the country, 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.
Also Friday, directors of two oil marketing and
trading companies - Oluwaseun Ogunbambo and
Habila Theck - told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that
their firms, Fargo Petroleum and Gas Limited did
not receive N976.6 million subsidy payment from
the federal government as being alleged.
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
next week Tuesday 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.
He said: "We thought that the era of Nigerians
queuing at filling stations for indeterminate hours
to procure PMS and other petroleum products, was
indeed gone forever. It is, indeed, an
embarrassment that precious man-hours are
wasted in the quest to fulfill a basic need. What was
initially perceived as a glitch in the distribution
chain has now ballooned into queues in what now
seems to be a gradual return to that inglorious era."
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.
Meanwhile, Ogunbambo and Theck, yesterday told
an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that their firms did not
receive N976.6 million subsidy payment from the
federal government.
The duo made this known through their counsel,
Mr. Adebayo Adenipekun (SAN), yesterday at the
commencement of their trial before Justice Adeniyi
Onigbanjo. The defendants and their firms are
among the 17 oil marketers and seven companies
being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission for alleged fuel subsidy scam.
There is however a renewed hope of improved fuel
supply as Technoil and the NNPC imported two
cargoes of petrol each to augment previous
supplies by the corporation.
Technoil has imported two cargoes of petrol to
augment supplies by the NNPC and also plan to
bring in a third cargo before the end of this month.
Technoil's first cargo, MT DEVOCEAN, with
10,000metric tonnes of petrol had finished
discharging of its products, before the second
cargo, MT EMOCEAN came in and commenced the
discharge of another 10,000Mt.
Confirming this development, the Managing
Director of the company, Mr. Tony Onyeama told
THISDAY that the company would bring in one
additional cargo before the end of this month, as
part of its commitment to address this current
shortfall in supply.
"Our plan is to do 30,000metric tonnes this month.
So, before the end of the month, we will bring in
one more vessel," he said.
Also on Thursday, the NNPC commenced the
discharge of products from two imported cargoes –
Captain Gregory and a second vessel, Zhoni ji.
The vessels are discharging at the Petroleum Wharf
(PWA) Jetty and the Bulk Oil Jetty (BOJ), both in
Apapa, Lagos.
However, theex-depot price of petrol has remained
on the high side – between N92 and N94, against
the N87.90 officially recommended by the
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
No comments:
Post a Comment