The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fuel

  • 11 ships arrive Lagos ports with petrol, other products

    No fewer than 11 ships carrying various products are at Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports waiting to berth, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday in Lagos.

    It said three of the vessels contained petrol, while the remaining eight ships would berth with aviation fuel, uria, soya beans, bulk gas, diesel and fertilizer.

    The NPA stated that 32 other ships carrying buckwheat, vehicles, containers, steel, frozen fish, steel buckwheat, base oil and bulk gas were expected at the ports between July 3 and July 30.

    Read Also: Tanker spills fuel on Lagos road

    The other products expected are: base oil, bulk fertiliser, kerosene, general cargo and petrol.

  • Photos: Tanker spills fuel on Lagos road

    A tanker laden with fuel has been seen spilling fuel on Ipaja road Lagos.

    The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at Moshalashi Bus stop/roundabout Ipaja.

    According to an official of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) who preferred not to be named, the driver was forced to stop the fuel started leaking.

    Officials of the Lagos Neighborhood and Security Corps (LNSC), LASTMA, Lagos Response Unit (LRU), Nigerian Police and Lagos State Fire Service are currently on ground, waiting for the content to be trans loaded to another vehicle before final evacuation of the damaged tanker.

    Read Also: Tanker explosion: LASG to prosecute owner, driver

  • Fuel import costs $15b yearly

    Nigeria is spending about $15billion yearly on fuel importation, the  Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, has said.

    A statement titled: Green Field Refinery Initiative yesterday quoted Baru as saying the country spends between $12billion to $15billion yearly to reduce the deficit in daily domestic fuel consumption in the country.

    He said the Nigeria’s resort to fuel importation became imperative in order to improve supply and avert scarcity.

    He said the development poses serious threats to the government’s dwindling revenue, if left unchecked.

    According to him, the country’s dwindling fortune was caused by the fall in the international prices of crude oil , adding that the Federal Government is investing in additional refinery capacity alongside private investors, who have demonstrated their readiness to hold some equities in the project.

    Baru said: ‘’To reduce the huge cost expended in importing fuel into the country, especially the money that is being spent in reducing deficit in the supply of the product, the government is investing in refinery capacity, alongside companies that are holding some equities in the refinery project.  “Through this means, the government would be able to meet the country’s gasoline consumption  of 36million litres per day and 10 million litres of kerosene per day.”

    He said government is trying to establish three refineries with approximately 400-550 million barrels per day (bpd) in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi states, in order to boost fuel processing in the country.

    Baru said the issue of location, configuration and shareholding structure of the refineries would be determined by the government and the private investors, adding that the refineries  would be market oriented and profit motivated.

    He said the government is in the vanguard of promoting new refineries in order to increase in-country crude oil refinery capacity and further help private investors  to perform in the face of technical and financial challenges facing them.

    Baru said the refineries will boast of state-of-the-art facilities, as well as provide high percentage of white petroleum products. He stressed that the refineries would operate as import substitution plants  that would be supplying refined products to consumers in the domestic market.

    ‘’In addition, the refineries would be exporting to regional and international markets, with a view to make more money.  This means that the refineries are going to play across borders, a development that would enable them to earn  foreign exchange,’’ he added.

    He said the idea would enable Nigeria to become fuel hub in  West Africa ,  which  according to him, boasts of 18 countries, 290 million population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $340bilion.

    He said the establishment of new refineries would enable Nigeria to become self sufficiency, as well as encouraging economic growth.

    The refineries, Baru said, would have a multiplier effects on the economy because they would provide direct and indirect jobs for the people.

  • Fuel: DPR watching depots, retail outlets

    Fuel: DPR watching depots, retail outlets

    The Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR) Lagos Zone, has redoubled its surveillance at the depots and  retail outlets to further boost the ongoing efforts of the Federal Government to ensure constant supply of petroleum products across the nation.

    “We have been monitoring activities at the depots to gauge availability and ensure timely truck-out of available products. We have also intensified surveillance to ensure that available premium motor spirit (PMS) is not sold above the N145 cap price at the pumps.”

    He said DPR has noticed that “some unscrupulous operators, aware that our officials cannot possibly be at all the 9,039 registered retail outlets in Lagos Zone at the same time, often adjust their pumps to deliver at the cap price whenever they sense DPR presence in their area and hike the price subsequently. We, therefore, advise that motorists should insist on obtaining receipts for the purchase from such retail outlets.”

