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Tag: Fuel

  • Ngige pleads with PENGASSAN to Shelve planned strike action

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige has appealed to members the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria ( P E N G A S S A N ) to shelve its planned strike scheduled to begin on Monday, December 18 in the spirit of the conciliation brokered between it and Neconde Energy Services Ltd.

    The union is asking the government to compel the company to recalled all sacked workers within seven days and stick to the nation’s Labour laws, adding that failure to do that, the union will have no other option than to call out its members on a nation wide indefinite strike action with effect from Monday, December 18, 2017.

    The union is Neconde Energy Ltd (of Nestoil Group of companies) of entrenching unfriendly Labour practices in contravention of the nation’s Labour laws and failing to remit taxes and pensions deducted from workers to government, while boasting that no government official can call it to order, adding that workers who decided to join unions are treated as slaves in their own country and dismissed from work”

    However, Deputy Director, Press in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Samuel Olowookere said in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday that with the conciliatory meeting brokered by Minister of Labour and Employment, the impending action by PENGASSAN has effectively been arrested in line with the provisions of the relevant labour laws.

    The statement said “We recall that the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige had on Wednesday, December 13 and Thursday, December 14, 2017 brokered long hours of conciliation between PENGASSAN and Neconde Energy Services Ltd and secured an agreement.

    “By that agreement, Neconde shall invite the sacked branch chairman of PENGASSAN and hold heart to heart discussion with him while PENGASSAN is to hold back proposed action pending the reconvening of the meeting in the second week of January 2018 when other contending issues relating to other oil companies would be also be sorted out.

    “We therefore wish to appeal to the Central Working Committee of PENGASSAN to reconsider its decision, respect the agreement and call off the scheduled action in the overall interest of the nation, more so when adequate notice of strike was not given. This appeal has become imperative in order to save Nigerians from further hardship in this season of Christmas and the New year”.

  • NNPC to ban imported fuel with high sulphur content

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) may consider placing embargo on imported fuel with high sulphur content by December 31 this year, its General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Ndu Ughamadu, has said.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Corporation had earlier planned to ban petrol with high concentration of high sulphur content between July 1, last year and last July 1, but was unable to do so due to some regulatory bottlenecks.

    Ughamadu told newsmen that NNPC may implement the ban, adding that the issue is of great importance to the Federal Government.

    Ughamadu said: ‘’The issue of banning the importation of fuel, with higher volume of suplhur and other imports that contain a considerable level of harmful materials, is sacrosant. The government, through NNPC is not leaving anybody in doubt, about its readines to outlaw dirty fuels, since they are posing threats to human lives. Yes, the banning can still take place before the year runs out, at least for the sake of safety of consumers. 2017 has not ended, as it remains two or three weeks to go.’’

    He said the process of making Nigerians use fuel, which contains lower level of sulphur is on-going, adding that NNPC has deciced to carry along quality control institutions like the Standards of Organisation of Nigeria(SON) on the issue to do a good job.

    He said switching from fuel with higher sulphur content to lower one was global and that many countries in Europe and other continents have done so.

    Ughamadu said NNPC is charged with maintaining standards in the industry, especially in fuel consumption.

    Also, the former Minister of Environment, Ms. Amina Mohammed, said the Federal Government is working with the refineries to produce fuel with lower sulphur content in the near future, adding that the issue of enforcing the ban is of major concern to the government.

    Ms. Mohammed, now United Nations Deputy Secretary, said some countries have dumped fuel with high sulphur content, pointing out that Nigeria cannot be an exemption.

    She said NNPC has issued enough notices on the matter and that it can no longer delay the implementation. She said Nigeria will commence the enforcement of the 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur in fuel soon to enble Nigerians use safer and environmentally-friendly fuel.

    She said new refineries that are coming up in Nigeria have been directed to produce fuel at 10 ppm to reduce its sulphuric composition.

    She said when that happens, Nigeria will be consuming fuel with five per cent sulphur lower than that of South Africa, which has 15 ppm.

    ‘‘Some of the new refineries that are coming up have 10 ppm; South Africa is 15ppm. But for us, it is a West African problem and we hope that we can lead in West Africa by reducing it. So, there is no reason we can’t do it,’’ she added.

    Ghana has slashed the sulphur content in fuel to 50 ppm for imported petrol and diesel, from 1,000 ppm and 3,000 ppm.

