Adulterated Petrol: Nigerian Government May Return Fuel To Suppliers, 100 Million Litres Affected, Say Marketers

The Federal Government through its Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority may return to the overseas supplier, the contaminated Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, which was imported into the country by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Oil marketers estimated that about 100 million litres of contaminated petrol were imported into Nigeria and had been recalled by the Pipelines Product Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.

The recall caused severe queues in Abuja, Lagos, Niger, Nasarawa and many other states, as the few petrol outlets that dispensed products were crowded by motorists and other PMS users.

Many other filling stations were shutdown on Tuesday for lack of products to sell, while black marketers greeted various major roads in Abuja, selling products to interested consumers.

It was also gathered that though efforts were being made to address the concerns, the queues and shortage of petrol might drag till this weekend.

The NMDPRA said in a statement it issued in Abuja that limited quantity of PMS with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification was discovered in the supply chain.

It said methanol was a regular additive in petrol and usually blended in an acceptable quantity, adding that contaminated product had been isolated.

-Punch