Reps urge NNPC to establish more depots

Itodo Daniel Sule

The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd to establish and equip more depots across the country and strictly regulate the operations of private depot owners to address the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep Uju Kingsley.

Kingsley, in his motion, noted that there are insufficient depots to store petroleum products in Nigeria.

He said that an estimated 100 million litres of bad petrol imported into Nigeria have caused fuel scarcity in Nigeria with the consequent effect of adulteration of the product by roadside black market vendors.

He said according to information available on the official website of the NNPC, Nigeria has 5,000 kilometres of pipeline network, 21 storage depots and nine (9) LPG depots, which he said are grossly inadequate to effectively serve the 36 states of the country as well as the Federal Capital Territory, hence the recurrent fuel scarcity.

Kingsley said it was disturbing that many other depots are owned by private individuals who receive fuel from the NNPC and then sell it at exorbitant prices, causing unnecessary irregularities in the price of the product across the country.

He said if more fuel depots are established, fuel scarcity will be curbed while more employment opportunities will be created as a result, thus improving the country’s economy.

The House adopted the motion and mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to ensure compliance.