As the national supply and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, continues to stabilize, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is advising against panic buying, emphasizing that it has more than 1.5 billion liters of petrol in stock.
Olufemi Soneye, the company’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, stated in a press release issued in Abuja on Tuesday that this stockpile ensures a 30-day product sufficiency. The company has observed that fuel queues in several states, including Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have significantly reduced, a trend that is expected to continue improving daily across other states, according to the statement.
The national oil company is also working in conjunction with the Nigerian Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), labor unions in the sector, and security agencies to combat hoarding and other unethical practices in the industry.
This update follows a recent bout of petrol scarcity that began two weeks ago, causing prices at the pump to rise to between N610 at stations owned by the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) and as high as N800 at the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) stations.
Black marketers and racketeers took advantage of the situation, raising prices to as much as N1200 per liter.