Mele Kyari, group CEO of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, said legal and security measures have been taken to address individuals about the company’s spread of misinformation.
Recently, a video posted on Tiktok showed a man using two little tiger generators, commonly known as “I’m better past my neighbor” in Nigeria to compare the operation of the Advanced Automotive Spirit (PMS) Time, also known as gasoline, from and NNPC. The video claims that Dangote, sold by Lady of Petroleum, lasts longer and is more affordable than the PMS available to NNPC radio stations.
Speaking at the 60th Nigerian Mining and Earth Science Society (NMGS) conference in Abuja, Kyari called the statement “unfortunate drama and bad marketing practices”. He said gasoline meets all the necessary quality standards ensured by regulators and ensures that there is no formal report confirming the existence of unqualified gasoline.
“The discussion about fuel quality is unfortunate and it is also a very bad marketing practice. It’s all drama and entertainment, and as we all know, drama has a way to entertain people,” Kyari said.
He explained that the quality standards of gasoline vary from country to country, and no two countries have the same requirements. He cites an example, he noted that in Europe, oxidation (fuel additive) must be introduced into PMS to prevent it from curing in car boxes.
“However, if the same fuel additive is introduced into a car in Nigeria, once it comes into contact with the air, it becomes water. Essentially, the law requires what is introduced in one country, and the law must also be introduced in another country. Law,” he said.
Kyari further stressed that Nigeria has regulatory bodies such as the Nigerian Standards Organization (SON) and Nigeria’s Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), whose job is to ensure that every product entering the country meets the required specifications and standards.
“I believe these regulators are doing their jobs. They haven’t come back to tell anyone we have unqualified products in the country,” Kyari added.
He said the company has taken the necessary legal and security steps to ensure that the people behind such videos do not “make up the country.”
“The meaning of this behavior is not only NNPC, but more about messing up the whole country,” he said, adding that while people may feel frustrated, never extend the false into the business.
Kyari also denied reports that NNPC Ltd imported 200 million liters of fuel in February this year. “These are just lies because when the report is released, we didn’t even import products in that window,” he said. “All the pranks that align this virtual import with so-called low-quality fuels are groundless.”
He explained that importing is a normal practice in the industry because every country, including the United States, imports oil products. Kyari added that Nigeria has provided petroleum products to countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which does not mean that these countries lack refineries.
