PPPRA lists terms for oil marketers in subsidy regime

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has listed fresh regulations for marketers participating in the scheme.
At a meeting with oil marketers and other stakeholders in the downstream sector in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley, said the agency would not issue the Sovereign Debt Statement (SDS) to any marketer that failed to show evidence of participation in the truck-out policy. The truck-out policy refers to a system whereby fuel is taken from a farm and distributed to filling stations.
To facilitate robust operation, which would further consolidate the gains of the 2012 policy intervention in the downstream, Reginald reiterated that the PPPRA would take all necessary steps to ensure that oil marketers provide unhindered access to inspectors nominated by the agency, in addition to providing access for inspectors to undertake opening and closing tanks dips, as well as opening and closing meter readings at the depots. This, he added, was to curb sharp practices by some marketers.
However, he was not oblivious to the inability to redeem SDS, immediately after the stipulated 45 days, which impaired marketers’ capacity to import.

Marketers Begin to Import Petrol for Q1

Some oil marketing and trading (OM&T) companies that received import allocations for the first quarter of 2013 have started bringing in their cargoes of premium motor spirit (PMS). This development, which is coming amid increasing concern over the refusal of banks to give loans to some of the importers, however, has the potential to end the fuel supply shock experienced in the last couple of months.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) actually issued the allocations to the marketers in 2012 and not the beginning of 2013. The 32 participating companies are Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aiteo Energy, Ascon Oil, Avidor Oil and Gas, A-Z Petroleum, Bovas, Conoil Plc, Dee Jones Petroleum and Gas, Dozzy Oil and Gas, Folawiyo Energy, Fresh Synergy Ltd and Forte Oil Plc.

Others are: First Deepwater Discovery Ltd, Gulf Treasure Ltd, Heyden Petroleum, Ibafon Oil Ltd, Integrated Oil and Gas Industries, IPMAN Refining and Marketing Ltd, Mobil Oil Plc, MRS Oil & Gas Ltd, MRS Oil Nig. Plc, NIPCO Plc, Northwest Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Oando Plc, Obat Petroleum Ltd, RainOil Ltd, Rahamaniyya Oil Gas and Sahara Energy Ltd.

The list also includes Shorelink Oil Ltd, Swift Oil Ltd, Techno Oil Ltd and Total Nigeria Plc.

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.

N8 billion Subsidy Claims: Integrated Oil petition PPPRA

Integrated Oil and Gas Limited through its legal firm, Tayo Oyetibo & Co. has written to the management of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, over an outstanding claim of about N8.68billion owed the company for petroleum products importation under the Federal Government’s Petroleum Support Fund, PSF. In a 10-page letter tiled, “Demand for the Immediate Settlement of Outstanding Refunds Owed Integrated Oil and Gas Limited Under the Petroleum Support Fund Scheme,” the lawyers gave the breakdown of PPPRA’s indebtedness to its client to include:

i.    Outstanding Principal PSF refund  —N6.548 Billion

 ii.    PPPRA Advice not yet issued for Access Bank’s —N0.5 Billion balance cargo of Dec 2011.

 iii.    PPPRA’s earlier short payments on our claims —N0.98 Billion

 iv.    Outstanding Accrued Interest  —N0.651 Billion

The lawyers maintained that their client submitted a total of 38 documents for the claims verification, adding that “From the date our Client joined the operation of the PSF Scheme, it has dutifully and honestly performed its obligations by importing and supplying Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to the Nigerian market based on the agreement it had with the PPPRA.” They further maintained that the inability of the PPPRA to honour its part of the agreements “has completely hampered our Client’s ability to honour the contractual obligations it owes to its financiers notably, Access Bank Plc.”