NNPC Moves To End Long Queues At Filling Stations, Launches 24-hr Service At Mega Stations

As Nigerians begin to experience a gradual return of queues at petrol filling stations, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and its downstream subsidiary, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), have announced plans to introduce 24 hour service at most of its retail outlets – put at 513 – spread all over the country.
The move is part of measures adopted by the NNPC to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians especially motorists, most of whom spend countless hours queuing for fuel at filling stations.

In addition, the NNPC a leaner and more efficient organization has been put in place in PPMC to carry out the assignment of verification of sales in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Speaking yesterday when the corporation released the figures of Friday’s dispatch of product to filling stations to journalists, the Managing Director (Retail) of the NNPC, Ladipo Fagbola, said in areas where for security reasons or locations the 24 hours service is not feasible, “we are going to start from about 5am and sell till about 9/10pm”.

He said: “We are doing extended hours—24 hours at strategic locations,. The only thing that I want to add is that I have hotlines here.

“When you get to any NNPC retail station and you see things that are not right, please call lines 08057008021, 08052195801 and 08100941174.

“Take photograph of whatever you have seen and send it to these lines.

“We are working round the clock. We appreciate all Nigerians. We are working round the clock to ensure that we have good service delivery”.

The NNPC boss further called on the media to conduct sting operations on its retail outlets to check sharp practices.

“Go to the depots as press men. Go there and see what is going on. There is a possibility you are going to catch the people causing this disruption.

“Don’t just take NNPC word for it but go to NNPC depots. Go to private depots. Go to the petrol station in this era of social media, catch some people red-handed for us and send us the details. That is the only way people can realize that things have changed”.

The NNPC, however, warned Nigerians against panic buying of premium motor spirit (PMS) and hoarding of the product, noting that it has over 66 million litres in stock even as 1.4 billion litres is expected in the country within the month.

While available stock would last for sixteen and a half days, the corporation said the total 1.4 billion litres will sustain the country for 35 days.

Fagbola, who debunked speculations of lack of stock and plans to reduce the pump price of petrol, however, disclosed that the NNPC has been confronting the challenges of vandalism of pipelines, which had made it to resort to trucking the products through roads in the last seven months.

He said: “The fact is that as I speak with you, we have within our depots 66 million litres of PMS. We have partner depots, which are private depots. They have 118 million litres of PMS.

“The stock we have in the vessels, which are coming from Lagos is 428 million litres, and the major marketers have about 34 million litres. This gives us a total of about 667 million litres as we speak.

“And based on our consumption estimate of 40 million litres per day, we have about sixteen and a half-day sufficiency.

“What we have also done is to have a feel of what we have coming in before the end of November. From PPMC alone, we have about 380 million litres confirmed deliveries before the end of November. From other major marketers, we have 376 million litres coming.

“So, if you add that to what we currently have on ground, we are going to have a total of 1.4 billion litres of PMS. This gives us 35 days sufficiency”.