OREANDA-NEWS. October 22, 2012.  The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has warned petroleum products marketers against products diversion and hoarding.

The corporation’s Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Fidel I. Pepple, who disclosed this to journalists on Wednesday explained that NNPC through the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has released enough petrol to sufficiently meet the demand in Abuja and its environs and that the continued existence of long fuel queues at filling stations across the city makes the warning necessary.

“Going by the quantity of PMS that has been released by PPMC from the Kaduna Refinery for distribution to Abuja, we are not supposed to have queues at all in any filling station. On Monday, 71 trucks of PMS were loaded from the Refinery in Kaduna designated for Abuja, but the report we have shows that only 18 trucks arrived Abuja. On Tuesday (yesterday), 45 trucks of PMS were loaded from Kaduna to Abuja, only 25 arrived. This clearly shows that some marketers are diverting the product thereby causing unnecessary hardship to Nigerians,” he explained. 

He said NNPC has alerted the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) about the development and that PPMC is working in conjunction with the DPR to unravel the identity of those involved in the unpatriotic act, adding that all those found to be involved will be severely sanctioned.

Mr. Pepple called on motorists to avoid panic buying as there is enough stock of PMS in the country to meet demands and that NNPC was doing everything within its powers to resolve the distribution challenge being experienced as a result of pipeline vandalism.