Scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), aka petrol may hit Nigeria soon.
On Monday, oil workers commenced a nationwide strike.
The order was given by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN.
The letter to the effect dated November 8, 2020 was signed by the General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa.
The memo copied all zones and states in the country.
The industrial action followed the disagreement between the oil workers and the government over the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to proceed with its planned strike and protest with effect from September 28 following the failure of the Federal Government to reverse the hike in electricity tariff and fuel price.
Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja a few minutes ago, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the proposed action by the organised labour would proceed from next week.
He stated that the decision was unanimously taken by the chairmen of the 36 states and FCT chapters of the NLC.
Since the hike in petrol price, the federal government has tried to justified the increment, insisting the price remains one of the cheapest in Africa.
Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, joined at a briefing by the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman; and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva said, “In spite of the recent increase in the price of fuel to N162 per litre, petrol prices in Nigeria remain the lowest in the West/Central African sub-regions.
“Below is a comparative analysis of petrol prices in the sub-regions (naira equivalent per litre): Nigeria -N162 per litre; Ghana -N332 per litre; Benin -N359 per litre; Togo – N300 per litre; Niger – N346 per litre; Chad -N366 per litre; Cameroon -N449 per litre; Burkina Faso -N433 per litre; Mali -N476 per litre; Liberia – N257 per litre; Sierra Leone -N281 per litre; Guinea -N363 per litre; and Senegal – N549 per litre.
“Outside the sub-region, petrol sells for N211 per litre in Egypt and N168 per litre in Saudi Arabia.
“You can now see that even with the removal of subsidy, fuel price in Nigeria remains among the cheapest in Africa.”
President Buhari also justified the increase as he hinged it on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a severe downturn in the funds available to finance our budget and has severely hampered our capacity.
“One of the steps we took at the beginning of the crisis in March when oil prices collapsed at the height of the global lockdown was the deregulation of the price of Premium Motor Spirit such that the benefit of lower prices at that time was passed to consumers.
“This was welcome by all and sundry. The effect of deregulation though is that PMS prices will change with changes in global oil prices.
“This means quite regrettably that as oil prices recover we would see some increases in PMS prices. This is what has happened now. When global prices rose, it meant that the price of petrol locally will also go up.
“There are several negative consequences if government should even attempt to go back to the business of fixing or subsidising PMS prices.
“First of all, it would mean a return to the costly subsidy regime. Today we have 60 per cent less revenues, we just cannot afford the cost.
“The second danger is the potential return of fuel queues – which has, thankfully, become a thing of the past under this administration.
“We do not have the resources at this point to continue in this way and it will be grossly irresponsible to borrrow to subsidise a generation and distribution which are both privatised.
“But we also have a duty to ensure that the large majority of those who cannot afford to pay cost reflective tariffs are protected from increases.
“NERC, the industry regulator, therefore approved that tariff adjustments had to be made but only on the basis of guaranteed improvement in service.”
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, has said there is a need for Nigeria to act fast and address the loss of foreign investors’ confidence in the country’s oil and gas industry.
Kyari said the absence of a stable fiscal environment was inhibiting the growth of the industry, especially the upstream sector.
He spoke while playing host to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), who were on an oversight visit to the corporation recently, according to a statement on Tuesday.
He said “international investors were losing confidence in the nation’s oil and gas industry” and urged the lawmakers to act fast and arrest the situation.
“We need to act quickly to move from this unstable situation to a very stable one and the only way is for us to get the Petroleum Industry Bill to work so that countries and investors can work with us,” the NNPC boss said.
According to him, foreign capital is needed in the upstream sector and the only way to attract it is to have stable laws and a friendly business environment that can guarantee cost recovery and a decent return on investment for investors.
Kyari noted that the uncertainty in the sector created by the long delay in the passage of the PIB had led to a number of divestments from the country in the recent past.
He said the drive by the management of the NNPC to entrench the culture of transparency in the corporation had improved its business fortunes and creditworthiness “as lenders are now willing to grant credit to it.”
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said the problems associated with Nigeria’s refineries will persist if the Federal Government continues to own and run them.
Osinbajo said this at a virtual meeting organised for the All Progressives Congress social media bloggers and influencers at the APC National Secretariat, in Abuja, Monday.
