The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has assured Nigerians of adequate supply of petroleum products across the country.

The Group General Manager Public Affairs of the Corporation, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, gave this assurance in statement where he explained that NNPC has a stock of petroleum products that could serve the country for 42 days.

“The petroleum products we have in our storage facilities right now can serve the entire country for 42 days if in that period we do not receive further supplies. But the good thing is that we are receiving supplies every day, and I can assure you that there will be enough fuel from now through the period of the Muslim and Christian festivities up to the New Year,” Ajuonuma said.

He called on members of the public to desist from panic buying as there was no reason whatsoever to entertain fears about possible fuel scarcity, adding that “the PMS stock in the country can last for 42 days, same for other products”.

Ajuonuma also called on major and independent petroleum marketers to cooperate with the NNPC to ensure that petroleum products are adequately distributed so as to get them to members of the public.

He urged marketers to desist from products hoarding and the practice of dispensing fuel with only one nozzle at their fuel stations, explaining that any marketer found doing so would have their stations closed down by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR.

 He further explained that a joint committee made up of NNPC and DPR officials has been set up to monitor the supply of petroleum products across the country.

“The committee is already at work. Members are going all over the country to monitor the supply. Any marketer found to be causing a hitch in the supply chain will be sanctioned by the committee,” he said.

Ajuonuma also called on Nigerians to disregard reports carried by Thisday on Saturday alleging that NNPC was swimming in debts and was amassing more debts through demurrage from a petroleum armada.

He said NNPC has not incurred any such debt and that the story of a petroleum armada was the figment of the reporter’s imagination.

“Any careful observer of the shipping position given by Daddo Maritime which the Thisday reporter claimed to have relied on for that report would notice that some of the vessels mentioned are small coastal vessels that carry between three to four million litres of products. These belong to major and independent marketers like MRS, Rammaniya and Zenon. These are different from international vessels that take up to 30 million litres. For the reporter to lump all of them together to misinform Nigerians is mischievous. The NNPC has at no time brought 58 vessels at a time to create a petroleum armada,” he explained.

 He explained further: “In the last three weeks we have been inundated by these blackmailing reports by Thisday on Saturday. One wonders who is paying the piper and dictating the tune. But the ethics of journalism dictate that journalists should hear from the other side and get their facts right. But these reports have fallen short of that principle.”

 Ajuonuma said the NNPC would not relent in giving accurate information to media houses which adhere to the basic tenets of journalism as its door is always open to help Nigerians understand the modus operandi of the industry.