The worsening fuel crisis across the country has left many Nigerians at crossroads as to when the ugly situation will come to an end....READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
In the last 15 years, Nigerians have had to contend with the negative effects of fuel scarcity and its attendant effects on the economy.
More worrisome is the spiral effects of inflation on cost of goods and services, which has shot up cost of living with food inflation alone accounting for close to 40 per cent.
In Lagos, which is the commercial nerve centre of the country, fuel queues have become the order of the day, ditto for the administrative capital in Abuja.
Commuters now keep vigil at filling stations to the get the product even at exorbitant prices with stations with pump prices lower than N700 per litre witnessing a siege.
The development has further eroded the purchasing power of the average Nigerian with petrol now selling at an average price of N1,000 per litre as against N668 in Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd operated filling stations.
Commuters and SMEs are now the ones bearing the brunt of fuel shortages as transporters have hiked their fares by over 40 per cent as a way of accommodating the hike in the price of petrol.
But to ensure that consumers are protected, the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) recently issued a stern warning to marketers, threatening to withdraw the licenses of those found to be hoarding petroleum products.
Speaking during an inspection tour in Abuja at the weekend, the Executive Director of Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, NMDPRA, Mr Ogbugo Ukoha, warned filling stations to desist from further compounding the fuel supply crisis in the country.
In a video clip shared by the regulator during an inspection at one of TotalEnergies filling stations, Ukoha told the managers of the outlet that “you need to take this (warning) very seriously. If you need security reinforcements, speak to your management.”
He said that retail petrol stations should stop encouraging the sale of products to black marketers who dispense the products in jerrycans.
This, according to Ukoha, posed serious safety concerns and should be discontinued.
Also on its X handle, the downstream regulator said that it had declared war against the illegal sale of petroleum products.
This singular pronouncement by the NMDPRA ED has worsened the plight of Nigerians who depend largely on generators for their energy supply as most filling stations have stopped selling fuel in jerrycans to motorists, citing the order of the regulator.
Yet the blackmarket merchants are seen at the entrances of these filling stations selling fuel in jerrycans at exorbitant prices. Thus those who depend on fuel to power their generators for light in their homes and small shops are left distraught.
Speaking on why fuel scarcity resurfaced nationwide, NNPC Ltd Vice President, Downstream, Mr Dapo Segun, attributed the recent fuel scarcity, which has resulted in long queues at filling stations across the country, to the impact of recent rains, lightning, and thunderstorms.
He acknowledged the widespread fuel queues, which have forced car owners to endure long waiting time, which has led to a surge in black market activity.
Segun apologised to Nigerians for the inconvenience, stating that while the corporation does not wish to make excuses, the adverse weather conditions affecting fuel distribution are beyond their control.
But the Petroleum Marketers Retailers Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) described as unfounded the claim by the NMDPRA that some marketers were hoarding petrol.
National President of PETROAN, Mr Billy Gilly-Harris, said that it was practically impossible to hoard what is not available.
Billy-Harris, in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun, said that no member of PETROAN will engage in act of hoarding to inflict pains on Nigerians because this is a critical period that all hands must be on deck to resolve the fuel crisis.
‘‘For us at PETROAN, we can only dispense what is available to us. One of our cardinal rules in PETROAN is to sell whatever product is available without shortchanging members of the public. When we have products we will dispense in order to ease the pressure. So, I am sure PETROAN is not being referred to here.
“Even in Abuja here and other parts of the country, the queues are all over the country. The products are just not available. This is the time for NNPC to up its game. It is very embarrassing that as an oil and gas producing country, we cannot guarantee supply of products for Nigerians,’’ he said.
Gilly-Harris said that PETRAON had made proposals to the Federal Government in the past by partnering with them to run one of the refineries through its technical and financial partners.
He said that the association has been in discussion with the Federal Government in the last five years over the possibility of a partnership without progress.
On his part, the President of the PENGASSAN, Mr Festus Osifo, said that the fuel queues will not go away anytime soon except the country does what is right.
Osifo said that the studies carried out by PENGASSAN has revealed that the logistics problems often alluded to by NNPCL was as a result of the moribund state of its 21 depots spread across the different geographical locations.
He said if the depots are well maintained and functional, the fuel queues we are experiencing would have been a thing of the past because the problem trucks coming to load products from different parts of the country would have been addressed.
He said that this proposal has been shared with the government as part of Labour’s contribution to the incessant fuel crisis, but nothing seems to have come out of that suggestion.
The Labour leader argued that the essence of the depots are meant to guarantee energy security for the country so that in situation of crisis such as this, the depots can now release from the reserves to service locations that are far from Lagos.
Echoing the sentiments shared by Osifo, the National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Hammed Fashola, slammed the NNPCL for failing to maintain the 21 depots which have gone moribund.
Fashola said in the past, the 21 depots were wet with products and remained a backbone to the fuel distribution channel across the country.
“I will advise that the NNPC Ltd begin to take steps to revive the 21 depots in order to make them functional again”,” he said
Besides, the depot, the IPMAN VP said, the ultimate solution lies in the revitalization of the nation’s refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, adding without that, the country will continue to witness fuel shortages.
In his contribution, energy and economy analyst, Mr Chika Mbonu, said that as long as the NNPC Ltd continues to pay fuel subsidies, fuel scarcity will not abate.
“As long as we want to continue to enjoy subsidised and cheap fuel, we will continue to have shortages in supply. Have you asked why we have not been experiencing fuel scarcity with diesel and kerosene? It is because the prices of these products have been liberalised and we have so many marketers importing the product,” he noted.
Mbonu said that as long as NNPC continues to be the sole importer of petrol, supply will be epileptic because it will not be available always.
He said that the continuous payment of subsidy by NNPC has ended up wiping out its working capital, hence the approval by President Bola Tinubu to allow NNPC use its statutory remittances to defray subsidy costs.
The analyst urged the NNPC to be open and truthful in its communication strategy, insisting that “NNPC cannot continue to hide information from Nigerians; they should always come out clean and should not be reactionary always.”
On the transparency of NNPC and the continuous fuel crisis, energy policy analyst and Director, Institute for Energy and Extractive Industry Law, Mr Ademola Adigun, said that the NNPC should come out clean and tell Nigerians the true position.
According to Adigun, the true position why Nigerians are experiencing fuel scarcity is because the NNPC does not have enough resources to pay it oil trading partners.
“As we speak, only seven NNPC oil traders are supplying cargoes out of the many it used to have. NNPC simply does not have monies to pay for the cargoes. There is no magic they can do,’’ he said.
It would be recalled that the promises made to Nigerians by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and NNPC about the comatose refineries have continued to witness multiple failures.
Since December 2023, the NNPC, which is in charge of all the government refineries, has given Nigerians different dates, assuring citizens that the refinery would begin the sale of refined products soon.
In July, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, stated categorically that the Port Harcourt refinery would come into operation in early August.
Kyari had in 2019 also said that the NNPC would deliver all the country’s four refineries before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
While appearing before the Senate recently in July, Kyari boasted, “I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.
“Specific to NNPC refineries, we have spoken to a number of your committees, and it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come into operation before December, it will get to December, both Warri and Kaduna, but that of Port Harcourt will commence production early August this year.”
However, as August is fast winding up, the refinery is yet to commence operations, creating concerns that this might be another failed promise from the NNPC.