He said “If the refinery is left in the hands of the government, it will continue to experience the same problem it is experiencing now. I do not think that it is the business of the government to run the refinery. It should be the business of the private sector, which is why we are trying to focus on assisting the private sector to develop modular refineries.
“There is a 100,000-barrel capacity refinery about to come on stream and we hope it will by the next year. It is completely private and closely located near the Port Harcourt refinery so that it can share the facilities of the Port Harcourt refinery. We are hopeful it will come on stream in the first quarter of next year.
“There are also six modular refineries that are almost ready. There is Niger Delta Petroleum refinery in Delta state, there is another one in Imo, there is also another modular refinery in Edo State.
“The whole idea is to support as many private refineries as possible. We are also waiting for the Dangote Refinery with 250,000 barrels capacity which is bigger than all of the government refineries put together.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress has vowed to proceed with its planned strike and protest with effect from September 28 following the failure of the Federal Government to reverse the hike in electricity tariff and fuel price.
Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja a few minutes ago, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the proposed action by the organised labour would proceed from next week.
He stated that the decision was unanimously taken by the chairmen of the 36 states and FCT chapters of the NLC.
Petrol scarcity may surface across the country as the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners on Monday ordered tanker drivers nationwide to halt operations beginning from Tuesday, September 22, 2020.
NARTO gave the directive in Abuja in protest against the Federal Government’s ban on petroleum trucks above 45,000 litres from plying Nigerian roads.
NARTO is the umbrella organisation of all commercial vehicles owners in Nigeria engaged in the haulage of petroleum products, general cargoes, and movement of goods and passengers within the country and the West-African sub-region.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, NARTO’s National President, Yusuf Othman, said members of the association would have to park their trucks on Tuesday and Wednesday as a warning to government against the abrupt ban.
He said, “NARTO received with grave shock the recent government decision to place immediate ban on all petroleum trucks above 45,000 litres capacity from plying Nigeria roads.”
Othman said the sudden ban was highly insensitive and unappreciative of the efforts NARTO members in the sensitive distribution and supply chains of petroleum products across the country.
He said none of the major transport companies across the country could continue any form of operations with this policy within this short time frame, adding that if the ban was not lifted, the association would begin a full-blown industrial action.
The NARTO president said, “In view of the above, we are therefore constrained to allow the decision of all our members to park their trucks as from tomorrow, 22nd to 23rd September 2020, to prevail as a warning.
“And furthermore, issue 10 days ultimatum with effect from 24th September 2020, for a full-blown withdrawal of service.”
He added, “If such scenarios occur, we earnestly plead with those who will lose employment, income, and the general public that will be negatively affected by this avoidable situation.”
The association argued that it was distressing and discouraging for the government to impose the new policy abruptly without giving the operators time to gradually phase out the affected trucks.
Othman said, “The leadership of NARTO is not in any way against the decision of the Federal Government to ban the use of trucks with more than 45,000 litres capacity in the conveyance of petroleum products considering the dilapidated state of Nigerian roads.
“But NARTO is particularly concerned about the sudden and prompt nature of the ban. We consider the approach to be highly insensitive to the huge investments the owners of these trucks have made and debts they incurred in executing the mandate given by previous administration.”
They argued that the ban would be counterproductive as the sudden withdrawal of these trucks would impact heavily and negatively on the operations of members, lead to job losses of about 40,000 people, and cause petrol scarcity.
The Department of Petroleum Resources has ordered 9,000 filling stations nationwide to begin the installation of facilities for gas products.
This was announced in a statement by The Director, DPR, Mr Sarki Auwalu. The DPR said the move will improve the utilization of liquefied petroleum gas, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas and autogas as alternative fuels for Nigerians.
Nairametrics reported last month that the Federal Government stated that filling stations will begin to dispense autogas into automobiles through selected filling stations across the country before the end of September. The Committee on National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) had been assigned to ensure the effective implementation and take-off of this initiative. The NGEP was inaugurated in January this year by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, in furtherance of the domestic gas expansion programme of the Federal Government.
Mr Auwalu added that the 9,000 outlets represent 27% of the number of retail fuel stations in the first category, and identified by the DPR as stations that can implement the integration of gas facilities based on robust safety assessment and technical considerations.
The DPR ordered all category one operators of filling stations to begin immediate installation and also update the licenses with the DPR.
“All operators of retail outlets in categories two and three whose facilities do not meet the minimum requirements or do not have sufficient land area are encouraged to apply for stand-alone LPG, CNG, LNG or autogas facilities (full-scale or modular) under an incentivized regulatory regime.”
“The DPR has also approved the deployment of skid-mounted modularized/containerized LPG/autogas handling systems and other intrinsically safe systems for gas storage and handling to promote affordability, accessibility, and availability of the products,” Auwalu said.
The Federal Government has announced that marketers will be determining the price bands for the sale of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at filling stations.
It disclosed this in Abuja through the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, adding that based on this, the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector had been fully deregulated.
Responding to questions from journalists during a briefing at the headquarters of PPPRA, the agency’s Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, stated that going forward, PMS price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply and the international cost of crude oil.
He, however, noted that the role of the agency would be to ensure that oil marketers do not profiteer, as every petrol dealer was, henceforth free to source for product and fix their price.
“This, however, must be in accordance with our code of conduct because as a regulator, it is our duty to protect the consumer and operators must abide by our codes,” Saidu stated.
The PPPRA boss, who was represented by the agency’s General Manager, Administration and Human Resources, Victor Shidok, also stated that marketers are not currently importing petrol due to scarcity of foreign exchange.
Members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and some of its agencies on Wednesday commenced a three-day warning strike.
It was gathered that the senior workers downed tools at the Abuja headquarters of the FMPR in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for the past three months.
Our correspondent also learnt that the strike was embarked upon by PENGASSAN to kick against the Federal Government’s inclusion of its members in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information system.
The association’s National Public Relations Officer, who doubles as the Rivers State Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Fortune Obi, confirmed the industrial action when contacted.
The striking senior staff staged a protest in Abuja, displaying various placards with inscriptions such as “IPPIS is a pandemic than COVID-19, the President should act fast,” and “IPPIS office, respect your agreement and come for negotiations” among others.
Officials of the FMPR said they were aware of the protest and the three-day warning strike but declined to comment further on what the ministry was doing to address the situation.
THE Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, on Monday, directed its Petroleum Tankers Drivers, PTD, to suspend its ongoing strike in Lagos State after the union reached an agreement with Lagos State government and other stakeholders.
Recall that the tanker drivers had began an indefinite strike, Monday, following Friday’s directive by NUPENG for members of the PTD, Lagos zone, to shut fuel distribution in Lagos and its environs over take-over of access roads to tank farms and fuel depots by containerised trucks, among other grievances.
Other grievances of the union are deplorable state of the roads and extortion of tanker drivers by security operatives in Lagos and its environs,
NUPENG, in a statement by its President and General Secretary, Prince Williams Akporeha, and Olawale Afolabi, respectively, lamented perceived failure of various authorities in the state to address three major issues that have caused pains and harrowing experiences on the hapless petroleum drivers in the state for several months.
Communiqué
A communiqué, at the end of the closed-door meeting, was signed on behalf of state government by Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr, Olalere Odubote, and Deputy National President, NUPENG, Solomon Kilanko signed on behalf of NUPENG. It read:
Security Agenda: The state government will meet with the heads of all security agencies and secure their commitment to ensure the free passage of petroleum products vehicles given their importance to the economy.
Area Boys: The menace of area boys(louts) will be handled by relevant government agencies and a dedicated phone number will be established, within the next week, to ensure that petroleum products transporters have prompt access to security agencies.
Ad hoc levies: The issue of extra-ordinary levies on tankers drivers by a particular local government will be investigated and local government will immediately be advised to collect only levies that are legally due.
Bad Roads: It is understood by the parties that road works are a necessary path to progress; the state government will continue to relate with all road users in the planning and execution of road works in the state
Over-loading: The downstream petroleum union has committed to ensuring that all tankers are loaded within the capacities provided for in the regulations and communicated by DPR.
Timing of Movement: Lagos State will within the next one week review the restriction of timing of movement of the petroleum tankers and advise a resolution to ease their access to the tank farms. Union also notes that the ongoing road works are a temporary inhibitor of movement.
Coordination: Lagos State Government will immediately set up a standing committee to relate with the union on an ongoing basis to address any issues as may arise.
Others in attendance were Executive Council members: Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Fred Oladeinde; Local Government and Community Affairs, Dr. Wale Ahmed; Information and Strategy Commissioner, Gbenga Omotoso; Babatunde Williams and Vice Chairman, Presidential Task Team, Mr. Kayode Opeifa,
