

The House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on Review of Pump Price of Petroleum on Tuesday uncovered 40000 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) allegedly traced to AZ Petroleum.

The chairman of the committee, Mr. Nnana Igbokwe (PDP, Imo) said the records of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) submitted to it does not in any way capture the referenced product.

“In all you submitted to us there isn’t any document showing the product. We need clarification on 20,000 product allocated to you to be in your possession picked by MT ANMOL between Febuary and March 2016 and another 20,000 unaccounted product picked by MT Bwala is also traced to you,” he said.

The committee also accused AZ Petroleum of conceding information such as denying any direct import purchase which its collected $7.5million Foreign Exchange (Forex) according to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) records to purchase PMS.

Though, the representative of AZ, Chinnoye Ogbonna admitted the transaction involving MT ANMOL but said he had no supporting documents for it and promised to avail the committee of the records as requested.

He however denied any transaction with MT Bwala, saying “I am not sure we did any transaction of such.

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“I am not in doubt of the document you have showed us but I want to believe the omission is from my office who prepared this document”, Ogbonna explained.

The chairman insisted that Mr. Ogbonna has no reason to make such omission as it was given enough time to reconcile its documents.

The records by DPR according to the committee also showed that AZ petroleum is involved in 90% of PMS transaction which involve direct import.

A-Z Petroleum Product Limited has two Tank Farms with a combined capacity of 45,000,000 liters. These Tank Farms are both located in Apapa, lagos. A-Z(Trading) is one of the major importers of Automated Gas Oil(AGO) also known as Diesel, Premium Motor Spirit, (PMS), Dual Purpose Kerosene(DPK) and various grades of Base Oil, with annual tonnage of over 350,000. Plans are in the advanced stage to replicate the manufacturing, blending and Tank Farm facilities in Ghana.