By Adewale Sanyaolu
More marketers named as importers of the contaminated fuel containing high level of methanol currently being mopped up have denied claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company(NNPC Ltd) that they were responsible for importation of the off- spec grade of the product.
Meanwhile, a document on the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) for Premium Motor Spirit(PMS), NIS 116-2017 popularly called petrol exclusively obtained by Daily Sun prohibits the inclusion of methanol for petrol in Nigeria.
The NIS document developed by relevant stakeholders with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) providing the coordination, secretariat and guidance to ensure that the process follows international best practice, gets the draft standards approved, published and disseminated also approved nil for ethanol.
NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mr. Mele Kyari, had on Wednesday night named Duke Oil, a subsidiary of NNPC, MRS, Oando, Emadeb and a consortium consisting Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania and as the firms that imported the contaminated products into Nigeria.
A speech shared to selected broadcast media quoted Kyari as saying, “On January 20, 2022, NNPC received a report from our quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium.