No End-of-year Disruption in Fuel Supply, FG Assures Nigerians

No End-of-year Disruption in Fuel Supply, FG Assures Nigerians

05 Oct 2014

Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke

Ejiofor Alike

As part of efforts to ensure that Nigerians carry out their daily activities without hindrances throughout the rest of the year and beyond, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has assured Nigerians of constant supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, in the country.

The Federal Government, through the performance-driven Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), has effectively ensured constant supply of petrol to every part of the country, thus eliminating the price differentials in all parts of the country.

As Nigeria moves towards the end of the year, when consumption of PMS is usually at its highest level, the PPPRA, on the directives of Alison-Madueke, has mapped out strategies to guarantee steady supply of the petroleum products to all parts of the country.

The Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, who disclosed this in Abuja, in his review of the agency’s activities for the year at the weekend, said Nigerian consumers had been experiencing improved and constant availability of PMS across the nation during the year.

“As part of the drive to ensure constant availability of fuel  as we move into the Muslim/Christian holiday period and the upcoming political activities leading to 2015 elections, the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, has recently approved allocation to marketers to bring in additional fuel (PMS) into the country. Government’s commitment to its reform initiatives in the downstream, had resulted in constant supply and availability of PMS in all parts of the country, as well as ensured that the price of the product in the traditionally-high-price areas in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country dropped considerably during the year. As the year progresses, we also expect to see a reduction in the financial strain of the subsidy on the budget as the price of crude oil falls, thereby reducing the landing cost of PMS and the subsidy contribution from the Federal Government,” Ahmed explained.

Assuring consumers of adequate supply of quality products in line with international best practice, Ahmed appealed to Nigerians not to engage in panic-buying or product-hoarding.

He said the PPPRA, in conjunction with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), would ensure that consumers were not taken advantage of in any way.

The assurance was coming amidst anxiety by the business community who feared that as we approach the end of the year, fuel distribution may be constrained by the usual rise in demand for the products.

It was feared that apart from the heightened political activities and religious and social festivals which naturally drive up demand for petroleum products, the fact is that most of the nation’s business concerns usually increase their activities in the last quarter of the year in order to meet up with their yearly projections.

Last month, the nation experienced products shortage in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt as a result of the nationwide industrial action embarked upon by oil industry workers.

Normal supply of petroleum products was disrupted when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, chapter of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (PENGASSAN), and their counterparts in the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, (NUPENG), called out their members on strike.