Failure of the Federal Government to allow the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) issue import allocations to fuel importers in advance has contributed to the fuel scarcity being witnessed in the country, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Magnus Ngei Abe stated this in Abuja at the weekend. Sen. Abe also said the sack of former PPPRA Executive Secretary,
Reginald Stanley when the matter had not been resolved, may have also contributed to the fuel scarcity even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said there was no plan to raise pump price. He said Nigeria’s four refineries (Kaduna Warri, Eleme and Port Harcourt) have not been working for so many months and when they did, “it has been very epileptic.” Abe noted that the Port Harcourt refiner has not worked for 10 months and efforts to rehabilitate the refineries have failed.
His words: “There’s fuel scarcity because PPPRA was not allowed to issue the import allocations in advance as was usually the case and the Executive Secretary has been removed. I don’t know whether he was removed because of the testimony he gave before the House of Representatives on this issue of kerosene allocation/subsidy. “I was no fan of the Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, but he did a fantastic job; he did a fantastic job of cleaning out the agency, he did a fantastic job of getting this whole issue of fuel subsidy under control and I’m worried that removing him at a time when the agency has never been so well run in its history, I don’t know in what other society that everybody can see that you are doing a good job and that is when you are removed!
“This man had cleaned up PPPRA and I don’t know why he would be removed when it was clear that he’s doing what the Nigerian people want…so, that’s why there’s scarcity because the allocations were not made….“In fact, the importers were even asking for permission in advance to bring in the product while the issue of who could bring in and who couldn’t was sorted out. But he couldn’t get the powers-that-be authorise that and that’s why everything is at a standstill.
“So, if there’s scarcity, my suspicion is that that may have induced the scarcity…Nigerians would not like to see the agency become another cesspit for corrupt practices”, Sen. Abe said. On why the refineries are not working optimally, Abe identified some factor including the controversial crude oil swap, book-keeping nightmare tendencies of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), non-existent Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM).“The refineries have not been working for some time now. I think, for the last 10 months, Port Harcourt refinery has no been operational and there’ve been issues consistently with the refineries
“Let me say that there are several things responsible for the non-operation of the refineries. I would say clearly that the issue of the fact that these refineries are not operating the way they should may be due to…there are lots of circumstances responsible for this. The crude oil swap may be part of the reasons that the refineries are not operating optimally because it appears to me that it is more profitable to swap oil than to refine i The nature of NNPC itself is a challenge. “Port Harcourt refinery refines the oil b they don’t own the oil. They are supposed to charge the PPMC to refine but PPMC doesn’t actually pay them…
So, everybody just transfer figures from one to the other and a the end of the day, the fund to run the refiner is simply not available! Meanwhile, the NNPC yesterday denied any plan to increase fuel price. The corporation said that as the supplier of last resort, it is doing everything within its mandate to alleviate the avoidable hardship caused by the fuel scarcity while reiterating the fact that the Federal Government has no plan to increase the price of petrol as being speculated. To douse the tension over the current scarcity, the NNPC said it has rolled out fresh measures to halt what it described as artificial shortage.
Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, stated in a statement that the NNPC in conjunction with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and PPPRA will commence detailed monitoring of fuel stations in Lagos and its environs as well as any other state to checkmate the incidence of hoarding and panic buying of fuel .
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