The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday said it had no dealings with companies without legal existence to lift and sell Nigeria’s crude oil grades.

In a statement in Abuja by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, the corporation said the companies were duly registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission with their registration numbers.

According to Ughamadu, the companies in question were not ghosts.

“AMG Petroenergy Limited, Brittania-U, Cassiva Energy, Hyde Energy, Masters Energy, Bono Energy Ltd and Sahara are not ghost companies.

“Contrary to the assertions, NNPC duly entered into the 2017/2018 crude oil term contracts with the companies in their appropriate registered corporate existence.

“Furthermore, the companies collectively lifted a total of 8.8 million barrels of crude oil valued at 436.35 million dollars as at 30th October 2017 contrary to the claim that 67.2 million barrels were lifted.

“The corporation wishes to place on record that all crude oil lifting transactions are backed by irrevocable letters of credit issued by investment grade banks and, therefore, all payments are pre-secured.

“The lifting by the seven companies and all other off-takers are bound by these requirements,” Ughamadu said.

Meanwhile, NNPC has blamed the current petroleum scarcity in the country on marketers of the product.

The Group Managing Director of the company, Maikanti Baru, in a statement by Ughamadu, also said part of the problem was the rumour about purported planned increase in the pump price of petrol.

He stated that some marketers, in their quest to cash in on the situation, suddenly started hoarding products.

“But we swiftly swung into action by doubling our supply nationwide. At the time the rumour started, we had about 30-day sufficiency.

“The normal daily supply to the nation is 700 trucks, equaling about 27-30 million litres per day,” Baru said.

He assured that the corporation had doubled its daily supply of petrol, from daily 700 trucks (about 27 million – 30 million) litres per day supply to 80 million litres since the current hiccup in the supply chain was noticed a few days back.

He further assured Nigerians that the NNPC had enough products sufficiency that would last up to 30 days.

Baru, who expressed joy at decision of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to call-off of its planned strike, urged motorists not to engage in panic buying as the corporation had more than enough products for domestic consumption.

Assuring that the fuel situation would fizzle out this week, Baru warned marketers against hoarding, stressing that any filling station found wanting in this regard would lose its entire products to motorists.

He commended NNPC’s sister agencies, the Department of Petroleum Resources and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, for their support in helping NNPC tackle the menace of hoarding by filling stations.

Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Corporation and the Benue Government on the Agasha-Guma bio-fuels Projects, Baru said that at least a billion litres petrol-laden cargoes were expected by December.

He said the Bio-fuels Project would provide employment for the teeming youths in the state.

“I believe that Benue has what it takes to lead the country in the bio-fuels industry.

“I hope that your state will soon move from food basket to fuel basket of the nation,” Baru noted.

The Agasha-Guma bio-fuels project aims at developing Integrated Sugarcane Plantation and Fuel-Ethanol/Sugar/Power Plant Complex in Benue through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). (NAN)

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