Commentary: Towards Seamless Supply Of Petroleum Products This Yuletide

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured that it has no plan to increase the pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit PMS, otherwise known as petrol, this yuletide as being speculated in some quarters. NNPC says the pump price of petrol remains N145 per litre, while the prices of Dual Purpose Kerosene DPK and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) are determined by market forces because the products are deregulated.
The Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughammadu (MFR), who gave the assurance recently in Abuja, said the NNPC has enough stock of petroleum products and warned the public against panic buying and storing of fuel in residential buildings in view of the negative consequences.
The NNPC image maker, attributed constant fire outbreaks, especially in residential buildings to the storage of Petroleum products, stressing that the Corporation has adequate stock to forestall scarcity of the products this yuletide. He however, expressed disgust over the vandalization of NNPC pipeline facilities and illegal hacking of petrol, citing the recent incident at Osisioma, Aba in Abia state, which killed many and maimed others. Mr. Ughammadu called on communities to safeguard government facilities, especially those of the NNPC.
It is regrettable that during Christmas, New Year and Easter festivities, some Christian marketers increase the pump prices of petroleum products, thus creating hardship for motorists and commuters, while their Moslem counterparts sell the products at approved prices during Sallah festivals. Therefore, as the yuletide approaches, all downstream stakeholders, including marketers and industrial unions, should cooperate with the NNPC to achieve zero fuel scarcity this season. Happily, NNPC has set up Joint Monitoring Team that will work with the Department of Petroleum Resources DPR, to check the excesses of marketers in all the states of the Federation and the FCT, Abuja. However, the federal government should ensure that the nation’s refineries are working. This makes a better sense to add value to crude oil than sell the commodity raw. Moreover, government should quickly revamp nation’s pipeline infrastructure as it remains the most reliable means of transporting petroleum products across the country.
Besides, government should encourage the private sector to establish modular refineries. It should also implement programmes that encourage the use of cleaner and cheaper sources of energy like Liquefied Petroleum Gas as alternative to kerosene as done in India. Nigeria should equally consider the use of solar energy for power and the use of hybrid vehicles.
Above all, there is an urgent need to improve national power supply in order to reduce consumption of petrol by generators, to boost production of goods and services, investment and employment. Government should, in addition, accelerate cheaper alternative for transporting projects such as Rail, which could also serve as cheaper alternative for transporting and distributing petroleum products.
Nigeria is the seventh largest world producer of crude oil. It is paradoxical that despite the efforts of the NNPC and its relevant subsidiaries, people have continued to grapple with needless trauma of scarcity of petroleum products and the attendant long queues at the retail pump stations during festive periods. It is shameful that a country like Nigeria which parades itself as the policeman of Africa should use taskforces to ensure compliance in the sale of petroleum products. Peoples’ greed, avarice and selfishness should not override the legitimate wishes of all Nigerians.
Meanwhile, as part of measures to sustain the robust supply of petroleum products across the country, especially during the Yuletide and beyond, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a six-month Direct Sale-Direct Purchase agreement with the British Petroleum’s (BP) trading arm and BP Oil International Ltd for the supply petrol.
This latest agreement will represent twenty percent of NNPC’s total PMS supply under the Direct Sale-Direct Purchase arrangement, which allows the corporation to exchange crude oil with international oil traders for imported petroleum products over a period of time.
Speaking shortly after the signing ceremony at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said that as the nation’s products supplier of last resort, NNPC is committed to products availability by inviting new and old players in the Nigerian oil sector.
According to Dr. Baru, over the years, British Petroleum had demonstrated the capacity to augment the forecasted shortfall by NNPC as the winter period approaches and as the nation’s elections get underway early into the New Year. Let us support the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in its effort to serve the country better. NNPC, touching your lives in many positive ways!