In the last two weeks, the public has virtually been going through hell getting fuel, despite the claim of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there is enough stock in circulation. Is it a case of hoarding by retail outlets? Is it sabotage of the government’s efforts or operational hiccups? Assistant Editor EMEKA UGWUANYI reports.
OR the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), it was a testy two weeks. Fuel scarcity virtually paralysed parts of the country despite its claim that there is enough stock to go ground. As the country seems to be getting over the crisis, it is not clear how long the respite will last because many outlets are still not selling
Investigation by The Nation revealed that while Lagos residents suffered the scarcity, many filling stations, including those belonging to major and independent oil marketers, had stocks, but refused to sell to create artificial scarcity to enable them sell above the N97 per litre pump price. They opened at night when they were sure that the regulatory agencies were not on duty and sold at between N110 and N120 per litre and above. For those with jerry cans, some stations collected extra N500 to fill 25-litre cans.
The question is:Why should these retail station owners engage in such malpractice when the product was bought at the normal price, and will attract subsidy reimbursement from the government?
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), experts said, also needs to wake up to its responsibility and ensure that in such situations, even if they entail working beyond the normal working hours, appropriate punishment should be meted to those marketers that tend to disrupt economic activities by creating artificial scarcity, such as hoarding.
Operating licences of such marketers can as well be revoked or retail stations found flouting the guidelines closed for a reasonable period, they added.
They also added that the regulators should allow the government concentrate on how to tackle and eliminate crude and product theft and pipeline vandalism. Recently, the NNPC said it was deploying horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technology to solve the continual pipeline vandalism at Arepo in Ogun State and Ije-Ododo in Lagos.
How the fuel scarcity battle was fought
The Executive Director, Commercials, Product and Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC), Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, told The Nation that the scarcity, which he described as artificially-induced, was an embarrassment to the government and because of that, the Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, directed him to relocate to Lagos with a mandate to dismantle the queues and eliminate the scarcity within 48 hours.
He said: “The government is concerned and worried about the supply shortage situation in Lagos and to that extent, the Minister of Petroleum Resources directed that as the Executive Director, Commercial, that I should temporarily relocate to Lagos despite my busy schedule to ensure that the queue situation is dismantled. Arising from that directive, I arrived in Lagos on Monday. The first thing I did on getting to Lagos was to contact all the stakeholders in the supply-chain.
Ordinarily, most people think that the job of supply of petroleum is limited to the NNPC and the major marketers, but the truth of the matter is that the supply chain (making petroleum products available to the populace) involves the NNPC, major marketers and other marketers, including depot owners.
Under the supply arrangement, the NNPC is expected to supply about 50 per cent of the national requirement as approved by the PPPRA through its marketing operational arm – the PPMC, while the other marketers, supply the balance.
“That has been the arrangement and suddenly, the nation noticed disruption in supply that was characterised by the queues in some cities, including Lagos and Abuja. The Abuja supply shortage started around the commencement of the centenary celebration and on the directive of the minister, NNPC and other stakeholders rose to the situation and were able to contain the situation before we witnessed the shortage in Lagos and the ministerial directive was that I should come and coordinate the resolution of the problem.”
NNPC’s strategy
He continued: “On arrival in Lagos, I quickly contacted all the relevant parties, including the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) led by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, representatives of independent marketers, officials of the PPMC, mainly depot managers, vessel receipt programming managers and officials of NNPC Retail.
“From the Monday night, we put in strategic measures aimed at quickly resolving the problem and we gave ourselves a deadline of 48 hours to clear the queues starting from Tuesday. We started by embarking on intensive monitoring of the various outlets in Lagos and continued with it till Thursday while monitoring discharge of vessels at various terminals and the distribution of products.”
He said the strategy team set up comprised representatives of PPMC, MOMAN, Independent Petroleum Marketing Association Nigeria (IPMAN) and NNPC Retail because fuel supply is the responsibility of all stakeholders in the downstream, adding that at the end of each day, they held a meeting to assess the impact of what we have done.
