Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said it will import two cargoes of gasoline per day for the rest of February in order to boost supply and eradicate fuel queues in the shortage-hit nation.
According to a statement released Thursday on the state oil company’s website, “each of the two cargoes is 50 million litres making a total of 100 million litres that will be brought in per day for the rest of February to increase supply and replenish strategic reserves.”
The company added it had 324 million litres of petrol on land and 432 million litres in marine storage, which it said was enough for 22 days of supply.
It revealed that 45 million litres of petrol were discharged from ships into jetties across the country Wednesday, also to enhance supply.
NNPC has worked fervently to increase fuel supply since queues and shortages popped up in the West African nation in December. In its statement, it acknowledged that fuel queues had “resurfaced in some cities”.
There is currently a rare Suezmax en route to West Africa from the Baltics with 115,000 tonnes of gasoline – more than three times the typical vessel size
The cargo was booked by Vitol, one of the companies that hold a crude-for-product swap with NNPC. It is expected to park offshore and discharge its cargo into Nigeria via smaller ships.
The company also said that, “to ensure efficient distribution of the product to depots in the hinterland, the Nigerian Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC), a midstream subsidiary of the NNPC, has been mandated to fix relevant pipelines to facilitate seamless pumping, in addition to massive trucking arrangement that is in place.”
