Fuel Scarcity To Persist Till May, Says Kachikwu

Fuel queue in Abuja

There is no solution in sight to fuel scarcity, it was learnt yesterday. This was the outcome of the closed meeting President Muhammadu Buhari had with leaders of trade unions in the oil sector in Abuja.

The Nation report continues:

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu briefed State House correspondents after the meeting.

He said the meeting was held to promote peace and harmony in the oil sector.

Asked when fuel queues will disappear, Kachikwu said: “One of the trainings I did not receive is that of a magician but I am working hard to ensure some of these issues go away.

“And let’s be honest; for the five, six months we have been here, NNPC has moved from a 50 per cent importer of products to basically a 100 per cent importer. And the 445 barrels that allocated cover between 50 and 55 per cent importation.

“So, it’s quite frankly sheer magic that we even have the amount of products at the stations. We are looking to see how to get foreign exchange input. The President and I discussed extensively on how to get more crude directed at importation.

“The President will rather have less crude but have individuals in the society suffer less with inconveniences than have more crude and have them continue to suffer. So, we are going to put a new model to enable us increase the pace and get majors as part of the crew of those to bring in more products, so NNPC can go back to its capacity and the majors will take over the balance of importation.”

Continuing, he said: “I think if we do that although I don’t want to put a time frame, I will expect that over the next two months. Of course, you are aware the DSAP programme begins in April so over the next two months we should see a complete elimination of this.

“Our strategy is that whatever is produced in the refineries will not go for sale, we are going to keep it in strategic reserve.

“Because the key problem here is that there is no reserve; anytime there is a gap in supply it goes off.”

According to him, the next couple of months will be dedicated to moving products produced to strategic reserve.

He said: “So that we can pile up reserves and push up the reserves in the nation. Believe me, this is giving me and my team sleepless nights and we are working on it and we are committed to making this go away. Nigerians should please bear with us.

“The meeting with the President was basically to review some concerns he is trying to find solutions and share thoughts.

“As you know, the President has too many constituencies; first will be politics, second, army and the third, the oil industry. So, matters of this nature touch his heart. And this is the first opportunity that the unions have had to spend time with him as a father.

“So we shared thoughts, areas of concerns and some potential solution and agreed to work together.”

Asked to list the concerns shared with the President, the minister said: “I will probably highlight a few areas. The PIB, the union wants us to work harder and try to get the PIB passed soon. They are worried about the fuel scarcity and want to finally resolve this issue.  They are worried about the refineries and are thankful we didn’t sell the refineries without looking to work with them to see how to make the refineries work.

“They are worried about the utilization of depots and how best to do that, they are worried about all kinds of issues plaguing the oil industry.

“They are worried about job loss in the sector arising from the position of majors, who feel the economy is giving rough ends of the sticks and then try to whittle down staff. And so we are going to be working with the oil majors to ensure that we do not experience the kind of job loss that we are hearing has the potential to occur in the sector.”

The President, he said, also urged the unions to be agents of change within the areas they work.

“A lot of these problems that are on the table were quite frankly there when we came and we are doing the best to work on them. But we are looking to collaborate, those were the assurances.”

 National President of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) Igwe Achese said that the union was satisfied with deliberations at the meeting.

He said: “We had a successful meeting, quite interesting in terms of the emotional attachment of Mr. President on the issue of oil and gas sector and the challenges we are facing.

“We tabled the issue of fuel scarcity, the quick passage of the PIB and to see how the sector will bounce back economically.

“Clearly, we talked more on corruption in the oil and gas sector, product allocations. Mr. President assured us that NUPENG and PENGASSAN (Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria) will continue to be part of the restructuring he will make, and ensure scarcity is reversed.”

President of PENGASSAN Comrade Olabode Francis Johnson said the President was emotionally attached to the oil sector and wanted everything in NNPC to follow due process.

He said: “We had a successful meeting, and one of the highlights was when he said he created the NNPC and he is emotionally attached to it and that everything going to happen in NNPC must follow due process.”