The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fuel scarcity

  • Fuel scarcity to last till 2013 – Reps committee

    Fuel scarcity to last till 2013 – Reps committee

    Nigerians have been warned to prepare for an extended scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit as commercial banks are no longer willing to give credit facilities to petroleum products marketers.

    The reason being that the government owed the petroleum marketers about N141 billion, a situation that has discouraged others from bringing products into the country.

    In addition, System 2B which distribute about 70 percent of petroleum products from Lagos to other parts of Southwest has collapsed and this had severely affected the petroleum products distribution system.

    This was contained in a report put together by the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream).

    The committee was mandated to examine factors responsible for presence of long queues in filling stations across the country. The report was presented to the House on Wednesday by the Chairman of the Committee, Dakuku Peterside.

    In the executive summary of the report obtained by The Nation, the Committee expressed fears that due to a number of factors, the current scarcity will last for a “fairly long time beyond first quarter of next year.”

    The report states: “The Ministry of Finance withholds payment of marketers under investigation. The ministry is not a court of law.

    “Banks are no longer willing to give further credit facilities to importers of petroleum products.

    “There was inadequate provision in the 2012 budget for payment of subsidy on PMS. A paltry sum of N306 billion was allocated to PMS from the N888 billion set aside for payment of subsidy.

    “Of the N888 billion for payment of subsidy, N350 billion was allocated to Kerosine (DPK), while N232 billion was allocated for payment of 2011 subsidy arrears.”

     

  • FG moves to mitigate fuel scarcity

    FG moves to mitigate fuel scarcity

    The Federal Government has approved the release of fuel from the nation’s strategic reserves to mitigate the scarcity of the product nationwide.

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said this in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Okirika, Rivers.

    Alison-Madueke spoke with NAN on the sideline of the inauguration of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Jetty in Okirika Local Government area of Rivers.

    “We have put all our weight and our strategic reserves out to ensure that we keep it (scarcity) as minimal as possible.

    “I do believe that the issue of fuel scarcity and subsidy payment is also being handled aggressively by the Ministry of Finance.

    “On our side, we will ensure that our strategic reserves are put to very good use and that we keep it (fuel scarcity) as low as possible,” she told NAN.

    Alison-Madueke said the turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries were presently ongoing, adding that the completion of the exercise would guarantee accessibility of products by consumers.

     

     

     

  • Lagosians cry out as fuel scarcity bites harder

    Lagosians cry out as fuel scarcity bites harder

    A typical day in the city of Lagos is one with a lot of hustle and bustle, noise, and endless traffic. Lagosians are always whining about the irritating condition of traffic in the city. Well, that’s a typical day, what about a non typical day?

    Well, it’s a not a typical day in the city of Lagos anymore, as fuel price takes a hike. The welfare of individuals are terribly affected, as well as businesses.

    “It’s been so crazy, for like a month now I’ve not taken my car out. My full tank is normally N6, 000, now that N6, 000k only gets me 40litres. I have been taking BRT to work and it’s telling on my health because it’s not what I’m used to. The price of everything goes up due to the fuel hike.” Laments Pekun, a Lagosian. “I get home really late. My sleep is short, plus transportation fare is double the normal price. I can’t save much anymore,” he added.

    I caught up with Abel, a student of UNILAG on a bus to Bariga. When asked what his experience had been so far with the current fuel hike, he replied, “Oh!..simple. Increased transport fares on buses and bikes. It has been depressing going out. And then Fashola had to ban bikes.

    Well, other Lagosians didn’t keep their replies that simple when the same question was thrown at them. They were furious about the present predicament of the nation, and had a lot of criticism for the government as well as the citizens.

    “Well for me, I think Nigerians are to be blamed. If we had allowed the removal of subsidy then, the government would at this time, have no excuse for not providing the commodity. But now, we have fuel selling for as much as N130 in some parts of the country, what’s the difference between N130 and N141?

    We all get comfortable easily in this country… We never follow any agitation to a fruitful end. Once we make noise a few days, we just shrink into our shells and move on with the status quo,” said Hezekiah, a public relation consultant.

    He continued, “Jonathan will not do everything for us, it’s high time we started thinking of alternative energy. That’s what most countries are doing now. Everything is not done by the government, private sector handles all these research and sells their theories to government. We in Nigeria will sit down and wait for government to research for us. An incompetent government for that matter.”

    Well, what more can possibly be said of a country which cannot harness its own resources adequately. We own crude, yet it is a scarce and expensive commodity for us. What a shame! Speaking from personal experience and observation, the traffic in the city of Lagos is worse than ever. I spent an hour in traffic on my way to work yesterday. Going back home was worse, not to mention, the bus fare was twice its normal sum.

    Filling stations were packed jam. And one could say the queue was on a standstill. It was both a pathetic and annoying sight. People who can’t afford the increased fare, has resorted to trekking. Let’s face it, it’s not like salaries were increased. So, at the end of the day, it’s a lose – lose situation for the Nigerian citizen. When will all this end? If ever it will.

     

  • Scarcity: NNPC pledges to sustain fuel supply

    Scarcity: NNPC pledges to sustain fuel supply

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has pledged to sustain its increased fuel supply and distribution to avoid a reoccurrence of the recent fuel scarcity in the country.

