Fuel Scarcity: Inter-agency rivalry delays NNPC Vessels

Inter-agency rivalry is said to be delaying the discharge of products from cargoes imported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Rivalry among NNPC officials, government auditors and regulators, particularly the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is said to be delaying the speedy discharge of the imported fuel.

Officials of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, who are involved in fuel importation, have always insisted that as a government establishment that is mandated to end the current fuel crisis, the regulators and auditors should waive certain processes in the clearance of vessels for the corporation. However, the DPR, PPPRA and auditors are said to always insist that NNPC’s cargoes should follow all the same clearance processes that cargoes imported by the private marketers undergo. With the reluctance of the PPMC officials to allow the imported cargoes to undergo the normal processes of clearance, the corporation is always locked in a supremacy battle with other government agencies before its vessels discharge imported products at Apapa Jetty.