The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to begin an immediate closure of fillings stations across the country that fail to sell petroleum products to consumers at the normal rate.
The is coming just as the Federal Government has established a nine-man special committee to review the processes adopted in the award of the country’s crude oil blocks in the 2005/2006 bidding rounds.
Petroleum products marketers who had anticipated that government would announce an increase in pump prices in the New Year, had since December 31, closed their filling stations, a development which has impacted hardship on consumers.
As a result of this hardships on �innocent Nigerians, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) would commence closing any erring stations�.
According to THISDAY investigations yesterday, some marketers have adjusted their metres to dispense Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at prices ranging between N80 and N150 per litre, instead of the regulated price of N65 per litre. Also, price of kerosene ranged between N65 and N78 per litre instead of the official N65 per litre.
Prompted by this development, the NNPC yesterday vowed that all the filling stations that failed to commence immediate and normal sale would be closed down.
Describing the development as an act of sabotage, the corporation wondered why these marketers, �out of share greed� refused to sell, when they have enough supplies from the corporation.
NNPC�s spokesman, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, who said the corporation�s investigations confirmed the illegal meter adjustments, added that most filling stations visited yesterday remained closed, even when there was no pronouncement on increment by both the Petroleum Product and Price Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), whose duty it is to increase petroleum prices.
�We know they have the products. We have been supplying them but they are not selling. All the filling stations I visited were not selling. We view this as a serious act of sabotage. They are giving impression that government was not up to its responsibilities.
�They run the risk of being closed down by the DPR. So they should open up and resume sales or face the wrath of the law�, Ajuonuma warned.
He confirmed that the pipeline at Awori, Abule Egba, Lagos, which exploded after it was vandalised has been repaired and that normal pumping of petrol has commenced.
Signs of petroleum scarcity became noticeable few days before Christmas when long queues emerged at many petrol stations across the country. By December 24, 2006, the situation became worse, crippling activities during the yuletide.
But the NNPC has maintained that there was no product scarcity and blamed the situation on activities of petrol station attendants who sell from only one point, thereby giving an impression that the product was scarce.
The situation has remained unabated, despite an earlier warning by the corporation that petrol stations which were not selling, as they ought to, would be sealed up, as Nigerians resident in Lagos and other states of the federation, still queue for several hours at various filling stations without getting the product.
Also yesterday, few independent marketers and their attendants, in collaboration with miscreants, demanded amounts ranging between N200 and N300 from frustrated buyers to be allowed to queue up.
THISDAY checks at some of the petrol stations revealed that these attendants prefer selling to those with jerry cans who buy at higher rates.
For example, a four litre jerry can was yesterday sold for N1,200 and 10 litres, for N4,000 by fuel hawkers, who operate around the petrol stations.
Irked by the development, the regulatory body, the DPR, which earlier shut down a petrol station on Lekki area of, Lagos state, on Thursday, sealed up two filling stations along Okigwe Road, Owerri due to some irregularities observed while on routine checks.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has established a nine-man special committee to review the processes adopted in the award of the country’s crude oil blocks in the 2005/2006 bidding rounds.
The committee is to also recommend to government appropriate procedures and more transparent processes that would govern the next award of oil blocks, expected to come up before the end of first quarter of this year.
The panel, headed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, has till the end of January to complete its assignment.
A source at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources said the move was to bring more transparency into the award process and to strengthen the capacity of the agencies by widening the membership of the supervising team.
Part of the committee’s assignment is to carry out an overhaul of the existing processes and to come up with the best way to handle the 2007 bidding round to engender more investors� confidence and avoid controversy.
THISDAY checks revealed that the committee’s inauguration was performed by Daukoru who is also its chairman.
Daukoru told the members, while inaugurating the committee, that government considered their assignment very critical to the progress of the reform currently being implemented in the sector.
“We are to critically understudy the existing processes so as to advise government appropriately on better ways of organising the biding rounds”, he said.
The committee was set up following a directive from the Presidency that measures be taken to review the bidding process and to plug any loophole in the previous arrangement.
This is coming on the heels of the recent controversy generated over the acquisition of oil block 291 by the Addax/Starcrest Consortium during the 2006 bidding round which led to the sack and recall of the Director of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Tony Chukwueke.
Other members of the committee are the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), a representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Bright Okogu, a representative of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. J.O. Adeyemi.
Others are the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petro-leum Development Company, Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS-NNPC), Mr. George Osahon, a representative of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Mr. S.M. Waziri and the reinstated Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Tony Chukwueke.
THISDAY also gathered that the committee has been given until the end of January to completely draw up the format of the licensing round that would include the schedule for the 2007 edition of the bid rounds.
In an effort to enthrone a more transparent and mutually benefiting exploitation of the nation’s oil acreage, the Federal Government introduced a number of innovations in the 2005 bidding rounds.
Among the most outstanding ones were the open bid arrangement where prospective investors jostle for operatorship licences of oil blocks in an open and fair manner, and the local content vehicle initiative aimed at encouraging indigenous participation in the petroleum industry.
Jan22007