The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fuel scarcity

  • DPR to sanction four filling stations in Zamfara

    DPR to sanction four filling stations in Zamfara

    The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Zamfara, said on Saturday it has received a directive from the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to sanction four filling stations, should they continue to hoard petrol.

    The DPR Operations Controller in the state, Mallam Ango Haruna, stated this in Gusau.

    The Senate committee led by its chairman, Kabiru Marafa, had visited the state last week to monitor fuel situation in the state.

    The committee observed that some of the filling stations were selling petrol above government approved price, while some were hoarding and diverting the product.

    Haruna said the committee directed the DPR to sanction the four filling stations found selling the product above government approved price as well as hoarding it.

    “Yes, we have the records of the affected filling stations. We will sanction them as directed by the committee at the appropriate time.

    “You know, we were given directive from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources that we should not seal off any filling station at this critical time, and in fact, even the committee chairman reminded me of this directive during the visit.

    “What we do when we find any filling station selling above government price or hoarding is to force them to revert and make sure that they sell fuel to the public at N145, as approved by the government,” he said.

    He described the visit of the committee as a patriotic step to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.

    NAN

  • IPMAN urges Fed Govt to invest more in modular refineries to end fuel scarcity

    IPMAN urges Fed Govt to invest more in modular refineries to end fuel scarcity

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday urged the Federal Government to invest more in modular refineries as a way to end fuel scarcity.

    Its Chairman, South-west zone, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo only two days ago in Lagos, confirmed that 10 modular refineries were at advanced stages of development in the Niger Delta.

    The 10 modular refineries are located in five out of the nine states in the Niger Delta.

    The states include Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Imo states.

    Osinbajo said two of the refineries, Amakpe Refinery (Akwa Ibom), and OPAC Refinery (Delta State), have had their mini-refinery modules already fabricated, assembled and containerized overseas and ready for shipment to Nigeria for installation.

    The total proposed refining capacities of the 10 licensed refineries stands at 300,000 barrels.

    Ahmed said the modular refineries could help address any shortfall in fuel supply pending when additional refineries would be built.

    “It will also boost the country’s revenue generation and address frequent fuel capacity experienced during the yuletide seasons.

    “Our expectation in 2018 is for the government to invest more on modular refineries to be able to have more petrol locally to address scarcity,’’ he said.

    Ahmed said government had performed credibility well in the downstream sector in 2017, adding that it should crown it by building more modular refineries.

    According to him, a modular refinery is cheaper to build and it can move from one place to another.

    “A modular refinery is capable of refining between 10,000 and 35,000 barrels of crude oil per day,’’he said.

    He also urged the government to provide incentives that would attract investors to the oil and gas sector.

  • Scarcity: FG owes Nigerians apologies – Lawal

    Scarcity: FG owes Nigerians apologies – Lawal

    Global Affairs Analyst, Ayoola Lawal has vehemently frowned at the series of excuses from the President Buhari-led administration resulting in Fuel scarcity and other forms of hardship to Nigerians, especially during the Yuletide.
    Lawal made his grievances known in a telephone conversation with The Nation correspondent on Sunday, demanding that the Federal Government apologises to Nigerians for the hardship experienced during the Yuletide.
    According to him, this administration was elected by Nigerians because it came with promises they believed and not excuses.
    “When excuses and blame-shifting now become its mantra then it should accept that it has failed the masses based on its promises. This is not the time for Government to put up excuses. It is the season of celebration but sadly, most Nigerians could not celebrate like they planned due to fuel scarcity.
    “In a civilized society, the officers in charge should have resigned voluntarily and when they don’t, they should be suspended. To start with, President Buhari should consider stepping down as Petroleum minister so that Nigerians will know who to call for his or her suspension or resignation in such frustrating situation.
    “As it is, home and abroad, there exists a perception that Dr Ibe Kachikwu is on top of his game but unwarranted politics in the country`s oil sectors is the core cause of the untold hardship on good citizens of Nigeria.
    “When we stop or refuse to call our leaders to their shortcomings for one reason or the other at the expenses of the masses, that is a critical sign of trouble to come. Many Nigerians paid double for transportation during this festive season, especially those who must travel to their home towns for all annual celebrations.
    “Frankly speaking, the show put up by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Xmas day does not rhyme with his pedigree. Nigerians know who is working and who is not. Instead of apologising to the masses, the Federal Government is talking about how fuel subsidy is not at N26. If that’s the case, they should talk about the global fall in fuel prices,” he observed.
    Lawal, therefore, urged the government to be sensitive to the plights of the people noting that life has been very fair to those in government at the expenses of the masses.
    “May this coming 2018 be a year of unprecedented progress and peace for Nigeria,” he said.
  • Fuel scarcity: Something is rotten in Nigeria – Soyinka

