Reports across states in Nigeria have revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) kept its promise to eliminate fuel queues during the Christmas and New Year festivals.
Situation reports from different filling stations across Nigeria revealed that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, was in sufficient supply to ensure energy security during the festive period.
Visits across several filling stations in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Enugu, Bauchi, and Kano indicated the availability of products, and there was the absence of queues.
In Umuahia, Abia State, petrol stations operate at full capacity, with motorists expressing huge satisfaction with the availability of PMS and other products.
Motorists seamlessly drove into the filling stations to buy the product in other parts of the country, reports revealed.
Industry observers opined that the development underscores NNPCL’s capacity to ensure energy security in the country as well as a testament to its plan to fulfil promises to Nigerians.
NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, had before the festive season assured Nigerians of a sufficient supply of products to last through the season.
Soneye quoted the NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, to have said that it was crucial to reassure Nigerians of a sufficient supply to safe security to the fullest extent possible.
Recall that during a recent courtesy visit by Kyari to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the NNPCL boss said, “By the creation of the National Assembly, NNPC Ltd. is saddled with the responsibility of guaranteeing Nigeria’s energy security, which is critical to national security.
“We have made a robust plan for the forthcoming end-of-year festivities and beyond. We do not see any shortages in the petroleum products supply for the period.”
The Kyari-led NNPCL has ramped up efforts to eliminate long queues at filling stations in the festive run-up to Christmas and the New Year 2024.
Some filling stations were reportedly hoarding products with black marketeers exploiting the situation.
In the past, the activities of operators who hoard products and black-market operators induced severe hardship on Nigerians with high implications on transportation costs.
The Bola Tinubu administration began a reform on May 29, 2023, when the president announced the removal of fuel subsidy.
The bold initiative to remove fuel subsidies, which gulped over N4trn in 2022, has put the nation’s oil industry in line with the post-Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) regime.
According to the Federal Government, as of November 2023, Nigeria saved about N1.45tn from earnings generated from the removal of subsidy on PMS.
The gains reflected in the rise witnessed in Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursement, which is shared between the federal, state, and local governments.