    DPR said it is expending all efforts to bring erring marketers to book through imposition of fines and suspensions in line with extant regulations. Specifically, the following retail outlets were sanctioned in the zone in February 2018 – Omo – Owo, Marns Nigeria Limited, Rasaq Oil, Vicket Limited, Whalex Limited, OSEFEM Resources, KOLFRACIS Limited, Dauyet Oil & Gas and Ocean Grace.”

    The retail outlets are located at Ilogbo, Randal-Imeko, Atogbe-Ilara, Ilara-Alagbe and Ilara. Their offences range from hoarding, selling above pump price between N170 and N180 per litre, under-dispensing, no caution signs, no sand bucket and petrol attendants without PPE (personal protective equipment). At Vicket Limited, there is a salon and liquor sold inside the premises.

     

  • NNPC raises alarm over smuggling of fuel to boarder towns

    NNPC raises alarm over smuggling of fuel to boarder towns

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC ) has raised the alarm over the proliferation of fuel stations in communities with international land and coastal borders across the country.

    It insisted that the development has energized unprecedented cross-border smuggling of petrol to neighboring countries, making it difficult to sanitize the fuel supply and distribution matrix in the country.

    The corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.

    Leading a top Management team of the corporation on a visit to the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Retd), the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, revealed that detailed study conducted by NNPC indicated strong correlation between the presence of the frontier stations and the activities of fuel smuggling syndicates.

    He said that the activities of the smugglers had led to recent observed abnormal surge in the evacuation of petrol from less than 35 million litres per day to more than 60 milion litres per day which is in sharp contrast with established national consumption pattern.

    Providing a detailed presentation of the findings, the NNPC GMD informed that 16 states, having amongst them 61 Local Government Areas with border communities, account for 2,201 registered fuel stations.

    The fuel tank, he noted, had a combined capacity of 144, 998, 700 (one hundred and forty four million, nine hundred and ninety eight thousand and seven hundred) litres of petrol.

    In the same vein, eight states with coastal border communities spread across 24 LGAs amongst the states account for 866 registered fuel outlets with combined petrol tank capacity of 73, 443, 086 (seventy three million, four hundred and forty three thousand and eighty six) litres.

    A further breakdown of the finding shows that among the states with land border, three LGA’s in Ogun State account for 633 fuel stations with combined petrol tankage of 40, 485,000 (Forty Million and Four Hundred and Eight Five thousand) litres while nine LGA’s in Borno State have 337 fuel outlets with combined petrol storage capacity of 21, 114, 480 (twenty one million, one hundred and fourteen thousand four hundred and eighty) litres. Lagos with one LG as border community has 235 registered fuel stations with total petrol storage facility of 19,916, 600 (Nineteen Million, Nine Hundred and Sixteen Thousand, Six Hundred) litres.

    On the coastal front, Lagos with six LGA’s leads with 487 registered fuel stations with combined in-built storage capacity of 50, 239,560 (Fifty Million, Two Hundred and Thirty Nine Thousand, Five Hundred and Sixty) litres. Akwa Ibom with five LGA’s has 134 registered retail outlets with capacity to store 8, 322, 986 (eight million, three hundred and twenty two thousand and nine hundred and eighty six) litres, while Ondo State with two LGA’s has 110 fuel stations with capacity to store 3,871,320 (three million eight hundred and seventy one thousand, three hundred & twenty) litres.

    Dr. Baru explained that because of the obvious differential in petrol price between Nigeria and other neighboring countries, it had become lucrative for the smugglers to use the frontier stations as a veritable conduit for the smuggling of products across the border, saying this had resulted in a thriving market for Nigerian petrol in all the neighouring countries of Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Cameroun, Chad and Togo and even Ghana which has no direct borders with Nigeria.

    “’NNPC is concerned that continued cross-border smuggling of petrol will deny Nigerians the benefit of the Federal Government’s benevolence of keeping a fix retail price of N145 per litre despite the increase in PMS open market price above N171 per litre,’’ he said.

    He noted that based on the heightened petrol consumption rate of 50 million litre per day, the corporation was incurring an under-recovery of N774 million every day.

    Welcoming the NNPC GMD and his team to the Customs Headquarters, Col. Ali said the Service would work with the corporation to stem the tide of cross-border smuggling of petroleum products, noting that all hands must be on deck to ensure the economic survival of the country. 

    The Customs boss thanked NNPC GMD for the elaborate data he provided on the fuel supply situation, noting that this would enable the service fashion out the appropriate architecture to combat the menace.

    He called on the authorities to tackle the issue of price differentials which is the underlying motivation for smuggling activities.

