The Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, yesterday attributed the current fuel scarcity in the country to the disruptions in the pipeline network leading to its depots.
Yakubu who made this claim while answering questions from journalists after defending the agency’s 2014 budget before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Upstream Petroleum and Gas, said the NNPC had 20 depots with pipelines stretching as long as 5,000 kilometres.
Meanwhile, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), yesterday in Abuja, said it had sanctioned 57 marketers that were found guilty of various offences ranging from hoarding of petroleum products to diversion of products and sale above approved pump price in and around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
It also clarified the statements credited to the agency during its budget defence at the Senate on Tuesday, stating that it had developed a pragmatic approach to monitoring the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) within its jurisdiction.
According to Yakubu, this type of fuel scarcity only occurs when the distribution network is breached, promising however, that the challenge is temporal as effort is being made to fix the breach.
“The best way to distribute fuel is through the pipeline network to our various depots that are all over the country. We have over 20 of them and about 5, 000 kilometres stretch of pipelines and that is the best and the most efficient way to distribute petroleum products, but when they are breached, then you have this kind of challenge.
“Making use of 1,000 kilometres per day to distribute fuel across the country is usually not the best but when we are faced with this situation, then the fall back will be the truck and that should be temporary. As soon as we fix the pipelines normalcy will be restored,” he said.