FG Set To End Fuel Scarcity

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke yesterday said her ministry has begun a probe of the current fuel scarcity across the country,vowing to deal with forces behind the scarcity.

She blamed the scarcity on hoarding and diversion of the products by some dealers, a development she said was born out of selfishness .

Addressing newsmen after a closed- door meeting with the House of Representatives joint committees on petroleum Upstream, Downstream and Gas , the minister assured that the situation was now under control . She stated that her ministry was set to flood the country with the product.

She said “It was quite obvious that it could be caused by a number of things that we are looking into. There is some supply hitch which we are looking into, there is also diversion which was quite clear. There was an element of hoarding as well. And while we are trying to get to the bottom of who diverted what at the same time in terms of supply, we are trying to ensure that over the next week we flood the country with petroleum products.

On whether the scarcity was caused by a planned increase of the pump price of petrol , Allison Madueke dismissed  the claim saying there was no such plan.

She said : “There was also some strange rumor that the ministry of petroleum resources was going to announce an increase in the pump price of petrol which also helped to instigate some of the hoarding and some of the diversion. And I have said categorically over that we have no plans to increase the pump price of petrol anytime in the near future.

“The issues of supplies, more and more PMS is being brought in and over the next week or two we would flood the country with the product. And in terms of the diversions we would try and ensure that whichever stations we find to have actually diverted or hoarded the produce, we will take them up and implement punitive measures no matter which stations they are, whether they are NNPC stations or any other stations, independent or otherwise we will take them up to face the full extent of the law.”

Meanwhile, the minister yesterday told the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources and Gas that the Federal Government will still privatise the four refineries.

The minister told the senator Paulker Emmanuel-led joint committee during the 2014 budget defence of the ministry that the process of privatisarion of the refineries would have been concluded if organised labour within the petroleum industry had not kicked against it. She reiterated that privatisation of the refineries remained the best way to tackle the problems in the petroleum sector.

“The way forward is the privatisation of the refineries because government should not be involved in the business of fuel sales…”

On the scarcity of PMS across the country, she attributed it to rumours of pump price increase. “I wouldn’t call the current fuel shortage a recurring development because there has been no shortage in the last three years until two weeks ago.

“The shortage has a lot to do with a number of issues. First, there seems to have some scare or rumour that the federal government wanted to increase the pump price of petroleum products and I have said it categorically that the Nigerian government had no intention of increasing the pump price of petroleum products, anytime in the near future. That is for certain.

“Secondly,  whether it is as as a result of rumour or supply issue, there was a certain level of burden and we found out too that there was a certain level of diversion of petroleum products as well.

All of these we are trying to ensure that they are brought to an end very stoutly in this period and as a result I have been going out to monitor the fuel distribution and talk to petrol station owners in Lagos and to consumers as well just to get an understanding of where they had had the worse shortages over the last couple of weeks but it is coming under control now, we will be flooding the market with petrol over the next few weeks and beyond to ensure that whatever it is that is causing the shortage, whether it is fuel diversion or rumours or pump price increment, it is dampened by force and we will ensure that going forward,  those that are found to be actually diverting fuel or hoarding even after all that we had done,  during the period.

Source: Legit.ng