The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has indicted Oando, MRS, Duke Oil and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium of importing adulterated petrol into Nigeria.
NNPC chief executive officer/ group managing director Mele Kyari disclosed this on Wednesday at the end of a meeting with some oil marketers to resolve the fuel scarcity arising from the discovery of methanol blended petrol in some depots.
Mr. Kyari said defaulting suppliers have been put on notice for remedial actions and NNPC is working with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) to take necessary actions in line with subsisting regulations.
Providing a graphic chronicle of the incident, the NNPC CEO said that on January 20, the company received a report from its quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes shipped to Nigeria from Antwerp, Belgium.
He explained that NNPC investigation revealed the presence of methanol in four PMS cargoes imported by, MRS, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, Oando and Duke Oil.
He noted that cargoes quality certificates issued at load port (Antwerp-Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium indicated that the gasoline complied with Nigerian specifications.
“The NNPC quality inspectors including GMO, SGS, GeoChem and G&G conducted tests before discharge also showed that the gasoline met Nigerian specification,” Kyari said.
The NNPC chief noted that as a standard practice for all PMS import to Nigeria, the said cargoes were equally certified by inspection agent appointed by the NMDRA.
“It is important to note that the usual quality inspection protocol employed in both the load port in Belgium and our discharge ports in Nigeria do not include the test for Percent methanol content and therefore the additive was not detected by our quality inspectors,” he stated.
Kyari added that NNPC has ordered the quarantine of all un-evacuated volumes and the holding back of all the affected products in transit.
