Mele Kolo Kyari, GMD NNPC
Feb. 10, 2022
…Orders the quarantine of all un-evacuated volumes
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Wednesday, named the companies responsible for the circulation of adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the country.
The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari the product from Belgium got into the country undetected.
In a statement by the company, Kyari who spoke at a late night briefing on the problem which had led to PMS shortage and the emergence of queues in Abuja, Lagos, and several other states, said, MRS, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, Oando, and Duke Oil were the companies involved.
According to NNPC, MRS used the vessel, MT Bow Pioneer; Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium imported the product via the vessel MT Tom Hilde; Oando used the vessel MT Elka Apollon, while Duke Oil imported its PMS using MT Nord Gainer.
“On 20th January 2022, NNPC received a report from our quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium,” he said.
“NNPC investigation revealed the presence of Methanol in Four (4) PMS cargoes.”
“Cargoes quality certificates issued at load port (Antwerp-Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicate that the gasoline complied with Nigerian Specification.
“The NNPC quality inspectors including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G conducted tests before discharge also showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specification.
“As a standard practice for all PMS import to Nigeria, the cargoes were equally certified by inspection agent appointed by the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has met Nigerian specification.
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium and our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for Percent methanol content and therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors.”
Kyari noted that “All defaulting suppliers have been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC will work with the authority to take further necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations”.
He however reassured Nigerians that the NNPC is currently sourcing additional cargoes to ensure product sufficiency,