    Fuel scarcity: Something is rotten in Nigeria – Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka is dismayed by the current fuel scarcity.

    He wonders why successive governments find it difficult to fix challenges facing the country.

    He is particularly disturbed by the blame passing by those charged with the responsibility of making the country work.

    Soyinka, in a statement yesterday on the state of the nation, could not understand why the generality of Nigerians are being exposed to unnecessary hardship caused by the fuel scarcity.

    He recalled government’s promise to deal with the situation during a similar fuel crisis in 1977.

    He attached to his statement which he entitled BLAME PASSING – The New Year Gift to a Nation, the bromide of the June 7, 1977 edition of the Daily Times in which President Muhammadu Buhari, who was Petroleum minister at the time said the fuel crisis ‘may be over next year.”

    He said in the statement: “In the accustomed tradition, I wish the nation less misery in the coming year. A genuine Happy New Year Greeting is probably too extravagant a wish.

    “The accompanying news clipping from June 1977 came into my hands quite fortuitously. It is forty years old. It captures the unenviable enigma that is the Nigerian nation. It is however a masterful end-of-year image to take into the coming year, not only for the individual now at the helm of government, General Buhari, but for a people surely credited with the most astounding degree of patience and forbearance on the African continent – except of course among themselves, when they turn into predatory fiends. When many of us are blissfully departed, an updated rendition of this same clipping – with a change of cast here and there – will undoubtedly be reproduced in the media, with the same alibis, the same in-built panacea of blame passing.

    “Let this be called to our collective memory. Even before the current edition of the fuel crisis, other challenges, requiring immediate fix, had begun to monopolize national attention, relegating to the sidelines the outcry for a fundamental and holistic approach to the wearisome cycle of citizen trauma. “This has been expressed most recently, and near universally in the word “Restructuring”, defined straightforwardly as a drastic overhaul of Nigerian articles of co-existence in a more rational, equitable and decentralized manner.

    “Such an overhaul, the re-positioning of the relationship between the parts and the whole offers, it has been strongly argued, prospects of a closer governance awareness of, and responsiveness to citizen entitlement. An overhaul that will near totally eliminate the frequent spasms of systemic malfunctioning that are in-built into the present protocols of national association.

    “I recently ran the gauntlet of petroleum queues through three conveniently situated cities – Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan – deliberately, this Friday.

    “Even with ‘unorthodox’ aids of passage, this was no task for the faint-hearted. Just getting past fuelling stations was traumatizing, an obstacle race through seething, frustrated masses of humanity, only to find ourselves on vast stretches of emptied roads pleading for occupation.

    “As for obtaining the petroleum in the first place – the less said the better. I suspect that this government has permitted itself to be fooled by the peace of those empty streets, but also by the orderly, patient, long-suffering queues that are admittedly prevalent in the city centres.

    “It is time the reporting monitors of government move to city peripheries and sometimes even some other inner urban sectors, such as Ikeja and Maryland from time to time to see, and listen! Pronouncements – such as the 1977 above – again re-echoing by rote in 2017– are a delusion at best, a formula that derides public intelligence.

    “Buying time. Passing blame. Yes of course, the current affliction must be remedied, and fast, but is there a dimension to it that must be brought to the fore, simultaneously and forcefully? This had better be the framework for solving even a shortage that virtually paralyzed the nation.