    By this, Ghana has taken the lead in the West African sub-region, and it beholds on Nigeria to take similar steps to gaurantee the safety of its people.

     

  • We’ll dispense your fuel free to motorist if you are caught hoarding, NPMC warns filling stations

    The Managing Director of Nigerian Product Marketing Company, NPMC, Umar Ajiya, on Wednesday, said petrol from filling stations found to be hoarding products would be confiscated and served free to motorists.

    Mr. Ajiya said this after an inspection of six stations around the FCT in company of other officials from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

    According to him, the disappearance of long queues in Abuja is as a result of hard work and effort between sister agencies – the NPMC, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, and security agencies.

    He said “we moved our operations to 24 hours in all depots and affiliate retail stations.

    ”Similarly, our majors have done the same in Abuja to complement our efforts. In addition, we increased our truck-out capacity to over 1,300 a day. As you can see, trucks are arriving at several stations.

    ”We had also beefed up surveillance and directed to serve motorists free petrol confiscated from depots or filling stations found to be hoarding products.

    “The genesis of the whole problem was the proposed increase in price, but we had since debunked that. There was no iota of truth in that and people should not indulge in panic buying.”

    Mr. Ajiya said a plan had been put in place to ensure a steady supply of products all through the Christmas season and beyond.

    ”We have a robust supply plan. Every day, we have a minimum of one ship arriving Nigeria. Today, we received two ships, tomorrow, we have a ship and the day after; we are expecting two ships, and that is the trajectory going forward until the end of the year.

    ”One ship on the average carries 50 million litres and in our belief, average consumption in Nigeria is about 35 million litres.

    ”Once we sustain our current operations, we will not have this kind of situation,” the NPMC boss assured.

    He further assured that the DPR had asked its operators to go to depots and monitor prices “and anyone caught selling above official rate should be penalised.”

    The NNPC Chief Operating Officer (Ventures), Babatunde Adeniran, who is also in charge of the task force monitoring team told journalists ”we have a robust plan that will take us to the end of the year.

    ”Our hands are on deck to ensure normal supply and demand without chaos and to clear Lagos, Abuja and every other part of the country.

    “Our target is to see black market operators disappear.”

     

  • Yuletide: Fuel scarcity will end soon, Kachikwu assures Nigerians

    Yuletide: Fuel scarcity will end soon, Kachikwu assures Nigerians

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, says the major cause of the fuel scarcity currently being witnessed across the country is shortfall in supply of petroleum products.

    Mr. Kachikwu, who stated this in a news briefing on Thursday in Abuja, however, said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was making efforts to ensure that queues at filling stations disappeared in a couple of days.

    “Presently, queues in Lagos have reduced. We know that Lagos, Abuja, Benue, Port Harcourt were among the worst-hit areas.

    “Benue has been dealt with; Port Harcourt is quite moderated. Apart from these areas, other places in the country are probably liquid.

    “The major problem is the gap in terms of volume, because NNPC is the only one importing the product to the country,” he said.

    The minister assured that there was adequate storage facility for imported products, adding that emergency measures were in place to ensure that the products were available during the Yuletide and post-January.

    He said that four vessels laden with petroleum products would “berth in a few days and a total of 20 cargoes are also expected with petroleum products’’.

    Mr. Kachikwu said that the NNPC had, as at Wednesday, discharged products at its depots, adding that emergency supply, quick truck delivery and stricter monitoring were measures adopted to ensure that queues disappeared.

    He added that NNPC would use additional trucking to major cities using strategic reserves from Suleja, Minna, Gusau and Gombe.

    This, he said, would help to service Abuja, Kano and Sokoto axis to feed the North-West, North-East.

    “I have asked the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to ensure stricter sanctions on any station that refuses to abide by the rules.

    “They need to take a firm action to ensure that we get quick results,’’ he said.

    Mr. Kachikwu further assured that the market would be flooded with more products to cushion effects of over-subscription through Kaduna refinery production, adding that Port Harcourt was expected to start producing 2.1 million litres of petrol per day.

    He said that it was expected that with the adopted strategies, the queues would “slide down’’ in one week.

    On long-term strategy, he said that ultimate result would come when the refineries resumed optimal production.

    The minister said that work would commence effectively in the refineries in January.

    The Executive Secretary of DPR, Modecai Ladan, said that many sanctions awaited filling stations found compromising the dispensing process, warning that the stations would be shut down or charged N275 per litre.

