Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it imported 15,874,734.82 metric tons of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol through the Direct Sales Direct Supply (DSDP) arrangement in 2018.
The national oil company added that the figure represents 62per cent increase over the 2017 supplies of 9,807,264.61 MT, even as it revealed it has 2.98 billion litres of petrol in reserve, (equivalent to over 59 days sufficiency at 50 million litres daily evacuation rate.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, who made the revelation in a new year message said the Corporation’s depots had been resuscitated and put to use through decanting of over 140 million litres of PMS nationwide.
He further explained that systems 2B and 2E pipelines supplying petroleum products to South West, South-South and South East Regions have been resuscitated.
Baru assured that NNPC was on track in respect of its 12 key Business Focus Areas (BUFA), and the vision of President Buhari to improving the status of oil and gas infrastructure through ensuring products availability to support national economic recovery and growth.
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He lauded the contribution of the Corporation’s Downstream outfit, NNPC Retail, saying it played a significant role in ensuring continuous supply of petroleum products to Nigerians through its Mega, Affiliates and Leased stations.
The NNPC boss touted the company’s sale of 1.2 billion litres of petroleum products in 2018 as against 1.1 billion litres in 2017, representing a 7 percent increase.
He said the feat was achieved through an addition of 40 new affiliates and leased stations, which brought its total network to 618 stations nationwide. Baru explained that NNPC Retail had transformed from loss making outfit to profitable operator.
“We are currently planning for better performance and achievement in 2019 especially with the continuous innovations and creativity in the downstream sector and the performance bond signed by all the relevant heads of our operating units. Continuous improvement as one of the principles of World Class Organizations is going to remain our key word in 2019. 2018 was empirically better than 2017, we believe, plan and strive to achieve a better performance come 2019, by God’s Grace”, Dr. Baru concluded in his end-of-year statement.
Baru said all existing power plants in the country now have a permanent gas supply pipeline infrastructure, even as he stressed the Corporation would continue to expand and integrate its gas pipeline network system to meet increasing domestic gas demand.
He listed key gas pipeline infrastructure projects making significant progress in their execution to include: Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS II), Obiafu/Obrikom-Oben (OB3), Odidi-Warri Expansion Pipeline (OWEP), Trans Nigeria Pipeline Project (TNGP) – Ajaokuta-Kaduan-Kano (AKK) Pipeline, Trans Nigeria Pipeline Project (TNGP) and Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NGMP) Project.