NNPC holds MRS, Oando, others responsible for importation of adulterated fuel

Kyari says methanol was discovered in all four PMS cargoes imported by DSDP suppliers including MRS and Oando.

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mele Kyari says DSDP suppliers are responsible for the importation of adulterated petrol into the country.

Kyari said the contaminated fuel was imported into the country through the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement.

According to him, the DSDP suppliers are NNPC subsidiaries which include MRS, Oando, Emadeb Consortium, and Duke Oil.

MRS had in a statement on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, accused the NNPC of importing the adulterated fuel into the country through one of its subsidiaries, Duke Oil.

“Due to the current subsidy regime, NNPC is the sole importer of all PMS in Nigeria. Consequently, NNPC, through their trading arm Duke Oil, supplied a cargo of PMS purchased from international trader Litasco and delivered it with the Motor Tanker (MT), Nord Gainer,” the statement reads.

Following the accusation, Kyari while addressing journalists on Wednesday night said methanol was discovered in all four PMS cargoes imported by DSDP suppliers, including MRS.

He said the NNPC had in January received a report from its quality inspector on the presence of emulsion particles in PMS cargoes brought into the country by the DSDP suppliers from Antwerp-Belgium.

“NNPC investigation revealed the presence of methanol in four PMS cargoes imported by DSDP suppliers including MRS, Oando, Duke Oil, and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium,” he said.

The NNPC boss said the cargoes quality certificates issued at load port (Antwerp- Belgium) by AmSpec Belgium showed that the gasoline complied with Nigerian Specification, but tests were not conducted to ascertain the percentage of methanol in the product before the cargoes were released.

“As a standard practice for all PMS import to Nigeria, the cargoes were equally certified by inspection agent appointed by the Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has met Nigerian specification,” he added.

“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 said