Abuja — The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Thursday said the explosion at a Mobil filling station in Lagos was not connected to the recently launched Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations in the state.

Although the national oil company, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, failed to mention the name of the affected fuel station, the facility belonging to Mobil, located in Ikeja, had earlier been gutted by fire.

A gas tanker, cars and buses at the filling station were burnt, while a number of persons were injured after the tanker exploded while discharging contents into storage tanks.

"The NNPC wishes to state that the reported explosion at a filling station in Ikeja, Lagos, has nothing to do with the recently commissioned NNPC Gas Marketing Ltd (NGML)/NIPCO Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Stations, which are currently functioning and running safely without any incident.

"The NNPC Ltd also wishes to add that the NGML was not affected by the explosion; it is not involved in the activities of the affected station and all NGML facilities in Lagos, including pipelines, metering stations, above-ground installation and CNG facilities are in safe operating condition," the brief statement said.