Abuja – The House of Representatives has directed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC ) to suspend companies involved in the importation of adulterated petrol into the country.
Member of the house took the decision at the plenary on Thursday in Abuja during a debate on the incident which has led to petrol scarcity in Abuja and other parts of the country.
The NNPC Limited had named four companies that imported the adulterated petrol into the country as
MRS (MT Bow Pioneer LITASCO Terminal, Antwerp-Belgium); Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium (MT Tom Hilde – LITASCO Terminal, Antwerp-Belgium); Oando (MT Elka Apollon -LITASCO Terminal, Antwerp-Belgium);and Duke Oil (MT Nord Gainer-LITASCO Terminal, Antwerp-Belgium).
Duke Oil is a subsidiary of the NNPC Limited.
However, the NNPCL, in a statement on Thursday promised to restore sanity in the supply and distribution of quality petrol across the country within a short period.
The statement said the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari made the pledge at the end of a meeting with some oil marketers to resolve the issues generated by the recent supply and discharge of methanol blended petrol in some Nigerian depots.
” Kyari emphasized that defaulting suppliers have been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC is working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) to take necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations,” the statement said
It said the NNPCL on January 20 received a report from its quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium.
” The NNPC investigation revealed the presence of Methanol in four PMS cargoes imported by the following Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase (DSDP) suppliers
” Cargoes quality certificates issued at load Port Huron (Antwerp-Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicated that the gasoline complied with Nigerian Specification
“NNPC quality inspectors including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G conducted tests before discharge also showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specification”.
” As a standard practice for all PMS import to Nigeria, the said cargoes were equally certified by inspection agent appointed by the NMDRA.
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium and our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for percent methanol content and therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors’’ he stated. (vitalnews)
