Fuel scarcity: Our four-point strategy responsible for restoration to normalcy — NMDPRA
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has said its four-point strategy is responsible for restoring normalcy in the distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
Mrs Roselyn Wilkie, NMDPRA, Zonal Operations Controller, Abuja, said this on Thursday in an interview.
According to Wilkie, the increase in product supply and distribution are also major factors that ensured normalcy returned to the system.
The Zonal Controller was reacting to the disappearance of long queues at fuelling stations across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as other parts of the country.
The scarcity, which lasted for almost two months saw motorists queuing up for eight hours and even days at fueling stations before they could get fuel to buy.
Wilkie assured Nigerians that normalcy had returned, adding that motorists don’t have to spend long hours on the queue to get the product.
She listed the strategy adopted to return normalcy to the system to include ensuring that there was no diversion of the product, no hoarding, no selling in jerry-cans and discouraging hawking of the product.
According to her, the regulatory authority also encouraged dispensing of petroleum products with maximum available pumps at fuel stations.
On the risky activities of black marketers who extort people and risked lives and property, she said NMDPRA is working tirelessly to ensure that all roadside sellers of PMS in jerry-cans are eradicated from the streets.
“Our major concern is ‘safety’ of lives and property as we understand the volatile nature of petrol and its hazards,” she said.
Meanwhile, checks around some major fuel stations in the Territory, including Conoil opposite the NNPC Towers, saw black market operators carrying on with their business.
Motorists had blamed their activities as well as the inability of the authorities to do anything about their operations for the fuel scarcity that lasted for almost two months.
