The House of Representatives has commenced investigation into the alleged production and importation of substandard and adulterated petroleum products, as well as the non-non-availability of crude oil supply to Dangote and all other domestic refineries.

The Speaker of House of Representatives Dr. Tajudeen Abbas who revealed this during the inauguration of the joint Committee on Petroleum Midstream and Downstream, tasked Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and Standards Organization of Nigeria on the need to guarantee that all petrol imported into the country is thoroughly tested in laboratories to meet the global standard.

Dr. Abbas represented by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Benjamin Kalu, urged the Joint Committee to stand on the side of Nigerians who are suffering and want results by protecting their interests, rather than the interest of any other parties.

“It is unacceptable that the petrol imported into the country contains high sulphur levels, and has low octane levels as we notably experienced in recent past that even led to socio-economic losses on a national scale including the knocking down of the engines of vehicles of Nigerians in their hundreds”

The Speaker while urging the Committee to carry out investigations on the quality and the number of laboratories were used for Petroleum Products test also stressed the need to address the issue of infrastructure for quality assurance that enables robust testing of petroleum products in Nigeria.

The Chairman of the joint Committee on Midstream & Downstream, Mr. Ikenga Ugochinyere explained that the Committee was mandated to carry out an investigation into the resurgence of fuel queues in petrol stations, allegations of high cost of PMS, unavailability of fuel stock for downstream domestic refineries, distribution of PMS and other petroleum products.

Mr. Ugochinyere explained that the committee would proceed with investigation in phases, beginning with the investigation of allegation of alleged production and importation of Substandard Petroleum Products and the nonavailability of Crude Oil to Domestic Refineries.