“Part of the reason for monitoring was to establish reason for the sudden queues and try to address such issue with the ultimate aim of dismantling the queue. One of the things we established is that the queues witnessed in Lagos, had with attitudinal problems of some Nigerians, in the sense that we experienced an abusive process that, ordinarily, should not arise in the process of petroleum products retailing and dispensing.
“People were apprehensive based on the level of information they have that probably there was not enough supply and people tend to buy more than they need stockpile them. We witnessed that and can substantiate that with a number of cases.
“On the supply side, all the jetties are wet as the BOB, Capital Oil and New Atlas Cove Jetty, among others. They have vessels discharging there. There is no reason for panic-buying by the public.
“This is aside other marketers that are doing something to bring their cargoes and these will neutralise any queue that may remain,” Komolafe said.
He said between Tuesday and Sunday, some vessels, including Alizea (22,000 metric tonnes) received about 30 million litres. Others were Ocean Centuria, NIPCO (22 million litres); United Enterprises (22 million litres), Conoil 22 million litres, bringing the total volumes distributed to 96 million litres.
He said this week, NNPC would bring in three cargoes totalling 90MT while Conoil will bring in another 22 million litres, Mobil 18 million litres and NIPCO another 22 million litres aside what the independents and depot owners will bring in.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke said the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that the country is wet with petroleum products, adding that the ministry had sustained this feat in the past three years and that nobody or group would distract it from this important national assignment.
She said she would ensure that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) maintain strict internal control and processes on import allocation and subsidy payments.
Mrs Alison-Madueke on Saturday and Sunday inspected filling stations in Lagos to find out how the scarcity problem was tackled, know the level of supply and establish the cause of the problem. She alleged that diversion of products by petroleum truck drivers as what contributed to the scarcity. She said products don’t reach their designated destination, assuring that she would address the issue. She was satisfied that the matter had been solved.
She also restated her commitment to collaborating with the military personnel to fight other acts of sabotage, such as crude and products theft, which have grave economic impacts on the economy.
Part of the collaboration led to the arrest of some oil thieves. For instance, the spokesman of the military Joint Task Force (JTF) charged with stemming the oil theft scourge in the Niger Delta region, Lt.-Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, last year said the taskforce arrested 29 alleged oil thieves and destroyed 127 illegal refineries in the region.
He explained that in Bayelsa State, troops of the 343 Regiment of the JTF in southern Ijaw Local Government Area clamped down on 98 illegal crude oil distillation sites, which were operating with 119 illegal distillation tanks and 37 large open wooden boats (Cotonou boats) laden with stolen crude oil and illegally-distilled automated gas oil (AGO).
Nwachukwu added that men of the 29 Battalion and the Gun Boat Patrol Company also arrested a barge with three crew members and a vessel christened MT Tora Eagle with 11 crew members in Bodo waterways and Akassa creek in Rivers and Bayelsa states.
He said: “The barge was intercepted while conveying some quantity of illegally sourced crude oil, while the vessel was laden with 3,600 drums of stolen petroleum product. The troops also destroyed five illegal crude oil distillation sites and 10 Cotonou boats filled with stolen crude oil along Lewe, Bodo, Elem Sagangama, Oluwasiri and Bodo West in Rivers State.”
He said the JTF’s Operation Pulo Shield, 19 and 3 Battalions’troops covering Edo and Delta states scuttled 24 illegal oil distillation camps and 73 Cotonou boats. Thirty-one of such boats were arrested at an illegal crude oil loading point close to an abandoned oil well in Warri North, while 27 of the arrested boats were intercepted in Egara Creek along the NNPC pipeline in Warri South Local Government Area.
“The operation also swept through Ajide, Lagos; Makara, Egwu Aghara watersides in Warri-North, Warri North-West, Warri South West and Ethiope West Local Government areas of Delta, where oil stealing was also found to be thriving.
“The outfit intercepted 61 pieces of 75 HP speed boats and a truck laden with 33,000 litres of AGO while they were still lifting the stolen products. Five hundred and two drums, 22 steel tanks, four plastic surface tanks, 77 metal drums laden with stolen crude oil and illegally distilled AGO and four pumping machines used by the oil thieves were also seized during the operations,” Nwachukwu added.
