Kyari Stands Down Keynote in US Summit in Order to Fix Fuel Scarcity

* NNPC intensifies monitoring of product distribution to end queues
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja and Peter Uzoho in Lagos

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, will miss his engagement at this year’s energy summit, tagged: ‘CERAWeek’ in the United States, billed to start tomorrow.
NNPC also yesterday stepped up efforts to end the ongoing petrol scarcity with a product evacuation and distribution monitoring visit to two of the major petroleum products terminals in Lagos.

A source, who spoke with THISDAY last night, said that the NNPC head, who was expected to deliver the keynote address at the event, which will be attended by tens of other speakers, including the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, had decided to stay back in the country because of unresolved issues in the oil sector.

Kyari’s absence from the meeting, the Cambridge Energy Research Associate (CERA), taking place in Houston, Texas, it was learnt, is mainly due to the current fuel supply crisis in the country which has persisted for weeks.
Also billed to speak at the yearly event organised by market intelligence firm, S&P Global/IHS Markit, are the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm; Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Dr Sanusi Barkindo, among others.

Kyari was billed to speak on the topic: ‘Strategies for Low-carbon Future: Separate Perspectives from a National Oil Company.’
For 40 years, CERAWeek, according to the organisers, has been providing an integrated framework for understanding what’s ahead for global energy markets, geopolitics, and technology.

Kyari was said to have told his associates that given the mood of the nation, it would be inappropriate to leave the country at this time when the supply of adequate petrol had become problematic.
Despite NNPC’s efforts to bridge the supply gap, long fuel queues have continued to dot several filling stations across the country.

Meanwhile, the company yesterday stepped up efforts to end the ongoing petrol scarcity with a product evacuation and distribution monitoring visit to two of the major petroleum products terminals in Lagos.

The NNPC monitoring team led by the Managing Director of Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) Limited, a subsidiary of the state oil company, Mr Isiyaku Abdullahi, visited the Apapa depots of TotalEnergies Marketing Company Plc and the depots of Pinnacle Oil & Gas Limited located at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, both in Lagos.

The PPMC boss told journalists while at Pinnacle that in a bid to sustain continuous petrol supply and distribution nationwide, the NNPC was expecting a cargo bearing about 80 million litres of petrol to berth at Pinnacle depot in a matter of hours as of yesterday.

Abdullahi said yesterday’s movement to Lagos depots was to ensure compliance with the directive of the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Kyari, who he said, had mandated that there must be a steady and uninterrupted distribution of petrol across the country to relieve the pains of Nigerians from the current fuel scarcity, especially in Lagos, Abuja and other major cities.