The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is blaming the current fuel scarcity in the country on the vandalisation of the pipeline at Arepo village.
Manager Public Affair, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, said “the pipeline at Arepo carries between 10 million and 11 million litres of fuel per day to Lagos and its environs and some part of the states in the North.”
He said that since the vandalisation, supply has been disrupted.
He pointed out that because of security reasons, NNPC is not prepared to go back and effect repairs on the pipeline.
It will be recalled that officials of the NNPC were attacked and killed during a visit to control the spill on the damaged pipeline in Arepo.
The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Fidel Pepple, told journalists that Corporation has bridged the supplies from Atlas-cove and Apapa axis as well as between Apapa and Ilorin to ensure that the scarcity is minimised.
According to the NNPC spokesman, the bridging at this point is to ensure that there are no shortages in Lagos and Ilorin environs as there have been fears that the government wants to increase the pump price of the product but NNPC officials dismissed such fears saying government has not made such intention known to marketers.
“I want to assure Nigerians that NNPC has stepped up fuel supply to marketers and distributors for effective and efficient supply of fuel to Nigerians. As I speak, we have raised the daily supply of fuel from Folawiyo tank farm from 150 tankers to 250 tankers, MRS from 100 to 200 tankers, Capital Oil to 300 tankers, NIPCO to 70 tankers and AITEO to 100 tankers,” Mr. Pepple said.
Barely weeks after a looming fuel crisis was averted following a truce between the Federal Government and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) vehicular queues surfaced in some fuel stations in Lagos, Abeokuta and the Federal Capital City.
In stations where the products are sold, motorists were subjected to buying from one pump thereby causing panic and anxiety.
Some motorist said they have to pay as much as N200 before they were attended at some filling stations.
When contacted, the Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Fidel Pepple said the corporation is studying the situation and will react in due course.
Meanwhile, the NUPENG president, Igwe Achese has taken a swipe at the federal government for failing to revamp the nation’s refineries adding that private depot and jetty owners are not importing products presently.
And in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, long vehicular queues were seen across the metropolis, with some of the filling stations dispensing fuel.
A visit to the NNPC mega station located along the Governor’s Office and other stations revealed that motorists spend long period of time before getting the commodity.
Other filling stations across the metropolis were under lock and key forcing buyers to rush to where the commodity was available.
This situation has however led to the hike in the intra transport fare in the state capital