    “Just to think laterally for a moment – what became of the initiatives by some states nearly two decades ago – Lagos most prominently – to decentralize power, and thus empower states to generate and distribute their own energy requirements? Frustrated and eventually sabotaged in the most cynical manner from the Federal centre!

    “The similarity today is frightening – for nearly four days on that earlier occasion, the nation was blacked out near entirely. We know that one survival tactic of governments is to keep their citizens in the dark over decisions that affect their lives but, this was literal!

    “And yet each such crisis, plus lesser ones, merely reiterate again and again that this national contraption, as it now stands, is simply  – dysfunctional!.

    “What this demands is that, in the process of alleviating the immediate pressing misery, we do not permit ourselves to be manipulated yet again into forgetting the MAIN issue whose ramifications exact penalties such as petroleum seizures and national power outage.

    “These are only two handy, being recent symptoms – there are several others, but this is not intended to be a catalogue of woes. Sufficient to draw attention to the Yoruba saying that goes: Won ni, Amukun, eru e wo. Oun ni, at’isale ni. Translation: Some voices alerted the K-Legged porter to the dangerous tilt of the load on his head. His response was – Thank you, but the problem actually resides in the legs.

    “The providential image above sums up a defining moment for both individual and collective self-assessment, places in question the ability of a nation to profit from past experience. Vast resources, yes, but proved unmanageable under its present structural arrangements.

    “As the tussle for the next round of power gets hotter in the coming year, the electorate will again be manipulated into losing sight of the BASE ISSUE.

    “Its noisome claque in the meantime, the automated mumus of social media, practiced in sterile deflection and trivialization of critical issues, unwittingly join hands with government to indulge in blame passing and name calling – both sides with different targets.

    “From the anguished cry of Charley Boy’s Our Mummu Done Do! to expositions from academics such as Professor Makinde’s recent intervention, the public is subjected daily to a relentless barrage of awareness, underlined in urgency. Nobody listens.

    “One wonders if many people read. And certainly, very few retain or relate – until of course the next crisis. The Labour movement declares that it awaits a guarantee of the ‘people’s backing’ before it embarks on any critical intervention.

    “Understandably. There is more than enough of the opium of blame passing on tap to lull mummus into that deep coma from which – give it a little more time – there can only be a rude awakening.

    “Sooner than later, but not as soon as pledged, the fuel crisis will pass. And then of course we shall await the next round of shortages, then a recommencement of blame passing.  What will be the commodity this time – food perhaps?

    “Maybe even potable water? In a nation of plenty, nothing is beyond eventual shortage – except of course, the commonplace endowment of pre-emptive planning and methodical execution. Forty years after, the same language of re-assurance? “There is something rotten in the state of Naija.”

  • Fuel scarcity: ‘Attempt to arm twist the government’, cleric urges

    The General Overseer of the Wordbase Assembly, Humphrey Erumaka, has described the incessant fuel scarcity usually witnessed during the yuletide in Nigeria as a means of arm twisting the government into taking certain decisions and an attempt to sabotage government effort.

    Erumaka made this assertion at a recent press conference held at the church auditorium on the forthcoming annual Festival of Power and Prayer Crusade scheduled for January 7 to 21, in Lagos.

    According to him, “For me, I consider the recent fuel scarcity is an act of both external and internal sabotage; even those who are going on strike now should have a better time for going on strike than during Christmas.”

    He said that the government should show more concern in handling the situation, as he saw no reason why there should always be a fuel scarcity during Christmas. “I feel some of the strike at Christmas is a form of hand twisting, so that whatever we ask because of the pressure of the season must be given to us.”

    Erumaka, however, thinks some of the issues that led to the current fuel scarcity could have been settled long before the yuletide to make room for a smooth celebration at Christmas.

    Speaking on government’s attempt at withdrawing $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), Erumaka opined that the government must take a holistic approach in tackling the insecurity situation in the country rather than the present approach of trying to focus on the Northeast.

