Stakeholders meet Senate, begin fuel lifting today

Stakeholders in the petroleum sector, at a public hearing organised by the Joint Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources(Upstream and Downstream), on Monday resolved to mobilise their members for the immediate distribution of fuel across the country.

Senator Magnus Abe,  who read a communique signed by the stakeholders after the session,  explained that the  Finance Minister/Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and other stakeholders, who attended the meeting, unanimously agreed to the peace deal, in the interest of the nation.

He also explained that following the intervention of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the strike embarked upon by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the  Petroleum and Energy Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, had been called off.

He said, “We have agreed on the following:  first is that the Minister of Finance will give an undertaking to the Major Marketers and Depot Managers that the work of the committee being headed by CBN and PPPR, on the outstanding claims, would be concluded and be reflected in the hand over notes to the incoming administration.”

The Senator said the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria had agreed to begin lifting of petroleum products nationwide within the next six hours and to also pay the National Association of Road Transport Owners, the transport cost that would be determined by them.

He added that the Depot Managers had agreed to open all their depots nationwide so that lifting would commence and had agreed with the DPR to withdraw the operational licence of any depot which was not opened for fuel lifting.

Abe said the NNPC had directed all relevant staff, working in the various depots across the country, to work 24 hours, including Saturday and Sunday, for the next two weeks until normalcy returns to the sector.

He explained that the committee would reach out to the Lagos State Government on the agreement reached and the need for their contribution towards ensuring smooth lifting of fuel in all the depots.

Stakeholders meet Senate, begin fuel lifting today

Fuel price: Marketers demand refund from govt

Fuel marketers on Tuesday demanded a refund from the Federal Government as a result of the “enormous loses” they recorded due to the abrupt reduction in the pump price of petrol by N10 per litre.

The Federal Government on January 18, 2015 announced a reduction in the pump price of petrol by N10 from N97 to N87 per litre.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the reduction, which took immediate effect, was because of the recent drastic fall in the prices of crude oil in the international market.

Speaking at the annual oil and gas marketers meeting organised by the DPR in Abuja, the fuel marketers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that the announcement by the Federal Government came to them as a surprise, as they had no prior knowledge of a planned reduction in fuel price.

Fuel price: Marketers demand refund from govt

Fuel price slash mere tokenism, deceitful - APC

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The All Progressives Congress has accused the Federal Government of “making a show out of deceit by its so-called fuel price reduction,” saying a 10.3 per cent slash in the price of petrol (from N97 to N87) is “a mere tokenism at a time the price of crude oil has crashed by about 60 per cent.”

APC data Centre

In a statement in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the pump price of a litre of fuel should not be more than N70.

It said the reduction in price meant that at “N87 per litre, the government is forcing Nigerians to subsidise the massive corruption in the oil sector by N17″ for every litre of fuel.

APC stated, “When crude oil was selling at $100 per barrel, the landing cost of PMS without subsidy was 125 Naira per litre. Now that the oil price has crashed to about $44 per barrel, the landing cost without subsidy is about N65 per litre. The same goes for diesel, which should not sell for more than N90 per litre.”

The party added that while governments of countries, which are not as economically endowed as Nigeria, had reduced the pump price of fuel as far back as early January 2015, Nigeria, which is the world’s sixth largest producer of oil, was “just announcing a price slash” that was far below those countries.

”Early this year, Zambia slashed the price of petrol by 23 per cent while Tanzania reduced the pump price of the product by 16 per cent. In the US, which, until recently, was importing crude oil from Nigeria, the price of fuel has fallen for 113 consecutive days as of January 16. Therefore, the 10.3 per cent price slash in Nigeria is too meagre, too late,” the party said.

It said the real reasons that the Federal Government had delayed slashing the price of imported petroleum products, following the crash in crude oil prices, were the massive corruption in the oil sector and lack of political will on the part of the country’s leadership.

