[Nigeria] NNPC to Build 109 New Fuel Stations to Cushion Effect of Fuel Scarcity

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has unveiled plans to build a mega station in every Senatorial district of the nation, thus upping its market share in the fuel retail business from the current 12 per cent to a significantly higher number.

The state-run oil firm, in a statement, on January 17,  by its spokesman, Ohi Alegbe, said the move was part of efforts to expand its retail outlets across the country to ensure efficient distribution and country-wide penetration of petroleum products.

The  corporation, which had already flagged off nationwide consultation with stakeholders aimed at getting support for the planned project, maintained that the project would go a long way in ensuring product availability across all parts of the country.

The group executive director, Commercial and Investment, Babatunde Victor Adeniran,  during the flag-off of consultation with a visit to the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, said the purpose of the visit was to solicit the support of Kaduna State government to provide lands for building new NNPC petrol stations in the state.

He said:“Our mission is to build three mega stations in states, one each in the three senatorial districts of the state. We need about 5,000 square metres for each of the station. Each station will have six pumps including that of Liquefied Petroleum Gas which is cooking gas.”

In his response, el-Rufai who expressed gratitude to NNPC management for deciding to flag-off the outlets expansion programme in Kaduna State, gave express approval for lands to be made available for the mega stations.

He said: “I want to assure you that we will give you all the support that you need. The state director of lands will take the NNPC project team round the state to look at alternative sites. I don’t know how many you are building; we can give you as many as 10 sites if you want.”

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