    “I support the view that such huge amount to fight a situation that has been declared defeated is an aberration, and Boko Haram is not only happening in the Northeast. If nothing is done to arrest the situation of the Fulani herdsmen rampaging across the country – the herdsmen have killed more people in the Southeast/Southwest than Boko Haram in the Northeast, so security generally should be addressed; not one part of the country,” Erumaka posited.

    He noted that the lack of a proper and standardised costing system in Nigeria is an avenue for corruption that allows for huge amounts of money to be budgeted for capital projects with little or no corresponding impact on the people.

    “We are looking at N360 billion, I mean the longest bridge in China was constructed with just a little over $1billion, while the best cancer hospital in Chicago cost about $140 million. So when you talk about $1 billion, it can change this country to a large extent. So the state of the issue of security in Nigeria has more to do with will power than spending money. It is easier to spend money than to win a war,” he concluded.

     

  • ‘How fuel scarcity ruined our Christmas’

    ‘How fuel scarcity ruined our Christmas’

    For many Nigerians, the yuletide period was a bleak season owing to the hardship brought about by the lingering fuel scarcity across the nation. While many had looked forward to a blissful holiday season devoid of chaos and confusion, the opposite was what happened, as many were forced to spend long hours at fuel stations, thereby cutting down on the merriment and bliss of the Christmas season.

    Nightmarish. That was how Calabar –based banker Samuel Akpan described  his experience searching for fuel in the days leading to, and during the Christmas festivity.

    Not many Nigerians would disagree with him. Others will probably go for harsher adjectives to describe what they went through during the period. And the agony is not yet over, despite promises by top government officials that the end is in sight for the fuel scarcity that has paralysed economic activities across the country for the their week running.

    “I think I have spent more time on fuel queues than I have with my family this Christmas,” 40-year-old Akpan told The Nation in Calabar.

    His decision to buy from filling stations rather than the black market stemmed, partly from his experience. He once bought fuel from the black market and he does not like what happened to his car afterwards: the engine was damaged apparently by the adulterated fuel he was sold then.

    Besides the quality of petrol, he said he could not bring himself to cough up between N250 to N400 for a litre of petrol by the road side. Consequently, he had to spend up to 12 hours on the queue at a filling station to enable him get fuel at the official N145 per litre.

    The nightmarish experience, according to him, ended up taking the joy out of the yuletide season, although he was quick to add that fuel scarcity at this time of the year in the country is not particularly new.

    “We must not forget that this is not new to us,” he said. “I see people make it seem like it is all about the president, Buhari. Let us not forget that in the past this always occurred during this season and I dare say, some even worse than what we are facing now.

    “We always seem to forget too easily. My disappointment with this government is that despite all its promises, it still allowed this situation to persist. We were thinking that with all the assurances it gave us, this kind of experience would remain in the past, but what we are experiencing right now is a real shame.”

    A fellow Calabar resident, Miss Affiong Etim, could not stand the hike in transport fares caused by the fuel scarcity.

    Her words: “No light, no roads, no water, no money, and now no fuel. The money we don’t even have we now spend on transport alone. And it is not just transport, because as a market woman, I can tell you that the price of everything has gone up.

    “Transport fares have doubled or trippled. My brother, people are suffering. As I am to you, I have been standing here for close to one hour and I still cannot get a vehicle to enable me go and do my business. It is bad.”

    Mr Chinedu Nwosu, who was on his way to Umuahia, Abia State, said he had to pay N2,500 as against the normal fare of N1,500.

    Blaming government for the situation, Nwosu said: “I can’t blame transporters because it is business they are running and they buy petrol at this crazy price. It’s all government’s fault. It has to do something urgently about it.”

    The agony of motorists and commuters continues in Ilorin metropolis, the Kwara State capital, and other parts of the state like Offa, Ajase Ipo, Omu-Aran, Omupo and Idofian, as only a few filling stations are dispensing fuel.

    Only NNPC mega station and retail outlets along Asa Dam road, have regular supplies to sell. Same goes for Bovas filing stations along Fate and Offa Garage Roads.

    Sadly, there are long queues of vehicles waiting to buy fuel. Accordingly, transport fares have gone up astronomically.

