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Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has said legal and security measures have been taken against individuals spreading misinformation about the company....Don’t Miss Out! CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING..>>
Recently, a video posted on TikTok showed a man using two small tiger generators, popularly called ‘I better pass my neighbour’ in Nigeria, to compare the running time of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, bought from MRS Oil and NNPC. The video claimed that Dangote-refined petrol sold by MRS Oil lasts longer than the PMS available at NNPC stations and is more affordable.
Speaking at the 60th Nigeria Mining & Geosciences Society (NMGS) Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Kyari described the claim as “an unfortunate drama and bad marketing practice.” He stated that petrol meets all required quality standards as ensured by regulatory bodies and assured that no official report has confirmed the presence of substandard petrol.
“The talk around fuel quality is unfortunate and a very bad marketing practice. It’s all drama and entertainment and as we know, drama has a way of entertaining the people,” Kyari said.
He explained that petrol has quality standards that vary from country to country and that no two nations have identical requirements. Citing an example, he noted that in Europe, oxygenate (a fuel additive) must be introduced into PMS to prevent it from solidifying in car tanks.
“But if the same fuel additive is introduced into cars in Nigeria, it turns to water once it gets into contact with air. In essence, what is required by law to be introduced in one country, it is also required by law not to be introduced in another country,” he said.
Kyari further emphasized that Nigeria has regulatory agencies such as the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA), whose job is to ensure that every product entering the country meets the required specifications and standards.
“I believe these regulatory agencies are doing their job. They have not come back to tell anyone that we have substandard products in the country,” Kyari added.
He said the company has already taken the necessary legal and security steps to ensure that those behind such videos do not “mess up the country.”
“The implications of such acts are not only on NNPC anymore but more about messing up the whole country,” he said, adding that while people can have their frustrations, falsehood should never be extended into business.
Kyari also denied reports claiming that NNPC Ltd had imported 200 million litres of fuel in February this year. “These are just lies because we didn’t even import products within that window when the report was published,” he said. “All the mischief about aligning this fictitious importation with the so-called low-quality fuel are just baseless.”
He explained that importation is a normal practice in the industry, as every country, including the United States, imports petroleum products. Kyari added that Nigeria has supplied petroleum products to countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which does not mean that those countries lack refineries.
