The minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, yesterday told the House of Representatives that marketers and cartels were to blame for the scarcity of kerosene across the country.
Honouring Tuesday’s invitation by the House to explain the protracted kerosene scarcity plaguing the country, Alison-Madueke said: “The kerosene has been diverted, hoarded and illegally moved to other countries.”
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Austin Oniwon,? was present, having also been invited by the House.
The reason for the scarcity ranged from diversion of kerosene for use as the more lucrative aviation fuel to diversion of the scarce commodity for adulterating into diesel, the minister said, adding that despite the estimated surplus of 4 million litres which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) supplies against estimated national daily need of 8 million litres, making it 11 million litres, kerosene remains scarce.
The minister who was grilled for over an hour said the crippling scarcity was gradually being contained. According to her, some grounds have been gained. Aside the official N50 per litre price obtainable in NNPC mega stations, she noted, kerosene prices have been brought down to around N85 to N90 from N150 at the height of the scarcity in many filling stations.
Reeling out mitigating measures employed to check the scarcity, she said on the interim, 80 mobile kerosene dispensing trucks will be deployed in a couple of weeks, especially in hinterlands, to check distribution challenges.
Alison-Madueke informed the lawmakers that directives have been given to the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, to ‘flood’ the market with kerosene, while fruitful talks have been held with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to commandeer more trucks to aid effective distribution.
The minister said sanctions were already being meted to erring marketers while at last count, 152 filing stations have been shut down for various offences.
Hon Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere 1 Federal Constituency of Lagos), while flaying the ineptitude of the NNPC in containing the scarcity, also called for a revolutionary reform in the NNPC, a suggestion to which the minister quickly responded would be possible through the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Describing the bill as a ‘critical bill’, she said the PIB’s passage as well as commercialising of the operations of the NNPC, will also “encourage an influx of private sector investment”.
Meanwhile, the group managing director of the NNPC, Austin Oniwon yesterday assured Nigerians that all problems associated with the availability of kerosene will be sorted out within the next three weeks.
He stated categorically that the pump price of the product will remain unchanged at N50 per litre at all NNPC stations nationwide.
He made this known while reacting to enquiries from the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal yesterday.
Responding to the speaker’s question on when specifically the scarcity will be over, he said, “with efforts in place, with meetings we are holding on the issue and with the volume of products that are currently in our inland routes, I do pledge that within the next three weeks, sanity will return”.
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