FUEL CRISIS; NO RELIEVE IN SIGHT

Say NUPENG, PENGASSAN

Bimbola Oyesola

There seems to be no relieve in sight for Nigerians on the current fuel scarcity which has crippled economic activities in Lagos State and other parts of the country.

For the past two weeks, residents of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo had come to bear the harsh pains of shortage of fuel which was purported to have occurred due to vandalisation of a 2b pipeline and murder of three staff of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation in Arepo, in Ogun State

A couple of weeks ago, in Arepo, petroleum product pipelines were destroyed by a group of vandals, who harassed some journalists and subsequently killed three PPMC officials who were on ground to repair the damaged pipeline.

The fuel shortage has taken a heavy toll on the citizenry across the country particularly in the Northern and Western parts, leading to long queues at the few stations with petrol to sell; it has  also dislocated the economy as transport owners have increased the cost of public transportation, while black marketers have taken the opportunity to increase the price of petrol to as much as N200 per litre. Unsurprisingly, the masses are bearing the brunt of the scarcity, in no small measure.

NNPC’s system 2B which was damaged by pipeline vandals some weeks ago is so critical to the economy in that it pumps about 11 million litres of fuel per day, which is about one third of the national daily consumption from Atlas Cove Offshore depot in Lagos to Satellite depot in Ejigbo, Lagos; Mosimi, Ogun State; Ibadan depot Oyo State: Ore in Ondo State; Ilorin depot, Kwara State and some parts of the North.

The crisis which started in Abuja last month has spread like wild fire to other part of the country and major cities, especially Lagos, where fuel queues have now become a common occurrence and led to traffic gridlocks all over the nation’s commercial nerve centre.

Only very few filling stations in Lagos and neighboring states have petrol as most of the stations were selling only diesel, while a few others were also selling kerosene. As such those few now sell at N120 per litre as against the official price of N97.

Investigations revealed that with inadequate petrol in the system, marketers and depot owners, who load trucks on 24-hour basis, have restricted loading to barely 10 hours a day, the trend the marketers said would continue unless there is adequate fuel to match the demand.

The NNPC Acting Group General Manager , Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Fidel Pepple, has said in a statement last week that the shortage experiencing in Lagos and other parts of the country  was due to the vandalisation of the pipelines in Arepo.

He said the system 2b pipeline, which is a major pipeline which evacuates about “nine to eleven million litres of fuel from Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin and the north” had to be shut down after it was vandalised. However, Mr. Pepple said the NNPC has taken measures to end the current fuel scarcity.

“To alleviate the problems resulting from the shutdown of the pipeline, the NNPC has stepped up distribution through tankers.

“As I speak, we have raised the daily supply of fuel from Folawiyo tank farm from 150 tankers to 250 tankers, MRS from 100 to 200 tankers, Capital Oil to 300 tankers, NIPCO to 70 tankers and AITEO to 100 tankers,” Mr. Pepple disclosed.  He said that fuel delivery and supply to Port Harcourt, Aba, and Calabar has also been increased.

Though Mr. Pepple said that the NNPC had 32 days sufficiency of petroleum products and is currently collaborating with the security agencies to fix the pipeline in order to restore normal fuel supply to the affected areas, the organized labour in the petroleum sector said government was not being sincere to Nigerians on the magnitude of the problem surrounding fuel supply.

According to the National President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Igwe Achese, the present crisis may linger until government rise up to address the major challenges in the downstream sector of the economy.

“The trend will continue until government comes out to show responsibility and act as government that has the interest of the people at heart”, he said.

The NUPENG boss said that the Arepo’s excuse given by the government was a mere diversion and completely a false report, insisting that the problem was beyond damaged pipelines.

He explained further: “That is diversion, the pipeline in question is NNPC pipeline for product coming in through NNPC. Product coming in from there cannot sustain the country, it is only one channel to Mosimi, Ejigbo and not for the marketers. “The Marketers are no more importing and those who are doing so are selling at exorbitant prices.”

The Labour leader said the only solution for the crisis would be for government to call stakeholders  meeting of all the marketers to address the issue, noting that government should not hesitate to prosecute fraudulent marketers.

Achese lamented that Nigerians would have been spared of this hardship had Federal Government listened to NUPENG initially, but rather branded the union leadership as saboteurs.

“We are happy that Nigerians are now seeing it and experiencing it, it started in Abuja, and now it is all over the country and NUPENG is not on strike, why are we then experiencing the crisis again?

“The real problem is that we are completely depending on importation as none of our refineries is producing anything for now. Importation also has its own challenges, which has to do with adulteration and importation of sub standard products. But such can be corrected if the government can be sincered with the people and make our refineries work”, he said.

Still challenging government  on insincerity, the NUPENG President said that Nigerians ought not to suffer any hardship if it was true that the NNPC has 45 days reserve as touted by the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

“The 45 days is for products expected on the high seas, it includes products coming in from sea imported by the marketers. The NNPC alone cannot sustain the nation, it does not have facility to store fuel for 45 days”, he stressed.

The senior staff union, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ((PENGASSAN) likewise confirmed that the present fuel crisis goes beyond pipeline vandalisation in Arepo or anywhere in the country. The union said the crisis was as a result of some factors which boils down on human and society.

“The inability of the government to provide security for workers working on the pipeline, and the failure of government to settle with the marketers have all snowballed into the present crisis whose end seems shrouded in uncertainty for now.

“Though we are not saying government should support corruption, neither are we in support of corruption, but we believe that government should settle genuine marketers who have been fulfilling their obligation by bringing fuel to the country”, the union said.

On turn around maintenance of the refineries, PENGASSAN charged government to speed up the work as such would boost supply in the country, lamenting that the present pace of work is rather too slow.

The union added: “How long the crisis would end depend on the sincerity, commitment and political will of the government to tackle those challenges and patriotism on the part of the marketers.”

PENGASSAN who had earlier condemned the killing of three staff of the PPMC staff at Arepo and called for the immediate arrest of the killers and charged them for murder, said it was still awaiting the update from the police.

“Police should make the report public and pursue it to logical conclusion. It is our collective responsibility to checkmate and bring those pipelines culprits to book,” the union stated.

The union had equally given government a month to produce the killers for prosecution and likewise provide adequate security for its members working on the vandalized pipelines, failure which it may be forced to withdraw its members..