  • Still on fuel

    Still on fuel

    •We need a policy for local production

    Nigeria’s failure or inability to refine petroleum products locally keeps haunting it. At least two news reports, last week, are pointers to this sad fact. The first was the disclosure by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that we spent $5.8bn importing petroleum products last year. The second is the demand by the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) that the Federal Government must pay subsidy arrears if the persistent fuel scarcity is to be a thing of the past.

    NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, made the disclosure of the amount it cost us to import fuel last year during a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.

    Baru, who was represented by the chief operating officer, (finance and accounts), Abdulrazaq Isiaka, said NNPC carried out the massive importation to fulfill its statutory role as supplier of last resort to ensure that Nigerians did not suffer as a result of product unavailability.

    MOMAN, on its part, also asked the government to continue the subsidy regime in order to facilitate the importation of petrol to meet local demand. The group’s executive secretary, Mr Obafemi Olawore, told the Senate Committee on Public Accounts in Abuja on Tuesday last week, as part of the probe into the alleged illegal payment of subsidy by the NNPC, that government’s failure to pay the subsidy had incapacitated marketers from importing fuel.

    It is sad, so sad that we are still importing fuel about three years after the Muhammadu Buhari administration came into being. We know that it is impossible for the government to have solved the fuel crisis completely by now, but then, we would have moved close to destination if it had enunciated a clear-cut policy on how to take the country there. It is only recently that it seems to be getting serious about the modular refineries that it promised. Even if that was what it has been pursuing, we would have made some progress, no matter how small, with regard to local refining of petroleum products.

    The incessant fuel queues at our filling stations are the result of the fact that we still import the bulk of fuel consumed in the country. Of course, given the vagaries of the international oil market, the N145 per litre of fuel that the government fixed in 2016 when crude price was down to about $30 per barrel cannot stand at the over $60 per barrel that it is going for presently. But then, the government cannot announce further fuel price increase because of the political backlash. Fuel marketers who hitherto imported the bulk of the fuel have backed out because it is no longer profitable for them to continue importation and sell at the prevailing fixed price. Yet, the NNPC alone lacks the capacity to import our fuel needs.

    MOMAN is lamenting non-payment of subsidy now apparently because the government is reluctant in paying because of the massive frauds associated with it in the past. Yet, what should have been done is to criminalise the subsidy thieves rather than subsidy because most economies have had cause to pay subsidy in one form or the other.

    Yet, the government cannot continue playing the ostrich. It should put the subsidy on the table so that all Nigerians can see it and decide the way forward. That is far better than the present arrangement where the NNPC is doing it without subjecting it to legislative scrutiny.

    In the long run, however, the government has to come up with a viable policy to ensure that we produce fuel locally. That is the only way to stop the perennial queues at our filling stations.

  • N650b debt: Oil marketers threaten to shut fuel depots

    N650b debt: Oil marketers threaten to shut fuel depots

    • 10,000 workers jobs on the line

    The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN)  has threatened to shut all its depots in less than 14 day time and throw its workforce nof over 10,000 into the labour market.

    The oil marketers gave this fresh threat in a letter dispatched to the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.

    The letter which was endorsed by DAPPAM’s Executive Secretary,  Olufemi Adewoleb was dated February 20.

    The association said the decision was taken because members could no longer continue operations due to N650 billion owed them by the Federal Government.

    The letter reads: “In the light of the foregoing, DAPPMAN members do not have any other option open to us to forestall increasing debt burden of borrowing to pay staff than (but) to immediately commence massive staff disengagement.

    “The unfortunate primary fallout of this step is the likely shutdown of all DAPPMAN depots nationwide due to lack of man power to operate same pending the ime the federal government will pay off its indebtedness to petroleum marketers.

    “This unfortunately will have a multiplier effect on the nationwide supply and distribution of petroleum products which presently is a struggle.

    “This letter serves as a fresh 14-day reminder from today and an opportunity for the Federal Fovernment tiers and its agencies to speedily approve and pay off its remaning subsidy indebtedness to all our members and indeed all petroleum marketing companies.”

    In an initial letter sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, DAPPMAN said members could no longer access bank funds for their operations and gave a 21-day notice beginning January 24 before it would lay off workers.

    The group also lamented that the banks, in conjuction with the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), are in the process of auctioning the properties provided by its members as collateral for loans.

    According to the letter: “These debts came about as a result of: The foreign exchange differentials which arose as a result of the initial devaluation of the naira (by the last administration) from the initial N165/$; the interest component that arose due to delayed reimbursemnet also by the same administration which the Federal Government had approved for payment to marketers but which was not fully settled by the appropriate Federal Government agencies.

