Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured petroleum products consumers across the country not to engage in panic buying in the countdown to depot shutdown by Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) from Today.

The NNPC, countering the impact of the shutdown said it holds 2.6billion litres of petrol and 90,000 metric tonnes of diesel.

It said the stock is expected to last 52 days, even if no single drop of products is imported.

NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, who  gave the assurances during a parley with newsmen said the shutdown would not affect products distribution as NNPC has ordered all its depots across the country and those of bulk purchase Marketers it recently entered agreements with to undertake a 24 hour operations to avert any shortages in products distribution in the country.

He said despite the threats by DAPPMAN, government was committed to going ahead with settling the N236 billion first tranche of the verified subsidy claims of the Oil Marketers in line with the approval of Federal Executive Council (FEC) and National Assembly (NASS) by Friday, 14 December, 2018 as promised by the corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, Engr. Henry Nkem Obih in a statement recently.

The NNPC spokesperson advised members of the public to report to offices of the Departments of Petroleum Resources (DPR) across the states any fuel stations which attempts to take advantage of the situation to inflate products price, saying that the price of PMS remains N145 per litre.