Lagos — A mega fuel scarcity, which could make the current and past ones look like a child's play, is looming following disclosure at the weekend that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the lone importer of the product, is running short of it.
Investigation showed that the national fuel stock will be depleted in seven days' time.
NNPC Spokesperson, Levi Ajuonuma, did not pick calls to his mobile telephone at the weekend.
A text message sent to the line was also not answered, but a source at the NNPC said an order has been placed, which would take not less than two weeks to arrive.
"Yes, they just gave out an order for February deliveries for 24 cargoes, which would start arriving from February 8. Current stock level/sufficiency is two weeks," the source said.
For the first time since the scarcity started over six weeks ago, the government has admitted that there is a wide gap in supply which the NNPC cannot fill.
Minister of State for Finance, Remi Babalola, disclosed at the weekend that the NNPC, which owes the government N450 billion, has cash flow hiccup.
He explained that the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) does not have a problem with the NNPC.
"There would be a problem if the debtor said it does not agree it was owing. But this is a debtor that has owned up, and has even spoken that there is no debate about the fact that it is owing N450 billion.
"The problem now, however, is the cash flow situation, and how it would be able to pay back the money," he stated.
Babalola was speaking to journalists at a workshop organised by the NNPC for members of the FAAC.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, said in Lagos that since marketers stopped importation, the NNPC has tried hard to fill the gap without success.
He spoke at a meeting with oil marketers, depot owners, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
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Quick! Somebody grab this opportunity to start producing ethanol from your Typha infestation. There's Fuel in those swamps. Water hyacinth, too, can be made into fuel. Next, clean up your garbage and sewage, and turn them into fuel, too. If you can deplete the weeds in your quest for fuel, there are wonderful things that will happen to you including: improved water supply; reduced desertification; reduced malaria, bilharzia and Quelea; and less flooding. If you cannot deplete them, they are an inexhaustible fuel supply.
Thanks, Steve, for your usual wonderful ideas but would Nigerians heed the advise. No. The govt officials would rather pay Expats / Consultants millions of dollars to tell them exactly what you just offered for all for free. As long as the official collects his 10% bribe. Even this fuel scarcity is part of their shellgame to corner the downstream market. Oh brother!
Fuel scarcity is one of the major symptoms of the malaise afflicting Nigeria. It goes to the root of the national problem. All fixes have ended up being quick , temporary, and like Nigeria itself, waiting for another crisis! We have a refinery in Kaduna (where there is no oil), that is deliberately sited to use imported heavy crude (rather than southern Nigeria crude), so that in the event of a break up of the country, the North can inherit a refinery that works on heavy crude which they can import from Arabia. Then they can rechannel the crude delivery pipeline from Forcados, Warri, to Niger and Sudan. You see these northern leaders who ambitioned and articulated this stupidity, actually thought themselves smart and northern! The refinery in Port-Harcourt has never been allowed to function (having become a place of federal character and indigene politics), muzzled by the usual ethnic pretensions and apprehensions. The way to kill any Nigerian project is to deny merit and excellence in the name of federal character, while setting channels of patronage and corruption. The Warri refinery is the only one that exhaustively attempts to provide any service atall and is constantly breaking down (as Nigeria itself frequently does), due to shortages, industrial action, sabotages, patronage, etc. So an entire nation, a major oil supplier has to rely on Alhaji importation merchants for gasoline and petroleum supplies.