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.

Senate Summons Diezani, NNPC Boss over fuel scarcity

The Chairman, Senate Committee, on Petroleum Resources (downstream sector) Senator Magnus Abe has invited the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke and the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Andrew Yakubu, to a consultative meeting over the ongoing fuel scarcity.

Expected to appear in the Senate alongside the minister and the NNPC boss, is the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mr. Reginald Stanley.Other stakeholders in the petroleum downstream sector are also expected at the meeting slated for Tuesday September 25 2012 at the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

In a signed statement Friday, Senator Abe said the long queues of vehicles at filling stations seen in Abuja and some cities in the country "are unacceptable" adding that government must quickly and proactively deal with the situation. The committee, the statement added will engage those in charge with a view to ascertaining and charting a workable solutions to the challenges in the downstream sector.

Fuel scarcity hits Lagos

The fuel scarcity that rocked Abuja and some states across the country in the past few weeks seems to have hit Lagos. In many  fuel stations in Lagos State, long queues of vehicles were seen reportedly over fear that petrol would not be available in the next few days. The imbroglio between  marketers and the Federal Government over non-payment of petroleum subsidy to the former had sparked a strike that paralyzed  Abuja.

The marketers gave the government two weeks to resolve the verification claims on those that collected money without supplying the product. They threatened to embark on a full scale strike if at the end the Federal Government fails to resolve the issue and pay them their outstanding.