Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL has assured Nigerians that in three months, the country will not see fuel queues.
The GMD spoke during a courtesy visit to the leadership of the Senate in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has ensured that “energy supply is stable, creating cheaper energy” for Nigerians.
He disclosed that the Corporation has “robust supply plans from now until next year, saying the Corporation always plans for three months.
”I guarantee you, your Excellency, that we will not see any shortages in our country.”
“You may see a number of scattered reports of filling stations that people will call queues. They are not.”
He also revealed that the oil giant occupies over 30 percent of the downstream sector in the oil and gas business, adding that the Corporation will “optimally provide” petroleum to consumers.
While linking the challenges in the sector to oil theft and pipeline vandalisation, Kyari said the country has recovered up to N1.7 million barrels of crude oil following increased monitoring and supervision of the facilities by independent pipeline security companies, and the military.
He said, “in the last 5-6 months, government security agencies and private security companies have done things differently, and it has yielded results.”
He underscored that the oil regulator aims at meeting its targeted contribution to the budget, stressing that “with all the ongoing activities and engagements, with the support of Mr President around how to contain the issues of infractions on our pipelines, the actions of vandals which we have been getting the support of the Senate to make sure that something is done about it to bring it to the barest minimum; so that oil pipelines are restored, so that we can continue to increase production, and the confidence of investors so that no one would produce oil when he is not sure of producing oil for the future market.”
He assured the leadership of the Senate that the NNPCL would restart the Port Harcourt refinery in December, followed by the Warri refinery to start in the first quarter of 2024.
He added that these would be complemented by small-scale refineries, as he emphasised that the Corporation recorded a N274 million profit in 2021, a growth from 2018.
