PPPRA debunks petroleum shortage as global oil demand decline
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency has debunked fear of petroleum shortage in the country as global oil demand declined drastically.
In a statement signed by the agency Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, he said, Nigerians have nothing to fear despite the rising fear of coronavirus spread affecting the global oil demand.
He said that the agency’s January 2020 report on Oil and Gas sector operations showed that the national supply of petrol was at 1,828.62 billion litres, while Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) were at 423.27 million litres and 96.70 million litres respectively.
The PPPRA boss added that the average PMS Days Sufficiency in January was at 41.34 days, AGO at 45.04 days, HouseHold Kerosene (HHK) at 9.36 days, while ATK and LPFO were at 53.73 and 33.75 days respectively
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He said an activity highlighting report for week 21st – 27th February 2020, revealed that the average days’ Sufficiency stood at 42.28 days for PMS, AGO was 44.73 days while HHK was 20.36 days and ATK 36.22 days.
Also, during the said week, the total volume of PMS and AGO discharged were 551.01 million litres and 84.84 million litres respectively.
Crude oil prices in January averaged $63.51, $64.06 and $58.29 per barrel for Brent, Bonny and WTI respectively, as against the December average prices of $67.02, $65.94 and $60.67 per barrel and data for week 4 of February 2020 indicated declines in the prices of Brent, Bonny and WTI, which averaged $57.17, $57.14 and $52.86 per barrel respectively.
“The Report showed that constant monitoring of products supply and distribution by the Agency as well as the entrenchment of responsive pricing policy through monitoring of trends in market fundamentals and updating pricing template contributed to product availability nationwide,” he averred.
Saidu stressed that, the sharp practices by some operators were greatly reduced as a result of vessel tracking, efficient scheduling and monitoring by PPPRA independent cargo surveyors and field operatives.