APC added, ”With Nigeria depending on importation of petroleum products to meet about 90 per cent of its domestic consumption, the country is relying heavily on the term contracts entered into with petroleum product trading companies to meet its domestic demand. It is possible that the petroleum products pricing formulas embedded in these contracts, which generally run for up to one and a half and in some cases two years, have not anticipated these low prices.

”Therefore, unless the government moves to renegotiate the contracts now, it may not reap the full benefits of the decline in petroleum prices. But here is the catch: Since the government and its agents have skimmed off huge ‘commissions’ from the firms with which the term of contracts were signed, it could not possibly go back and renegotiate those contracts or go into new forward contracts that will reflect the current reduction in crude oil prices.

”It takes a strong willed, determined and transparent leadership to immediately call in the petroleum products contracts for re-negotiation, as this will represent a huge blow to corruption in the sector since clearly ‘commissions’ would have been paid by petroleum product traders on the existing contracts.

“This explains the token reduction in fuel price, which the government must have hoped will fool an unsuspecting public, especially a few weeks to elections.”

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Fuel price slash mere tokenism, deceitful - APC

APC accuses FG of intention to increase fuel price

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government of acting out a clandestine script to increase fuel prices.

Lai Mohammed, APC

It said the nation-wide fuel scarcity may have been induced to make higher fuel prices a fait accompli for Nigerians.

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that the scarcity has persisted despite the claims and counter-claims by the government and the oil markers, and the measures purportedly taken by the government to ameliorate the situation, is the clearest indication of official deception.

“The more fuel trucks the government claims to have sent to major cities to ease the scarcity, the more difficult it is for Nigerians to obtain the product. This is an old trick and Nigerians should not be hoodwinked into believing there will be no increase in fuel prices.

The only deterrent is to let the government know Nigerians will resist any price hike.

“The truth is that with the elections approaching, the PDP-led Federal Government is desperately seeking all possible avenues to raise funds for its usual electoral shenanigans, and increasing fuel prices has always been an attractive option to the government, not minding what the impact will be on the same people it has impoverished since 1999,’’ it said.

APC said the lingering scarcity has already forced many Nigerians to pay as much as 120 Naira per litre of fuel, which is exactly as the FG wants it to be.

“The next refrain from the government will be that only higher prices will guarantee the availability of the product, and that many marketers are unwilling to import the product because of low profit margin. We urge Nigerians not to swallow this bait,’’ the party said.

It commended the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for its timely warning against any plan to hike fuel prices, saying the Jonathan Administration’s assurances that fuel prices would not be increased are not worth anything because the government is credibility-deficient.

“The big deception of 2012, when the government slammed a massive price hike on Nigerians on New Year’s day despite assurances to the contrary, is still too fresh in the memories of Nigerians. The same people who inflicted that pain on Nigerians are still in charge, so no one should trust them,” APC warned.

The Deputy National Chairman of the Petrol Tankers Drivers (PTD) Branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), NNPC, Apata, Ibadan, Comrade Salimon Oladiti, has accused the Federal Government of insincerity on the reason for the fuel scarcity.

Oladiti said it was a method by the government to increase fuel pump prices.

The NUPENG spoke yesterday at the Oyo State House of Assembly complex, Secretariat, Ibadan.

“We in the Labour have been trying our possible best to mount pressure on the Federal Government. Now if you want to buy petrol in Lagos now from private depot, it is N100, whereas they are just sending little quantity to NNPC depot. That is why we are experiencing all this things. What the Minister of Petroleum said about marketers diverting of fuel was a total lie.

”How many times will they continue to say that we are the cause of this crisis? When the product is available, did you experience or hear from them that somebody is diverting the fuel, or that somebody is going on leave and all that? All her excuses are nonsense. If someone is not productive, then the President of the day should replace him with somebody that is ready to do the job, rather than playing politics with issues every time.”

He urged all Nigerians to mount pressure on the Federal Government to give a reasonable explanation on the fuel scarcity. (0)

APC accuses FG of intention to increase fuel price