The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has d enied media reports that the corporation would run out of fuel stock and crude s u pply to Nigerian refineries.
Nigerian national dailies reported Thursday from the House of Representatives in Abuja, the federal capital, that the fuel stock and crude oil supply would be e x hausted in 15 days.
The privitaley-owned Guardian newspaper quoted the Group General Manager (GGM) P ublic Affairs of the NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajounoma, as saying that the story was far f r om the truth.
“The NNPC has no problem whatsoever with fuel stock. We still import about 90 pe r cent of our domestic demands for white products and we have enough for continu a l normal supply. We are not seeing any signs in disruption of supply,” he said.
On crude oil supply, he said: “The crude supply lines to Warri and Kaduna refine ries have been disrupted by the crises in the Niger Delta. The Kaduna refinery i s currently undergoing a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM). That TAM will be complete d in the next few weeks. We are not in short supply of crude to serve Kaduna Refi n ery as all efforts are put in place to fix the pipelines before the completion o f its TAM,” he said.
He also denied that the Port Harcourt Refinery had been shut as a result of shor tage of crude supply.
“What is happening in the Port Harcourt Refinery is that we are undertaking a Pl anned Work Load, as a result of ongoing routine maintenance. The refinery is not
shut and it is not lacking crude oil supply,” he said.
He urged Nigerians not to go into panic buying of products. “We want Nigerians t o disregard these reports, as we are comfortable in fuel stock,” he added.
