Substandard Fuel: House Quizzes Suppliers, Emadeb, Others Distance Selves from Product

Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives Committee on Downstream investigating the importation of off-spec petrol imported into the country, yesterday probed the importers and suppliers of the product.

The lawmakers grilled two companies – MRS and a consortium of four companies which included Emadeb, Hyde, Jay Maikifi and Brittania-U- who were among the companies mentioned as suppliers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Addressing the lawmakers, the leader of the Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi and Brittania-U Consortium, Mr. Adebowale Olujimi said that Britannia -U was solely liable for supply of off-spec petrol.

He said: “On June 16, 2021, the consortium members executed a consortium agreement which defined the rotational responsibilities of members, sequential alternate crude lifting/petroleum product delivery and indemnification of other members against liabilities, claims, etc., that may arise during a member’s underperformance or failure to perform under the (Direct Sales and Direct Purchase) DSDP contract.

“The Consortium was awarded the DSDP contract on June 22, 2021 by NNPC. The delivery of the Petroleum, product and crude lifting have been done strictly on a rotational basis by the respective consortium members.

“Some of the Consortium members – Emadeb/Hyde and AY Maikifi immediately engaged a reputable international company for delivery of all PMS cargoes and prompt loading of crude oil; while Brittania-U chose to engage a different entity for her own supplies.”

He further said: “Brittania-U also preferred to liaise directly with NNPC and took responsibility for all her transactions without recourse to the other consortium members. All evidence to substantiate Brittania-U’s position are attached for references. “The other consortium members – Emadeb/Hyde and AY Maikifi have successfully delivered 270,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), while Brittania U also delivered 90,000MT PMS.

“The PMS alleged to be methanol-blended was solely delivered by Brittania-U via MT Torm Hilde in January 2022. The other consortium members — Emadeb/Hyde and AY Maikifi were not privy to the arrangements for the delivery of the aforementioned PMS and documentary evidence relating to the PMS.”

However, the Chief Executive Officer of Brittania-U, Uju Ifejirika said the product they imported met the approved specification and was certified by NNPC

“We have a DSDP contract with NNPC. We have done that for two and half years This is our 10th cargo and none of our cargoes were off-spec and this particular one was not off-spec. Before a cargo will come in, there will be a test at the Port of loading which they did.

“Whoever that is importing for us, we must give that document to them and based on that, they will do their own sample and our supplier do their sample and they gave us the sample result which we have to NNPC and NNPC confirmed it was okay. “Now, the second point of test, the cargo arrived at offshore, Lagos, the vessel tendered NOR. We transmitted that to NNPC and they now appointed their inspector. That’s GMO while we have SEBOD.”

She added: “They now went offshore to test the product. When they finished testing the product, there is a joint certificate given by GMO, that is NNPC nominated cargo inspector and our own. You can’t bring in the cargo without NNPC inspector jointly carrying out the test and we presented it and it met specification. NNPC tested and gave us certificate, saying that the product met specification.

“Our product came in 4th of January and there is no state that 77 million liters will not finish it in our week. The normal legal position is that when you bring in a cargo and it moves from mother vessel to daughter vessel, custody transfers and at that point, we do not have any legal control over the product.

“And we have all our certificates. Now, they are saying that we brought in off-spec. At what point? You cannot have 90,000 metric tons and you came out with a press release on the 8 of February which was more than a month after this project came in.

“Did anybody call us? Was there any joint test between us and the NNPC? There was none. They did an independent inspection. What is the test result? We don’t have the test result as we speak today. We have all our documents and it met the Nigerian specification.”

Also testifying before the panel, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MRS, Amina Miana, denied being responsible, saying that they were certified by NNPC on the importation.

“We received a letter, inviting us to this public hearing in regards to the alleged contamination of fuel imported into the country. So, that’s the reason why we are here.

“We are here to clarify the issues regarding the importation of fuel. I think the MD of NNPC was here, and he did clarify that the fuel which we imported was not out of the specification or adulterated.

“Yes, there’s been a lot of conversations regarding whether or not we brought in fuel which is contaminated. Let me state that there is an approved specification of PMS which is imported to into Nigeria. That specification is in the product we brought in. And I think the GMD of NNPC, attested to the fact that the product which we brought was tested and intimate Nigerians specifications

“On arrival, it was tested by the NNPC inspectors and it met the specification before the vessel was discharged.

The normal procedure is that the NDMPR would normally have their own inspectors to test and certify what was discharged and all of that was done, and certified Ok before the vessel was discharged, so we did not bring any adulterated fuel”, Maina said.

In his ruling, the Committee Chairman, Hon. Abdullahi Gaya asked the companies to produce all relevant documents to back their presentations.

He said, “I think in our letter we said you should give us all relevant documents from the beginning to the end. Honourable colleagues, this is just to engage the NNPC and the downstream for them to explain and give us documents, and we have already informed them that after going through the documents, we are going to invite them again to come. For now, it is just for them to explain and give us the document. If there is need to call you back, then we will call you back. We will now decide on what to do.”