Thursday, January 02, 2014

No Plan to Raise Price of Petrol in Nigeria, Says Government

No plan to raise price of petrol, says govt

Written by From Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt) Collins Olayinka (Abuja) and Roseline Okere (Lagos)
Nigerian Guardian

pump• ‘NNPC has sufficient petroleum products’

• Isoko demand turbines, others from oil firms

• Amaechi decries non-implementation of UNEP report

GOVERNMENT Thursday allayed fears that it would increase the pump price of petrol from the current N97 a litre.

It equally debunked insinuations to that effect in two statements by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Meanwhile, products worth about N100 billion are currently kept as strategic reserve for the nation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The NNPC’s spokesman, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, said the corporation has the mandate to keep at least 32 days of fuel reserve in case of any unforeseen circumstance.

In a statement in Abuja by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, the Federal Government dismissed growing fears in some quarters about an alleged impending price hike, which it said was unfounded.

“We would like to appeal to oil marketers to refrain from hoarding petroleum products and the general public from panic buying in anticipation of any increase in pump price. It is equally important to state that neither the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources nor any of its parastatals is under any instruction to activate a new pump price regime as being speculated,” he said.

He further warned marketers to desist from creating any scarcity so as to induce panic in the system in order to exploit unsuspecting members of the public.

“The relevant agencies of government including the DPR and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been directed to deal with offenders,” Kifasi stated.

He assured that the NNPC and its downstream company - the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) - have made enough arrangements to ensure that the entire nation had enough fuel “round the clock in 2014 just, as it has been the practice in the last three years.”

Ibrahim said the 32-days reserve when multiplied by 35 million litres daily consumption of the country, at the rate of N97 a litre, valued at N108 billion, is what the corporation is keeping for the nation but is not being captured as part of what the corporation is saving for the nation.

He said the law stated that not all of these products should be kept on the land some part of it should be on the high sea. “So we have to keep these ships on top of the sea, as well as pay demurrage on them. All these are part of our operational cost.”

He said: “NNPC has not been receiving subsidy reimbursement for the last two years and the government has not captured that in the unremitted revenue.

“In 2012, almost single-handedly NNPC imported fuel into the country without any intervention from the marketers but not a penny is given to NNPC as subsidy.”

He said the same people that are accusing the NNPC are aware that the corporation has not been receiving its subsidy and they didn’t say anything about that.

“On the $10.8 billion that is said to be missing, our position is this, since January 2012, we have been importing fuel, but up to today, we have not been paid subsidy.”

He said billions of naira were going down the drain from the corporation account due to the incessant vandalism of the pipelines and are repaired by the NNPC.

He said: “Since the subsidy crisis, we kept the country with fuel. Secondly, pipeline vandalism is another issue. Technically, it is a responsibility of government to provide enabling environment for businesses to strive, unfortunately our 6,000 kilometres of pipelines are always hacked. We are losing so much from theft, from repair and from the idle time, all these are not taken into consideration.”

DPR, which also assured that there was no intention of increasing the prices, therefore, cautioned marketers against selling fuel above the government-approved pump prices.

It said: “All petroleum product marketers are hereby advised to sell at government approved prices and desist from hoarding thereby causing artificial scarcity and hardship to consumers. The DPR wishes to reiterate that there is adequate supply of petroleum products nationwide.”

According to the DPR, it has stepped up surveillance and monitoring of all outlets to enforce compliance with the Federal Government directives on sale of products.

The agency said that it would not hesitate to sanction defaulters.

Meanwhile, participants at the first Isoko Economic Summit consultative forum have unanimously demanded power turbines from oil companies operating in the area to ensure constant power supply for the people. The forum was organised by Isoko Action Group (ISAG) in Oleh, Delta State.

According to them, Isoko land as the biggest contributor of onshore production of crude oil in Nigeria will not be asking for too much if it gets power turbines from companies in the area as a compensation for ensuring peaceful coexistence over the years.

In a communiqué, they said: “There are communities in Nigeria enjoying 24 hours free power supply from oil companies, So Isoko as a great contributor to Nigeria’s oil wealth should not be left out. Constant power supply in the area will enhance job creation for the people.”

Also, the forum advocated for the urgent industrialisation of the area lamenting that “more than 50 years after oil exploration began in Isoko land, there is no single industry to create employment for the teeming population.”

In a speech, ISAG’s President, Esanerovo Agbodo, an engineer, enjoined Isoko people to “look within” to find ways of improving the economy of the land. He noted that the level of unemployment and underemployment was very high in the land and that the summit was meant to “devise strategies to harness the economic potentials of the region to create jobs and other economic activities for the people.”

