N220bn Debt, Import Allocation Delay Threaten Fuel Supply

Nigeria may be heading for another round of fuel scarcity as a result of the failure of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to release the import allocation for the first quarter of the year to oil marketing and trading companies.

It was also learnt that nationwide fuel supply was being threatened by the inability of the Federal Government to pay the oil marketers over N220bn outstanding fuel subsidy claims and accumulated interest/foreign exchange for 2013.

Specifically, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, comprising Oando, Total, Forte Oil, MRS, Mobil and Conoil, said they had yet to receive over N100bn main subsidy claims and N20bn accumulated interest/foreign exchange for fuel imported in the third and fourth quarters of last year.

It was also learnt that the Federal Government still owed the independent marketers under the aegis of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria and others over N100bn subsidy claims for 2013.

The delay by the PPPRA to release the first quarter 2014 import allocation, according to the marketers, is already putting pressure on the available fuel in stock and product depots owned by the major marketers are expected to dry up in five days’ time.

Similarly, MOMAN has faulted claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation that it has enough products to keep the country wet for a reasonable period of time.

The Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, told one of our correspondents on Monday that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, had not release the import allocation for the first quarter of the year.

Olawore, who addressed a press conference in Lagos on Monday, said the government owed the major marketers about N120bn, and also confirmed that no independent marketer had received subsidy claims for last year, which independent findings revealed was over N100bn.

He also decried the delay in the import allocation for the first quarter of the year, adding that fuel scarcity was already imminent as a result of the development.

Olawore explained that MOMAN members currently had 45,000 metric tonnes of petrol, or about 60 million litres, which could only last for five days starting from yesterday (Monday).

“Up till this moment that I speak with you, they have yet to give us allocation, except if they are planning to do so in the evening (of Monday),” he said.

Asked of what the outcome would be in terms of petroleum supply across the country if the situation should persist beyond Monday, Olawore said, “There may be some tightness in supply.

“This means that the quantity that is available to the market will be reducing little by little. I am not going to say that if they don’t give us allocation, queues will reappear; no, what I am saying is that what we have will diminish little by little until it finishes”

The MOMAN executive secretary stated that the body had appealed to the PPPRA and the requisite bodies in the ministry to avert whatever might plunge the country into another round of fuel scarcity.

He said, “Once this happens, there will be problem. But we are appealing to them to do what is right so that there won’t be any problem.”

Olawore stressed that two major marketers had already run out of fuel stock at their respective depots; adding that the remaining four members only had stocks  that would last for five days if not replenished immediately.

“It therefore means that there will be fuel scarcity in the country from Friday this week if the major marketers’ supply is not replenished because we account for 60 per cent of the national product demand across the country,” he said.

Reacting to the claims by the NNPC that there was product sufficiency, Olawore said such statements were doubtful.

He, however, admitted that he did not know what the NNPC had on the high sea, but stated that the corporation’s stock on land would not be able to service the entire country adequately.

Olawore said, “Point number one; if the NNPC says they have enough, I don’t have any access to their information. So, it may be right or wrong. But what I have access to is the product that is in my tank.

“As far as I am concerned, they are not even bringing enough to us in Apapa. So, it is not a matter of having enough; although I don’t have access to what they (NNPC) have on the high sea, but on the land, they don’t have enough.”

Calls to the mobile telephone lines of the spokespersons for the NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, and his PPPRA counterpart, Mr. Lanre Oladela, were not answered, neither were text messages sent to the lines replied.

However, while reacting to the development, an official of the PPPRA told our correspondent that there was no cause for alarm, and stressed that the marketers were only trying to “stampede the government.”

The official, who pleaded not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the subject said, “This matter is not what only the PPPRA should handle.

“As I speak with you, senior officials of the government, including the Finance and Petroleum ministers are meeting with the heads of the concerned agencies to address the issue. So, there is no cause for alarm.”

The official also supported claims by the NNPC that products in the corporation’s stock were enough to keep the country wet.

The source said, “If there was no fuel scarcity during the Yuletide, is it now that there isn’t much rush that there will be scarcity?