BREAKING: NNPC Allays Fuel Scarcity Fear Over Lagos Jetty Fire Incident

As fuel queues return to some part of the country today, Monday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has assured motorists and other consumers of petroleum products nationwide that the fire incident which occurred at Apapa loading jetty at the early hours of today will not affect supply of petroleum products.

Fuel queues surfaced in most filling stations today, with some having their gate shut against motorists and other fuel users following fear that petroleum products would be scarce.

The fear of possible scarcity is coming on backdrop of the strike action declared by United Labour Congress, ULC, which has NUPENG as its affiliate.

BigPen Online recalls that the ULC, had on Wednesday threatened that workers in the country would embark on an indefinite strike if the Federal Government failed to meet its demands by Friday.

NUPENG, as affiliates of ULC, had on Sunday warned that loading of products, including aviation fuel, would stop from today (Monday) with the indefinite strike action declared by ULC.

It was learnt however that the Lagos Jetty fire incident at the early hours of today had compounded the fear of the possible scarcity of the products.

The fire was sparked from the activities of hoodlums who were scooping fuels spilled from ships discharging fuels at the jetty.

Industry source however said NNPC has deployed a team of engineers to the jetty while the repair of the affected parts would commence immediately.

NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who has been fully briefed on the incident, described the occurrence as unfortunate, assuring that NNPC has more than 1.6billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, enough to last for 48 days.

Dr. Baru also said the Corporation also had in stock, sufficient quantity of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), otherwise referred to as kerosene, as well as Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) to serve the country.

NNPC advised motorists not to engage in panic paying, adding that they report any challenge they may have in the course of purchasing to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) which is statutorily empowered to deal with such issues.

DPR has offices located in all parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the government is working assiduously to arrive at an amicable resolution of outstanding issues with the industry unions.

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