He stated that “local and international investors are expected to attend the summit proper within the first quarter of 2014.”

Agbodo added: “Isoko sons and daughters should be their brothers and sisters’ keeper. It is regrettable that there have been cases of some pupils at even the secondary education level dropping out from school due to lack of funds to pay fees.

“We must resist anything that will make Isoko disadvantaged in any sector in these modern times and if it means establishing an Isoko Educational Trust Fund, we will do it to ensure that every Isoko son and daughter is educated to the highest level.”

The participants also stressed the need for Isoko communities to harness the agricultural opportunities in the area, stating that every indigene at home or in the Diaspora should rally round and support the forthcoming economic summit in other to move oil-rich forward. Participants also urged Isoko people to embrace mechanised agriculture as a way of boosting the economy.

In Rivers State, Governor Chibuike Amaechi has urged the Ogoni to vote out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 over the failure of the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogoniland.

The governor who recently decamped to the All Progressive Congress (APC) asked his supporters in Ogoniland to prepare for mobilisation and registration of party members in order to vote out the PDP.

Amaechi spoke at Tai Local Council where he had gone to launch 100 motorcyles to kick-start registration of APC members in Sime, Nonwa, Koroma and Botem communities.

The governor told the teeming APC supporters that the non-implementation of the UNEP report by the Federal Government was one of the reasons for his decamping from the PDP to APC. He said it was wrong for the Federal Government to deprive the people of Ogoni from receiving their compensation, and to enjoy a habitable environment, as well as provision of potable water.

“When I was in PDP, UNEP report said $1 billion should be spent to clean-up the oil spill in Ogoni land and further pay compensation and also provide potable drinking water for the Ogoni people. We can’t have a South-South president and allow the UNEP report die a natural death.

“It shows that the Federal Government do not care about us. As a governor of the state, I played a vital role in ensuring that potable water was provided for Eleme and Gokana people. Why must our people continue to suffer this neglect and deprivation despite several attempts to remind the Federal Government to effect the immediate implementation of the UNEP report.

“PDP has the police to intimidate us, but, I tell you as a people, in a democracy, power belongs to the people to chose their leaders, so, you must protect the Rivers interest because, we have suffered much in the hands of PDP. We all must therefore, defend the interest of APC”, he said.

Amaechi promised to continue effective development in the rural areas and ensuring better life for the people, if the APC was voted to power in 2015.

Amaechi had on Wednesday described as betrayal of his people the position taken by an Abonnema traditional ruler, King Disrael Gbobo Bob-Manuel, on the disputed Soku oil wells in Rivers State.

Bobmanuel, the Amayanabo of Abonnema, had allegedly expressed satisfaction with the way President Goodluck Jonathan was handling the Soku oil wells’ dispute between Rivers and Bayelsa states.

He allegedly expressed this position when Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson visited him in Abonnema.

But Amaechi said he was disappointed with King Gbobo Bob-Manuel’s comments.

He said the response by the Abonnema monarch conflicted with his government’s efforts and Kalabari people desire to ensure that resources of the state were not given away to other states.

He went on: “There is an attempt by the Federal Government to undermine the development of Rivers State. I did enumerate the fact that, everybody is talking about Soku oil wells but, there’s also Etche where they took 41 oil wells from Rivers State and passed onto Abia. They want to impoverish Rivers State and I can’t be governor and you expect me to keep quiet. So not just Soku alone, it is also the fact that they have taken the oil wells in Etche.

“I hear my colleague, the Governor of Bayelsa State came to Abonnema the other day and the Amanyanabo of Abonnema received him and said he was satisfied with the way the president is handling the oil wells (dispute). For me, that is a betrayal of his people and he is suppose to be a king in Kalabari Kingdom and he said he is satisfied that the Federal Government has taken the oil wells and that Bayelsa is receiving the money. And a king in Abonnema is saying he is satisfied. It is not about me, it is about the Kalabari people. It is about the Rivers people.”

“Instead of the king to tell him (Bayelsa Governor) ‘look, our people are not happy that the oil wells have been taken, return it’... and I have told the president if you return the oil wells, I will support you, but he can’t. I even told them that if you think it would empower me as a governor, keep the money in an escrow account because the money was first and foremost in an escrow account, because they became president they went to the escrow account and took the money. Keep the money in escrow account, after my tenure let them give the money to the next government but what I want to see done is the fact that our resources are returned to us.”

He recalled that he held several meetings with the president on resolving the Soku oil wells’ dispute, but that the president’s alleged unwillingness to act on the issue without bias collapsed the negotiations.

He vowed to protect and defend the interests of the people in Soku as well as those in other parts of the state.

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