Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, says the major cause of the fuel scarcity currently being witnessed across the country is shortfall in supply of petroleum products. This is contrary to earlier position of NNPC which said there was enough fuel for Nigerians through the festive period. NNPC position was perhaps a panic measure knowing what was on ground.
Kachikwu, has however said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was making efforts to ensure that queues at filling stations disappeared in a couple of days. “Presently, queues in Lagos have reduced. We know that Lagos, Abuja, Benue, Port Harcourt were among the worst-hit areas. Benue has been dealt with; Port Harcourt is quite moderated. Apart from these areas, other places in the country are probably liquid.
He said NNPC has initiated a three-pronged strategy to address the fuel crisis currently witnessed across the country, stating that the queues recorded in petrol stations would thin out before the end of the week. Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, identified the strategy to include stricter monitoring of supply and distribution by regulatory agencies in the petroleum industry, such as the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA. Federal Government, he added, was also considering additional trucking to major cities by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, using their strategic reserves from Suleja, Minna, Gusau and Gombe.
According to Kachikwu, the states to be fed with large quantity of the product, apart from Lagos, include Abuja, Kano, Sokoto axis and the North-east. The final strategy, he noted involves flooding the market with more products to cushion the effect of over-subscription and sharp practices through the Kaduna Refinery, which has started producing about 750,000 litres and the Port Harcourt refinery which would in the next one week commence the production of 2.1 million litres per day. He blamed the recent fuel crisis on the fact that the NNPC was the sole importer of the commodity over the last couple of months, due to the fact that other petroleum marketers had stopped importing the commodity, leaving the NNPC to fill in the gap.
“The major problem is the gap in terms of volume, because NNPC is the only one importing the product to the country,” he said. The minister assured that there was adequate storage facility for imported products, adding that emergency measures were in place to ensure that the products were available during the Yuletide and post-January. He said that four vessels laden with petroleum products would “berth in a few days and a total of 20 cargoes are also expected with petroleum products’’.
Kachikwu said that the NNPC had, as at Wednesday, discharged products at its depots, adding that emergency supply, quick truck delivery and stricter monitoring were measures adopted to ensure that queues disappeared. He added that NNPC would use additional trucking to major cities using strategic reserves from Suleja, Minna, Gusau and Gombe. This, he said, would help to service Abuja, Kano and Sokoto axis to feed the North-West, North-East.
“I have asked the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to ensure stricter sanctions on any station that refuses to abide by the rules. They need to take a firm action to ensure that we get quick results,’’ he said.
Kachikwu further assured that the market would be flooded with more products to cushion effects of over-subscription through Kaduna refinery production, adding that Port Harcourt was expected to start producing 2.1 million litres of petrol per day. He said that it was expected that with the adopted strategies, the queues would “slide down’’ in one week. On long-term strategy, he said that ultimate result would come when the refineries resumed optimal production.
The minister said that work would commence effectively in the refineries in January.
Executive Secretary of DPR, Mr Modecai Ladan, said that many sanctions awaited filling stations found compromising the dispensing process, warning that the stations would be shut down or charged N275 per litre. He said that any station found hoarding products would either be sealed or its product auctioned or dispensed free-of-charge to consumers. Ladan added that depending on the offence, defaulters may be shut down for six months or blacklisted.
