31st August, 2012
Petroleum products consumers in Benin City could be in for another round of fuel scarcity as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, may be forced to shut down all its mega stations over their inability to carry out the mandatory laboratory test on products received from the Port Harcourt refinery.
It was reliably gathered on Thursday from authorities of the mega stations in Benin that they have been having problems selling their products as the PPMC depot in Benin City where the laboratory at which all petroleum products are tested for quality before being sold to the public was shut down by Edo State Board of Inland Revenue three weeks ago over a N35 million tax default.
The NNPC mega stations in Benin have been receiving petroleum products from the Port Harcourt refinery since the shutting down of Warri Refinery which is currently undergoing routine maintenance.
Following the shutting down of the PPMC depot laboratory in Benin, sources at one of the mega stations disclosed that all the mega stations now depend on a daily supply of only two truck-loads of petrol as against 10 that they previously received, with PPMC officials literally moving their test kits to the Sapele Road location of the mega station.
—Jethro Ibileke/Benin