    He said that any station found hoarding products would either be sealed or its product auctioned or dispensed free-of-charge to consumers.

    Ladan added that depending on the offence, defaulters may be shut down for six months or blacklisted.

  • Fuel queues resurface in Sokoto metropolis

    Fuel queues have resurfaced in Sokoto metropolis and its environs, creating hardship for motorists and commuters, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

    A NAN correspondent reports that the queues, which started two days ago, became worse on Monday morning as motorists resorted to panic buying.

    Some of the filling stations belonging to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria have increased the price of a litre of petrol from N145 to N150.

    At NNPC mega stations and other filling stations run by major marketers, the queues were longer, as they maintained the official price of N145 per litre but were reluctant to sell to motorists.

    Some motorists on the queues expressed displeasure over the situation and urged the government to act fast before it degenerated into a major problem.

    “We were happy that fuel scarcity during the yuletide had become history, only for the problem to resurface now.

    “Efforts must be made to curb the problem; especially with the current socio-economic realities in the country,’’ a Motorist, Mr Sifawa Ahmad said.

    Another motorist, Mary Onya said the situation was a cause for concern and government must take immediate action.

    NAN

  • Abuja Chamber kicks as Senate proposes N5 fuel levy

    The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) says the Senate proposal to effect a N5 levy on imported petrol and diesel will further worsen the plight of the masses.

    President ACCI, Mr Tony Ejinkeonye, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said that the proposal would cause untold hardship to the citizens, if implemented.

    Ejinkeoyen quoted a media report that a Senate Committee had recommended fuel levy of N5 chargeable per litre on any volume of petrol and diesel products in Nigeria to fund road projects in the country.

    According to the report, other sources of revenue for the Road Fund include: International Vehicle Transit Charges and Road Funds Surcharge of 0.5 per cent tax on the assessed value of any vehicle imported into the country, among others.

    According to him, the bill is one of the 11 high priority economic recovery bills recommended to the National Assembly for passage by the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable.

    However, he noted that budgetary allocations were not enough to fund road infrastructure in the country while several federal roads across the country were in very bad shape.

    He said: “This levy should not be imposed now as Nigerians are already encumbered with lots of burden.

    “This levy, if imposed, will worsen the plight of the masses because fuel plays a vital role in the life of an average Nigerian.

    “Thus, any increase in the price of fuel which the levy will create, will have adverse implications on all other sectors of national life.

    “It will lead to sharp increase in cost of transportation, food and other services that depend on fuel for running.

    “And its multiplier effect would have grave implication for the economy and worsen the inflation rate.”

    He said that the fuel levy no doubt would be exploitative and burdensome; therefore, government should spare the citizens the suffering that this fuel levy would impose.

    He advised the government to look at other ways of saving money for roads infrastructure such as the reduction of corruption as well as cut in the cost of running governance.

    He said that the legal principle was that ‘the power to tax involves the power to destroy’.

    “So, whether called a charge, levy, dues, toll, tax, or whatever, any attempt at imposition of a financial burden on the people must be backed by law properly made.

    “Parliamentary resolution or recommendation would not do. Attempts in the past to impose such levies failed for not being backed by law,” he said.

     

    NAN

  • Petroleum bill to be passed by March, NASS assures

    Petroleum bill to be passed by March, NASS assures

    Sen. Donald Alasoadura, Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), has assured that the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill will be passed latest in March.

    Alasoadura said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a plenary to discuss new legislation and policy to transform the oil and gas sector.

    The plenary, which held on the margins of the 16th Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG), had six discussants to proffer solutions on how government policies could develop the oil sector.

    According to Alasoadura, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill will by the end of March, go through its third reading.

    The bill seeks to address all governance-related issues in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

    “Once a bill gets to its third reading, it is as good as being passed. We are expecting the bill to be passed in March or latest by April.

    “The Local Content Law will also be properly taken care of.

    “We’ve asked for areas of amendment from the Executive Secretary and we’ll be glad to do it.

    “’We know we need laws that are in line with international standards. We need an NNPC that will be smooth, commercially oriented, that can run smoothly and make money,” he said.

    He said the legislators decided to have only one regulatory body in the sector to ease the process of doing business and attract more investments.

    “That it takes time like a year to set up a business in the industry is an aberration.

