Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has again called for understanding over the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
Speaking in Lagos at a town hall meeting, Kachikwu lamented that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot track fuel trucks as there were cases of diversion to other countries.
“Over 30 per cent of (fuel) supply is diverted,” he stated.
“For example, in the last five days, we have pumped 400 trucks of product into Lagos state. The total consumption (in the state) at the maximum is 250 trucks, and most of those trucks are diverted from Lagos to the hinterland of Chad and Cameroon.
“We need, literally, a whole army to stop this from happening. So I continue to supply and over-supply and so we struggle.”
Calling on Nigerians to report incidents of diversion of fuel, Kachikwu said “We started publishing deliveries and telling you the filling stations they were allocated to, so if you don’t find products in those filling stations, there are hotlines to call and for police to report.”
Kachikwu stated the NNPC was currently burdened with the entire work of supply and regulation, and takes all the loss.
“That model must change. The private sector will have incentive to drive their business.
“Contracts are awarded through open bids; monthly transactions are now being published by the NNPC with favourable business policies now in place after a 20-year lull,” he stated.
“For the first time, average loss position of NNPC, which was about N300bn per month, has been reduced to about N3bn as of January 2016.
“The Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP), which was the Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA) which we reviewed, has saved us over $1bn.
“Payment of subsidies, which last year was over N1trn has been reduced to zero, except in April, which was prepared for because of over-recovery.
“Finally, we are focusing on the business, not just bleeding government, and benefitting Nigerian people”, he also stated.
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