By YANGE IKYAA
More quantity of premium motor spirit (PMS), which is popularly called petrol in Nigeria, is expected to arrive the country within the next 11 days, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said.
This counters rumours of looming fuel scarcity and fuel price increase being peddled around the country by certain persons and other sections of the media.
In its publication, Shipping Position, which was made available to newsmen in Lagos on Friday, NPA said it was expecting 20 ships laden with petroleum products and other items within an 11-day period, beginning from December 3 to December 14, when they will arrive the Lagos Port Complex.
It also listed other items being carried by the incoming ships as general cargo, frozen fish, containers, bulk sugar, buckwheat, and base oil.
The agency confirmed that, already, three ships have arrived at the ports and are waiting to berth with general cargo and bulk sugar. It further added that 22 other ships were discharging buckwheat, general cargo, containers, bulk fertilizer, bulk sugar, soda ash and petrol.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) last month in a statement advised the general public not to engage in panic buying of PMS, assuring that it had over 1.7 billion litres of petrol in stock and that more product quantity would arrive into the country on a daily basis over the coming weeks and months.
“The NNPC is also not aware of any plan by government to cause an increase in the pump price of petrol. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) also made the same declaration last week, saying it had no knowledge that the government was planning any increase in fuel prices,” said the statement signed by Garba Deen Muhammad, who is the group general manager, group public affairs division at NNPC.
The statement also said it was unnecessary to entertain any fear of scarcity of petrol throughout the festive season and beyond.
“In view of these assurances therefore, the NNPC is advising motorists and other consumers of petrol to maintain their regular pattern of the purchase of petrol without getting into a panic situation that may send the wrong signals around the country,” it further read.