By: Precious Miracle Kargbo
The National Petroleum Regulatory Agency , in its mandate to ensure the swift transmission, circulation and availability of Petroleum products to general populace of Sierra Leone as main customers. The Petroleum Regulatory Authority has confirmed the availability of Petroleum products in Freetown for the extended period in 2023.
This assertion from the Agency originated through a Press release which is dated 30th November,2023. According to them this release stems out from the unduly concerns, queues emanating at various petroleum outlets across the country for the past two days as a lot of movements have been altered and restricted through this process.
Sequentially,PRA adjudicated that the reason for this issue is as a result of maintenance activities which was going on for some certain time now, which they described as a routine pipeline maintenance that was interrupted over the weekend and largely affected the normal supply chain.
Furthermore, the Agency went on to explain that the issue has completely been resolved and strongly assured the general public that the pipeline maintenance has been successfully completed overnight as the construction work which has been the cause of the shortage in the past few days has been resolved and petroleum products have returned to normalcy. They went on to reveal to the public that petroleum products have been transferred overnight across various petroleum terminals such as NP SL, LeonOil & Conex Energy and in this processing also they explain that Full trucking operations are currently underway at these installations.
In addition, the Petroleum Regulatory Agency reassures its utmost commitment to the adequate availability of petroleum stock products throughout the festive period and even beyond.
They assured that this statement is valid and a series commitment to the public, as they look mainly to do away with the fears and panic of fuel commodities on the country during this period.
It states “The Petroleum Regulatory Agency wishes to inform the general public that there will be adequate stock availability of petroleum products that will cover beyond the festive period, hence there should be no tendency for speculative or panic buying”.
In Addition, the Agency importantly asserts that based on the current imp-arty and the down streaming pricing structure that the Fuel pump price will remain at Le30.00 per liter throughout the country.
Conclusively, the PRA issued out a cogent warning to all those petroleum hoarders, to completely seize from illegal activities. The PRA emphasized that those engaging in hoarding may face serious consequences or the cancellation of operating licenses.