Fuel Scarcity Ends In April – Kachikwu

As Nigerians groan under the hardship of
fuel scarcity which has persisted in recent
days after, the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
announced yesterday that the crisis over the Prime Motor Spirit will end in few weeks, precisely in April.

This is contrary to an earlier statement
credited to the minister in media reports in
which he was quoted as saying that the
current queues at petrol stations would
persist till late May.

The minister who doubles as the group
managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) was also quoted to have added that he was not a magician with a magic wand to make the queues disappear overnight.

While hopes of millions of motorists were
dashed by the statement allegedly attributed to Kachikwu, there appeared to be a glimpse of hope yesterday when the minister in a fresh move to calm frayed nerves announced that scarcity of petrol will end in few weeks.

The minister who spoke on Friday through a press statement signed by the spokesman
of NNPC,  Mohammed Garba Deen said
measures were in the works to ensure a
short and long-term plan to end the scarcity
in April, “The Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement for crude would commence in the first week of April and all these coupled with the fact that the President has given his support to increase the crude supply to NNPC to ensure local sufficiency of products will go a long way to solve the problems in the short and long term,” he said.

The Nigerian NationaCorporation  Corporation(NNPC) called for understanding, saying it is working on long and short term measures to find lasting solutions to the challenge.

The Corporation, in the statement made
available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, said it
empathised with the difficulties Nigerians
were presently going through due to the
current fuel situation, even as it assured that government was not taking their patience for granted, saying the situation will soon be alleviated.

While noting that the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Kachikwu is working
tirelessly round the clock to ensure relief is
brought to Nigerians, the NNPC spokesman
said its immediate concern is to make petrol
available through the interventions and
processes put in place to eliminate the
queues within the next one to two weeks.

Garba Deen disclosed that a cargo
containing 42 million litres has completely
discharged petrol while two more cargos
with 44 million litres are currently
discharging, adding that another PMS cargo
containing 44 million litres is berthed and
awaiting discharge.

“We have enough products lined up to
ensure that the supply gap which created
the problem is bridged. In order to ensure
effective distribution we are working with
Independent Petroleum Marketers
Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), oil majors
and over 1,000 NNPC staff, nationwide to
ensure we overcome the obstacles in the
distribution of the products,” the statement
noted.

NNPC added: “While not resorting to
excuses we would like reemphasise that this present management of NNPC and indeed the government inherited huge and
complicated problems with respect to
importation, distribution and pricing of
petroleum products.

“Nigerians would recall that the sum of
N522 billion meant for payment of fuel
subsidy, covering the last quarter of 2014
and the entire 2015 was approved by the
Senate in December 2015 in order to pay for
subsidy arrears inherited by this government.”

The Corporation further noted that for long
term solutions it was working to put in place machineries to ensure that the refineries are fixed and working optimally, while the pipelines which have been under attack for some time now are repaired.

Source: LEADERSHIP