The
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday apologised to
Nigerians for failing to keep up with its responsibility of ensuring that
petrol is adequately available for use in the country having been allocated the
largest share of 72 per cent of petrol import in the first quarter of the 2016
allocation.
NNPC
said in a statement from its Group General Manager, Public Affair, Mr. Garba
Deen Mohammed in Abuja that it feels the pains of Nigerians who have to queue
for long hours at filling stations to get petrol.
It
explained that it was working hard to restore normalcy in petrol supply across
the country, and once again promised that the huge queues of motorists will
clear off within two weeks.
The
queues have suddenly increased after admission by the government that the
situation was overwhelming it and that it would take a while to get it right.
But
the statement said: “The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) wishes
to empathise with the difficulties Nigerians are presently going through due to
the current fuel situation and assures that the government and NNPC are not
taking their patience for granted.”
It
urged Nigerians to continue to be patient, adding: “The difficulties being
experienced as a result of the situation will soon be alleviated.”
While
giving details of what was being done so far to tackle the situation, NNPC
said: “We would like to assure all Nigerians that the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources/Group Managing Director, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and everybody
else associated with this situation is working tirelessly round the clock to
ensure relief is brought to Nigerians.
“Our
immediate concern is to make petrol available through the interventions and
processes put in place so that the queues will disappear within the next one to
two weeks.
“As
at 1600hrs of today, one PMS cargo containing 42 million litres has completely
discharged, two more PMS cargos with a combined ‘Remaining on Board’ (ROB) of
44 million litres are currently discharging while another PMS cargo containing
44 million litres is berthed and awaiting discharge.”
The
corporation further said: “We have enough products lined up to ensure that the
supply gap which created the problem is bridged. In order to ensure effective
distribution, we are working with Independent Petroleum Marketers Association
of Nigeria (IPMAN), oil majors and over 1,000 NNPC staff, nationwide to ensure
we overcome the obstacles in the distribution of the products.
“While
not resorting to excuses, we would like to re-emphasise that this present
management of NNPC and indeed the government inherited huge and complicated
problems with respect to importation, distribution and pricing of petroleum
products. Nigerians would recall that the sum of N522,258,934,505 meant for payment
of fuel subsidy, covering the last quarter of 2014 (October to December) and
the entire 2015 was approved by the Senate in December 2015 in order to pay for
subsidy arrears inherited by this government.”
For
long term solutions to the fuel supply challenges, the NNPC said that it was
working to put in place machineries to ensure that the country’s refineries in
Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri are fixed and working optimally, while the
pipelines which have been under attack for some time now are repaired.
It
said that the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement for crude which it
has adopted to use in place of the former swap programme would commence in the
first week of April, adding, “all these coupled with the fact that the
President has given his support to increase the crude supply to NNPC to ensure
local sufficiency of products will go a long way to solve the problems in the
short and long term.”
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