President Buhari approves additional crude oil to end petrol scarcity

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Tuesday said that President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for the corporation to take additional crude oil volumes to guarantee the country’s supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol, The Nation reports.

In a statement titled “NNPC determined to end fuel scarcity,” its  Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen Muhammed, said that  due to the challenges that “major oil marketers face in contributing their supply quota due to constraint in accessing foreign exchange and outstanding subsidy obligations, NNPC is burdened with the obligation to guarantee almost 100% in the national supply, since the domestic crude oil supply (445,000 bbls/d) can only guarantee about 50% of the 45 million litres national requirement for petrol; we have secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.”

Explaining the causes of the scarcity, the spokesman noted that in continuing with our desire to keep Nigerians abreast of the key actions taken in the downstream petroleum sector, NNPC re-assured Nigerians that it was on top of the petroleum products supply and distribution situation, and it remained committed to eliminating this endemic issue once and for all within the next few days.