Fuel Scarcity: FG Issues Warning To Opportunists

The Federal Government has issued a grave warning to any person or organisation that tries to take advantage of or worsen the suffering of common Nigerians by upsetting the chain of supply and distribution of fuel.

This comes as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL) stepped up its efforts to maintain the 450.92 million litres weekly evacuation of Premium Motor Spirit to various petrol outlets across the country.

Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, issued the warning on Tuesday through a statement from Horatius Egua, his Senior Advisor for Media and Communications.

While assuring Nigerians of the government's resolve, Sylva urged security agencies to be on high alert to thwart attempts by subversive forces to disrupt the general elections in the nation.

He pleaded with Nigerians to have patience, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari's administration was earnest in trying to find long-term answers to the nation's petroleum woes.

He said that the government was looking into every possibility to find a solution to the nation's fuel crisis.

Slyva pleaded with oil and petrol industry participants to work with the government to solve the issue.

During a tour of a few petrol stations in Abuja over the weekend, Sylva highlighted the government's delight with the NNPCL's efforts to ensure that the average Nigerian has access to fuel and asked them to keep up the pace.

In the past month, NNPCL has kept up a weekly total PMS evacuation of 450.92 million litres, or 64.42 million litres per day.

While urging everyone to work together to solve the fuel problem, Sylva noted that the government understood the suffering caused by the protracted fuel lines for the average Nigerian.

In order to assure fuel supply at petrol stations around the nation, he claimed that the necessary government authorities were working around the clock.

“The problems associated with fuel queues in the country is not a problem that came with Buhari’s government but a fallout of long years of rot and decadence in products supply and distribution chain by successive governments.

“Buhari’s administration is addressing the problem holistically, this is the first time in so many years that a government is addressing the problems associated with fuel supply and distribution collectively,’’ he said.

The minister also stated that in an effort to find a long-term solution, the Federal Government has established a 14-Man committee to investigate the issue in order to prevent it from happening again.

The Port Harcourt Refinery is almost 65% complete, Kaduna was just granted to Daewo of South Korea, and Warri is scheduled to follow soon, according to him, who also claimed that the Federal Government has started the repair of refineries that had been neglected over the years.

He said that the government has started the licencing process for modular refineries after acquiring a 20% equity holding in the Dangote Refinery through the NNPCL.

He came to the conclusion that the recent few months' marginal fields auction and enhanced security along crude pipelines in the Niger Delta region were all directed at boosting crude oil production to meet domestic demand.