Oando Plc has confirmed the backload or return of the contaminated fuel it imported from Gunvor International in February.
The circulation of the bad product, which was confirmed to contain 20 per cent ethanol, had damaged quite a number of vehicles in Lagos and its environs.
Confirming the backload to our correspondent on Sunday, Oando sources said, �I can confirm that the bad fuel has been backloaded. It was backloaded on MV Aktor. They emptied Mobil�s tanks on Thursday and started with Oando tanks on Friday.�
With this development, it is expected that the depots will be free for fresh and clean quality fuel to ease the current shortages in the market.
However, with the rejection of 13 vessels by the Department of Petroleum Resources, hopes that the current scarcity will ease early have been dimmed.
Marketers had expected that the backload of the bad fuel would decongest the depots, 50 per cent of which had been shut down as a result of the high ethanol fuel from Oando and Mobil, which was further compounded by workers� strike at Chevron Oil.
In spite of the return of the fuel, Oando insisted it would still press charges against Gunvor for non-disclosure of the ethanol content.
As part of sanctions for circulating the bad fuel, the DPR had ordered Oando to bear all the liabilities arising from consumers as a result of the use of the contaminated fuel, which the company said, it would pass on to Gunvor.
Already, queues at filling stations are increasing by the day, with the stations selling only from one pump to compound the situation.
Motorists queueing up for fuel in the various outlets, had called on regulatory authorities to ensure that filling stations with fuel sell from all the available points.
With the tightening of the belts by the DPR, many vessels laden with more than five per cent content in the fuel are being rejected outright.
Already, the Presidency had read the riot act to marketers who import bad fuel.
The DPR and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had charged marketers to obey the rules, but our correspondent gathered that some firms import fuel even with more than 20 per cent ethanol content.
This has placed a huge burden on the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC, to ensure adequate supply of fuel.