    The General Manager, Media Relations, NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, gave the assurance in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Ibrahim said the NNPC had taken radical measures to ensure that the lingering fuel scarcity in most parts of the country abated.

    He said, “As you will have noticed the fuel queues have disappeared as a result of the radical measures we put in place.

    “What we did was to take responsibility of our partners, including private and independent distributors and stepped up our daily supply to all the states experiencing the scarcity.”

    Ibrahim said the corporation had to increase its daily truck supply to more than 100 in Abuja and more than 200 trucks daily to Lagos so as to clear the shortage experienced.

    The general manager said the corporation also opened up its strategic reserve to ensure there was no shortage in the supply to all parts of the country.

     

  • NNPC blames fuel scarcity on pipeline vandalisation

    NNPC blames fuel scarcity on pipeline vandalisation

    Massive vandalisation of oil pipelines by oil thieves has been blamed for petroleum products scarcity in parts of the country. This was the position of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) when it appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) yesterday.

    It blamed the fire incident that damaged oil pipelines in Arepo, Ogun State for product scarcity.

    Executive Director, Public Services, Peter Madu, told the Senator Magnus Abe led Committee that hoodlums disrupted repair works at the damaged pipeline, saying the incident affected the flow of petroleum products.

    He said as a result of the attack on the crew of NNPC that went to repair the pipe line, “three of our men including an engineer were abducted and yet to be found, aside three others currently receiving treatment.”

    He said however that the Corporation has made alternative arrangements to use tankers to move products to affected areas, adding that despite the alternative arrangement, many of the tankers were held up in the Lokoja, Kogi State, due to flooding.

    “It would take longer turn around for the tankers to get to their destinations and this has been responsible for the current hiccups noticed last week.”

    On threat of strike by NUPENG and PENGASAN, Madu said NNPC has not been notified of any threat of strike by any body.

    In his response, Abe commiserated with the NNPC over the abduction of its staff, urging the Inspector General of Police to take steps to arrest perpetrators of the Arepo incident.

    Meanwhile, government said petroleum marketers would be required to revamp their retail outlets and be re-certified by the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR) before they could market bio-fuel.

  • Fuel scarcity again!

    Fuel scarcity again!

    The problem of fuel scarcity took a turn for the worse earlier this week when motorists in Lagos and several neighbouring states found themselves on long queues in petrol stations across the region. The scarcity represents a worsening of fuel shortages which first manifested itself in Abuja last month.

    The current crisis is a consequence of several interlocking problems. The most immediate is the recent murder of workers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by pipeline vandals who were trying to prevent them from repairing damaged pipelines in Arepo, Ogun State. In addition, the Federal Government’s alleged refusal to reimburse fuel importers for past consignments has led to a reduction in fuel brought in by some of them, as well as sympathy strikes by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

    Given all that the nation has gone through in the last nine months, it is truly surprising that Nigerians should find themselves in this situation yet again. Ever since its inception, the Jonathan administration has touted itself as the conqueror of fuel scarcity. The petroleum ministry claimed that it had initiated reforms which would make the downstream sector more efficient, more transparent and more self-sustaining. The icing on the cake is the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a policy initiative which is expected to revolutionise the Nigerian crude oil sector.

    However, the recurrence of fuel crises clearly shows that government has not achieved as much as it would like us to believe. When it began to make a case for so-called total removal of subsidy on fuel, it stated that its main goal was to attain higher levels of transparency and efficiency. But it chose to begin with the citizenry instead of looking at the industry, and especially investigating the extremely incompetent and corrupt manner in which it was being regulated.

    This is a fundamental error which has badly affected all attempts to reform the way Nigeria’s crude oil resources are exploited, refined and distributed. Although several oil-importing firms have been charged with sharp practices running into billions of naira, there is as yet no real attempt to hold the regulatory agencies to account. So far, none of the officials of the NNPC, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), or the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has been charged with any offence, even though it is clear that these huge scams would have been impossible without their active connivance.

    Such is the government’s obvious lack of sincerity that it has enabled the oil-importers to fight back, using all the weapons in their arsenal. They have threatened not to import any more consignments of fuel until all outstanding bills have been paid, in effect forcing the authorities to choose between sanctioning them or getting fuel. These companies also appear to have staunch allies in NUPENG, whose wildcat strikes and scaremongering tactics have further compounded the situation.

    It is clear that government’s refusal to deal with the underlying causes of fuel scarcity has led the country to the unpalatable situation it is in. Instead of facing the corrupt oil-importation cabal and its collaborators, the government concentrated on the defenceless citizenry; instead of making the full resuscitation of oil refineries a cardinal point of its reforms, it chose to focus on better ways of importing the product. The vacuum created by this lamentable failure of leadership has allowed voracious oil-importers and their union collaborators to hold the nation to ransom.

    Nigeria can no longer afford to suffer unnecessary occurrences of fuel shortage. If government begins to deal with all parties utilising the right combination of fairness and firmness, the ugly sight of long queues at filling stations will be consigned to the past where it rightly belongs.