    “The second forex differential component and obviously the largest chunk is due to the last but further devaluation of the naira from N195 to N305 to $1, while the Federal Government agencies had based their reimbursement calculation on N197/$; this devaluation left petroleum marketers within our association with additional unplanned debt burden in excess of N300billon.

    “As a result of the above, the downstream sector as a whole, has been saddled with a debt burden of over N650billion which keeps rising alongside the previous debts because the banks keep charging interests and will continue to do so until the total debt is fully liquidated.”

  • Why fuel crisis lingers, by IPMAN

    Why fuel crisis lingers, by IPMAN

    The Federal Government’s inability to improve fuel supply is caused by  dysfunctional refineries, failure to pay marketers their over N800 billion subsidy debts and poor maintenance of the majority of the 22 depots owned by the  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), The Nation has learnt.

    Other reasons are the cost of fuel import and marketers’ inability to access foreign exchange (forex).

    It was gathered that many of the 22- state owned depots were not working  because NNPC lacked the capacity to meet fuel requirement.

    Investigation by The Nation revealed that NNPC is rationing fuel due to high cost of importation. During a visit to the NNPC Satellite depot in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos, it was discovered that the corporation supplies the depot between five and 10 million litres of fuel  weekly, instead of 21 million litres.

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Southwest Chairman,  Alhaji Debo Ahmed, said many of the depots were not working optimally.

    In a telephone interview, he said Aba, Port Harcourt, Owerri,  Ibadan and Mosimi depots were functioning at low capacity.

    He said the failure of the NNPC to distribute fuel evenly nationwide was also a cause of the problem.

    Ahmed said: “Often times, NNPC supplies fuel to private depots at N156 per litre instead of N133 per litre, a development which made some marketers to sell fuel at higher rate than the official pump price. This, among others, contributes to the pocket of crisis, which the downstream sub-sector of the oil and gas industry is facing.’’

    Also, the IPMAN’ Chairman, Ejigbo Sattelite Depot, Mr Alanamu Balogun, said: “Fuel scarcity persists despite the establishment of two depots in Apapa, Lagos, last week, by private investors.”

    He said the inclusion of Folawiyo and Emadel depots to the depots in the country is yet to improve fuel supply. He said Ejigbo depot was battling storage problem as its five bigger storage tanks are not working well, adding that the development made the depot to use the smaller tanks for operation.

  • Calabar Radio station gives free fuel

    Calabar Radio station gives free fuel

    Calabar radio station Hit 95.9FM has given out free petrol to car owners at strategic filling stations in the Cross River state capital.

    The free fuel distribution was done for two days last week to mark   Calabar’s No. 1 urban contemporary radio station’s second anniversary.

    The station’s Head of Programmes and Production McDonald Peter-Anyangbe, alongside On Air Personalities were at the filling stations, Eddy Excel and Uddy King, on Tuesday and Wednesday after it was announced on air, to put smiles on the faces of listeners.

    Motorists were excited at the gesture and couldn’t stop pouring on encomiums on the station.

    Hit FM, broadcasting in a frequency of 95.9, is the first private broadcast outfit in Cross River State, offering the “Best Music, Best Talk” on radio. The station commenced commercial broadcasting on February 1, 2016.

     

  • IPMAN orders members to stop sale of fuel in Ondo

    IPMAN orders members to stop sale of fuel in Ondo

    The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in Ondo State yesterday ordered the closure of filling stations across the state.

    This followed the reported arrest of its members.

    It was learnt that there was a confrontation between fuel dealers and the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Special Duties, Doyin Odebowale, in Akure, the state capital.

    The State IPMAN Chairman Adejimi Adedapo, who gave the directive, said the action of the SSA and his team was a sabotage and arbitrary punishment of marketers and the public.

    He said the association recently ensured that the residents got Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), or petrol, at all cost, despite the challenges they encountered in getting the product.

    The IPMAN chairman said the PMS was N165 per litre from the depots, with other factors, like haulage, overhead cost and others not included.

    One of the leaders of the association, who was arrested, Bayo Olowookere said the action of the governor’s aide was unwarranted.

    According to him, his wife and some workers of his filling station were harassed before he was ordered for arrest alongside his wife.

    A former IPMAN Chairman, who spoke in confidence, said majority of the filling stations were disrupted and their fuel dispensed indiscriminately.

    He said members of the association in the state could not continue to bear the hardship, adding that attempts to meet with the state government on the matter were rebuffed.

    Olowookere urged union members to stop selling fuel to customers in the 18 local government areas of the state.

    There had been an outrage from the public over the hike in fuel price between N200 and N220 in the state without the intervention of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) officials.

    The development prompted the recent action of the state government in the interest of the residents.