    Black marketers are having a field day with five litres now going for between N1,800 and N2,200 in Ilorin township. The situation has also affected the prices of food items and other essentials.

    Recounting his ordeal, a motorist who gave his name as Johnson Abiodun, said he had to park his car at home.

    “I now take   motorbike to my workshop,” he said. The situation is not palatable at all. It marred the Christmas celebration”.

    A Jos motorist, Monday Azi, is surprised that government’s promise that the increase in the pump price of petrol to N145 per litre would ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel in the country has now failed.

    “That deregulation has gone on for two years over and market forces have not brought down the price of petroleum.”

    A commercial bus driver in Jos who chose not to be named said: “Since December 23, once I close in the evening, instead of going home to rest, I go and queue at the station to enable me get fuel for the next day.”

    Another commercial taxi driver in Jos, Sunday Abah, said: “For me to get fuel by  7 or 8 in the morning, I would join the queue by 10pm of the previous day.

    “It began as a joke; we thought it would end quickly. But here we are, nobody knows when we will be out of the problem”.

    A major fall out of the fuel scarcity in Jos is the December 15 tanker explosion at a filling station in the tin city. One of the five tankers waiting to off load their content unexpectedly exploded.

    Three of the tankers were completely burnt and the remaining two partly burnt.

    Two lives were lost in the inferno.

    A Port Harcourt commercial driver, Onwuchekwa Precious, told The Nation that the situation was getting unbearable for him.

    “Things are so bad; the pain is unbearable. Sometimes I sleep at petrol stations to be able to get fuel to do my business. Christmas did not go as planned at all because since the fuel scarcity started, the price of almost everything has gone up. Times are very hard, I must confess.”

    Another commercial driver, who identified himself simply as Isaac, said: “We did not have a wonderful Christmas at all, if you ask me. It is just that we Nigerians are so used to suffering and smiling, according to the music icon Fela. The fuel scarcity ruined my plans for the Christmas.

    “I had planned to go home (Anambra State) with my family but I couldn’t do that because the cost of fuel was too high. I am buying petrol at the rate of N250 per litre and black marketers are selling at N400 per litre. As a result of this, I have no choice than to increase transport fare.

    A traveller, Sefiu Olabisi, said: “It is so bad we are ending this beautiful month on this note. I normally pay N4,500 for a bus ride from Port Harcourt to Lagos, but it suddenly went up to N10,000.”

    For Mr. Femi Olutade, a Lagos resident, this year’s Christmas will linger in his memory for ll the wrong reasons.

    “Transport fare increased four times over,” he lamented, adding: “I boarded Ketu to Berger, which was usually N50, at N200 on the 23rd and 24th December. Berger to Oshodi, which used to be N150, went up to N500.

    “This fuel crisis made Christmas to be less memorable for a lot of people who couldn’t travel to see their loved ones. Many motorists couldn’t do their businesses efficiently because it was hard to get fuel.

    “They were forced to cut down on the number of trips, hence reducing drastically the number of vehicles that could convey the teeming population”, he lamented.

    Mr Olutade believes that until the constitution of the country is strengthened and regulatory agencies become independent and transparent in their activities, fuel scarcity may persist.

    “Marketers wouldn’t have the nerve to hoard fuel if they know the DPR is watching and has the constitutional authority to arrest and prosecute any offender”, he submitted.

    Olumide Ogundele, an Osogbo resident, simply remained indoors during the festivity to avoid the chaos that characterized the period. The fuel scarcity made the Christmas holiday  boring,” he said.

    “I had to stay indoors to maintain some sanity. The few places I had to travel to, I couldn’t get fuel and that means missing out of what would have been a wonderful celebration with my family.

    “Visiting some places within the metropolis also became a chore. Transport fare was jacked up and we even had to make do with squeezing ourselves, as four people were packed to occupy a space made for three persons”.

    It was the same case of retreat from fun activities for Amos Abah, a youth corps member, who couldn’t travel home for Christmas as a result of the fuel scarcity.

