The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on
Tuesday that it has released additional four million litres of petrol to
marketers to ease current fuel scarcity in parts of the country.

A statement signed by Mr Fidel Pepple, NNPC Group General
Manager, Public Affairs, said Mr Andrew Yakubu, Group Managing Director of the
corporation disclosed this at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Petroleum
Downstream.

Yakubu, represented by Dr Peter Nmadu, Executive Director,
Corporate Services, said the additional supply was sourced from Kaduna
Refinery.

He said that the NNPC had also supplied products to some
private depots in Lagos to bridge supply gap following the vandalism of System
2B Pipeline at Arepo in Ogun which carries one third of the nation’s fuel daily
needs.

“In order to alleviate the hardship being inflicted on
Nigerians by the product thieves, the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company
is supplying additional four million litres of fuel to bridge the gap and ease
the hiccup.

“With the on-going efforts, we are optimistic that the
queues will fizzle out,’’ the GMD said.

He also told the committee that some of the NNPC trucks
conveying fuel to the north were trapped in Lokoja due to flood.

Yakubu decried the activities of pipeline vandals and said
three NNPC staff were still missing while others were receiving treatment from
injuries sustained while trying to repair the ruptured pipeline.

The GMD assured that the issue of the missing personnel was
unlikely to cause any strike by the in-house unions.

The statement quoted the Chairman of the committee, Mr
Magnus Abe as assuring the NNPC of its support in rescuing the missing
officers.

He said the committee would continue to work with relevant
stakeholders to resolve the fuel crises.