The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has advised against panic buying of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) as nationwide supply and distribution of the product improves. NNPC stated that it currently has over 1.5 billion litres of products in stock.
In a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the company, Olufemi Soneye, mentioned that the 1.5 billion litres equate to a 30-day supply of product sufficiency.
The company stated that it has observed fuel queues thinning out at filling stations in states like Lagos and the FCT, and expects this trend to improve gradually in other states as well.
The national oil company is working with agencies like the Nigerian Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), sector labor unions, and security forces to tackle hoarding and other unethical practices in the sector.
The development comes after a fresh round of petrol scarcity hit the country two weeks ago, forcing pump prices to increase to between N610 at most stations belonging to the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN), and as high as N800 at the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) stations.