    “Fuel scarcity in Owerri gave my Christmas celebration a solitary and less exciting outlook. The ripple effect that resulted in a hike in transport fare within Owerri made me retreat to the comfort of my room to avoid engaging drivers in arguments over transport fare.

    “The fare from World Bank to Wetheral Road, which was usually N100, was doubled and in some cases quadrupled, with drivers charging outrageous fees whilst taking advantage of helpless passengers”.

    For Janet Gbam, a Facebook user who kept a night at a fuel station, said Christmas lost the glee of sharing and giving as she was forced to charge fees from those she would hitherto offer free rides to. She said: “You won’t believe I slept in a Total filling station in Area 11, Abuja, waiting for fuel to be offloaded. When eventually fuel started selling and it was about three people to get to my turn, my car suddenly developed a fault.

    “I called the mechanic and he came to fix it and I got fuel around 11:30 the next morning. All this happened between the hours of 9:30 pm Friday to 11:30 a.m Saturday. I drove to Makurdi on Sunday and I was forced to turn my car into public transport as I collected fares from people. Before now, it used to be free ride but I even collected money from my

  • Senate summons Kachikwu, Baru, others over fuel scarcity

    Senate summons Kachikwu, Baru, others over fuel scarcity

    The Senate on Thursday summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru and other relevant stakeholders in oil and gas industry over the persistent fuel scarcity in the country.

    They are expected to appear before the Senate committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on January 4, 2018 for a “crucial meeting” with the committee to discuss the way forward on the matter.

    A statement issued on Thursday by the office of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, directed the committee On Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene a meeting with industry stakeholders.

    The statement quoted the chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, as saying that proceedings at the meeting would be transmitted live by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

    The Senate, which is presently on Christmas and New Year break is billed to resume committee work for budget defence on January 9, and commence plenary on January 16.

  • Residents urge govt to fix electricity, end fuel scarcity

    Residents of Nsukka in Enugu State have urged the Federal Government to prioritise electricity and fuel supply in 2018, to boost the economy.

    They spoke yesterday at Nsukka in interviews with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    A lawyer and rights’ campaigner, Mr. Jude Ugwuja, said the government should ensure local refining of petroleum products.

    He said incessant fuel scarcity had adverse effects on the economy.

    “The government should commit more resources to repair and upgrade our refineries to operate in full capacity next year.

    “This will help to stabilise the prices of petroleum products and end fuel scarcity.

    “If Nigeria continues to produce crude and send it abroad for refining, the country will experience petrol scarcity.

    “It is sad that Nigeria, a leading oil producer, cannot refine its petroleum products to meet local needs,’’ the lawyer said.

    Mr. Samuel Ezema, a lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), said steady power supply would stimulate every sector of the economy and create jobs.

    “With steady power supply, local and foreign investors will be willing to invest.

    “Investors will like to set up businesses, generating millions of employment.

    “If the power sector is fixed, small-scale businesses will spring up in every nook and cranny,’’ the don said.

    The traditional ruler of Okpuje community, Igwe Oliver Ayogu, told NAN that the government should invest more in agriculture.

    He said improved agriculture would facilitate achievement of food security and earn more foreign exchange.

    Ayogu, however, hailed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for efforts to boost agriculture.

    “Early this year, there was increase in prices of foodstuffs, but today the prices have reduced because of government’s special attention to issues concerning agriculture.

    “Earning power of rural farmers has received a boost; they even boast of bumper harvest.

    “Agricultural programmes have provided jobs for thousands of graduates, thereby reducing unemployment and youth restiveness,’’ he said.

    Mrs. Ngozi Ugwuoke, who retired from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, told NAN that the government should focus on agriculture, “because it is a heavy foreign exchange earner.’’

    “In the 1960s and 1970s, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy, as older universities, such as UNN and University of Ibadan (UI) were built from its proceeds.

    “The economy at the time was good.

    “People from other parts of the world longed to come to Nigeria, as the economy was robust; food was enough and many people were employed in farm settlements,’’ she said.

