Fuel Scarcity to End in Nigeria Before Christmas

Fri, Dec 4, 2015
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Oil & Gas

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Fuel Scarcity worsens in Nigeria although the federal government has promised to end it before the yuletide as the National Assembly has approved money to pay fuel subsidy

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Dec 14, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

AS the two weeks deadline giving to the minister of state for petroleum resources to end the protracted fuel scarcity in the country approaches on Thursday, December 10, Nigerians are still spending man-hours to buy petroleum products. The Senate had on Thursday, November 27, ordered Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources and the group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and all its subsidiaries to end the acute fuel scarcity across the nation.

But there is no end in sight for the prolonged fuel scarcity with many filling stations running out of stock. Realnews investigation reveals that filling stations belonging to major marketers like Mobil, Total, Captial Oil, among others are still selling at the official pump price of N87, while others are selling between N100 and N130.

The scarcity has created business for roadside sellers who dispensed the product from big jerry cans at N200 per litre. Street urchins who had established black market outlets in most areas are making brisk business as vehicle owners and residents buy from them at skyrocketed prices. Realnews discovered that five litres of fuel sold at N1,000 in the black market while 30 litres went for N3,000. At Awolowo Way, Ikeja, black market traders were everywhere with fuel in jerry cans which they sold far above the pump price while most filling stations had run out of stock.

But Kachikwu has assured Nigerians that the scarcity of petrol rocking the country would end before the Yuletide. He also ordered the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, to clamp down on depot owners and marketers who engage in hoarding and profiteering of the product.

 “December is a critical month for us and we want to make sure that Nigerians are not suffering travelling for Christmas in any part of the country. So, we are going to work with every depot owner to see how we can get the product in, encourage them to also bring product in so that we can see how to improve efficiency in loading. It is also critical that people are selling at the control prices. I have asked DPR to do anything that they can to enforce guidelines that I have given them, which is if you find any station that is selling outside the price system, and hoarding product, sell the product free to the public.

“This may look draconian, but we are in draconian times. We cannot afford any form of laxity. We should also go to depot owners to make sure that they are keeping to the rules; they are selling according to the depot prices, so that individuals will not be encouraged at depot point to begin to escalate prices as it were. This is celebration period; Christmas is most important for most Nigerians. So, everything we can do to ensure efficiency in product delivery to Nigerians, we will appreciate it. Today, our concern obviously is being able to find sufficiency of product available to wet our lands; we are not doing it as rapidly as we should. We are going to work with everybody within the sector.”

On his part, Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, has assured that the current fuel scarcity in the country would be over in a matter of days, following the approval of the subsidy payment by the National Assembly. The minister who stated this during a visit to the headquarters of the Daily Trust newspaper in Abuja, on Wednesday, December 2, said the N521 billion that has been approved by the National Assembly, as part of the supplementary budgets of N574.4 billion, would be enough to cover the fuel subsidy till the end of the year.

He said the kind of fuel scarcity that has triggered vehicular queues across the country would no longer repeat itself. “We can confidently announce here today that the scarcity will end in a few days. Subsidy payment till the end of the year has been approved by the National Assembly. As you know we can’t spend money without approval. We can assure you that we won’t be caught in this kind of situation again.”

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