  • How NNPC caused fuel scarcity – Marketer

    How NNPC caused fuel scarcity – Marketer

    An oil and gas merchant, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, has attributed the persistent scarcity of petrol to monopoly of the product by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Iheanacho, also the Chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday that the inability of NNPC to create a window for private importers to import petrol also contributed to the scarcity.

    According to him, the current shortage in fuel importation gap was caused by the landing cost margin of N171 per litre and the selling cost pegged at N 145 per litre.

    Iheanacho said that this was not realistic for marketers to import and sell at that rate.

    “The selling of the product at N145 per litre is no longer feasible with the current exchange rate.

    “Shortage of foreign exchange and increase in crude prices have made it unprofitable to import petrol and sell same at N145 per litre.

    “The problem is that importation of petrol is being handled, almost 100 per cent, by NNPC, while private importers backed out because the increase in crude price has made the landing cost high,” he said.

    Iheanacho said that the marketers’ huge debts of over N800 billion had also contributed to their inability to import petrol.

    He said that most independent marketers had closed their companies due to inability to pay their workers.

    Iheanacho urged the Federal Government to settle all the outstanding debts owed marketers since 2015.

    According to him, commercial banks have started taken over the property and tank farms of some companies that could not pay back their loans.

    NAN reports that loading of petrol had commenced in Apapa.

    Visit to Apapa on Tuesday showed that hundreds of trucks were on queue waiting to load the product at Total, Forte Oil, Oando Plc, MRS, NIPCO and other private depots.

    NAN Correspondent who monitored the fuel situation in Lagos metropolis reports that long queues of motorists still persist in many filling stations in the metropolis.

    In areas like Ikorodu, Epe, Ibeju-Lekki, Oshodi, Ajegunle, Ikotun, Bariga and Sango-Ota, some stations were still selling petrol between N180 and N200 per litre.

    In Ikorodu area, many filling stations were selling at N200 per litre, while only few were selling at the official price.

    Commercial bus operators increased their fares by more than 100 per cent, claiming that they bought petrol above the official price of N145 per litre.

    NAN reports that the transport fare from Ikorodu Garage to CMS has increased from between N300 and N350 before the scarcity, to N1000.

    Also, from Epe to Ketu, passengers were being charged N1,500 against the N700 they were charging before the scarcity, while the fare from Ketu to Costain climbed to between N300 and N500.

  • Fuel scarcity: Aregbesola warns against hoarding

    Fuel scarcity: Aregbesola warns against hoarding

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has warned petroleum marketers to desist from hoarding fuel, which has created artificial scarcity in the state and other parts of the country.

    Aregbesola noted that sharp and unethical practices had worsened the plight of residents and commuters travelling for the Yuletide.

    The governor said such attitude negates the Omoluabi ethos the state exemplifies.

    In a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Solar Fasure, the governor said the fuel scarcity had affected the joy of the Yuletide season.

    The statement said: “It has come to the attention of Osun State government that the peace, joy and serenity of this Yuletide season is somewhat being marred by fuel shortage being experienced all over the country. This is most regrettable.

    “The state government sympathises with the people of the state whose movements have been restricted or have had to spend valuable time on queues at filling stations.

    “However, we have received assurances from the Federal Government and not less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari that the situation is being addressed, that more barges of fuel are being received and distributed at the moment and that the crisis will soon be over within the shortest possible time.

    “The state government, therefore, urges fuel marketers to desist from hoarding, profiteering and other sharp and unethical practices that could exacerbate the situation, worsen the plight of residents and detract from our Omoluabi status.”

    The government also enjoined the residents and fillings stations to conduct themselves peacefully in the sales of fuel, where the product is available.

    Aregbesola said: “There should not be more than a single lane of vehicles on the queue, to prevent traffic congestion and accidents. On no account must any road be blocked or made impassable as a result of fuel queues. Filling stations must observe all safety rules to prevent accidents and fire outbreaks.”

    “Law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), should properly take charge of the situation and do the needful to maintain law and order, prevent unruly and disorderly public conducts, protect lives, ensure public safety and free flow of traffic.”