    “We are thinking of when we have a timeline for all businesses to be completed within six months,” Alasoadura said.

    Also, Mr Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), said the time had come for local content to grow.

    ‘“Local content brings down costs and this is the time for local content to grow.

    “Government is establishing Nigerian Development Bank to fund local content and local contractors that will give genuine Nigerian investors good interest rates.

    “The objective is not to seek profit but to help local investors. We will make sure that the bank is helping Nigerian companies,’’ Wabote said.

    The Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu, said Nigeria could never have a successful downstream until the sector became fully deregulated.

    He further said “the essence of the policy is to drive logic, hence the only way of freeing the NNPC is to pass those policies we seek.

    For instance, no country trucks products for more than 1,000 kilometres except in a war. We spend more trucking the products outside the country”.

  • DPR to destroy 1.5m liters of adulterated fuel

    DPR to destroy 1.5m liters of adulterated fuel

     

    The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has concluded plans to destroy 1.5 million contaminated off-specification (Off-Spec) petroleum products discharged by a vessel – MT JAZI at the Nakem Jetty depot, Kirikiri, which was discovered few days ago.

    The Director, DPR, Mordecai Ladan, who made this disclosure in Lagos on Monday, at a media briefing, said that the vessel has been ceased and will be subsequently destroyed.

    Petroleum products adulteration has negative impact on the environment and may hinder the effective performance of car engines and sometimes completely damages the engine.

    According to Ladan, who was represented by the Zonal Operations Controller, DPR, Lagos, Wole Akinyosoye, investigations after the discovery on February 11, 2017, revealed that the vessel discharged at Nakem Jetty depot, which is the owner of the product had no DPR authorisation, and importation licence.

    He said samples of the product from the MT JAZI at the said depot after laboratory analysis confirmed the product is off spec.

    “Having failed on all the basic parameters especially in colour, specific gravity and flash point showed the product being docked at Nakem does not meet the standard of specification of any white product,” he added.

    He said the depot has been sealed by DPR since February 12, 2017, and the vessel, MT JAZI is under naval custody.

    Ladan noted that no record of any product importation by Nakem as well as record of any through putt of that facility with a third party for product storage at that time.

    He said there have been intensified efforts to ensure that no adulterated product from Niger Delta comes into any of their depots.

    “We would not tolerate landing of untraceable products without the import permit, port of origin and manufacture source into our depots. “Our actions are to forestall all the flow of adulterated product into the retail outlets.

    “Most of these depot activities are also naval activities and we do not have the experience of arresting vessels so we have scheduled to feed the Navy with vessels supposed to route along their water,” he added.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Petroleum products adulteration has negative impact on the environment and may hinder the effective performance of car engines and sometimes completely damages the engine.

     

  • Nigeria will stop importing fuel by 2019 – Kachikwu

    Nigeria will stop importing fuel by 2019 – Kachikwu

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu on Tuesday assured Nigerians that the country will stop importing fuel by 2019.

    Kachikwu made the remarks at a public hearing on the review of petroleum pricing template for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) organised by the house of representatives.

    His words: “This has consistently served as a target for this government so that by December 2018, NNPC must be able to deliver on some of the terms given them, one of which is to reduce petroleum importation by 60 per cent,” he said.

    “By 2019, we should be able to exist completely on the importation of petroleum products in this country.

    “Cognisant of the fact that Dangote is building one refinery, we expect to have an excess situation.”

    He said Nigeria must also have the capacity to stop exporting crude oil, adding that selling crude oil is not different from selling agricultural produce in an unprocessed manner.

    “The world is leaving that, every member of OPEC is leaving that because of the prizing, volume and market challenges is now shifting from selling crude to selling refined petroleum products.

    “That is what this country must do and there is a template we are working on.

    He added that the ministry intended to create an enabling environment that would promote local refining of crude oil.

    “The issue is not giving licences to illegality, the issue is how do we ensure that we create an investment environment that pulls individuals from illegal creek activities to legal business activities,” he said.

    “We are looking at modular refineries, about 60 licences were given out just before this government came in and none of that was utilised because it requires a lot of money, land and crude security.

    “But now we are going out to identify refineries, get individuals who can build refineries on the same platforms where our refineries are and identify some key specific modular refineries backed up by foreign investments working with state governments.

    “Hopefully this will address the restiveness you see in the Niger Delta.”

    On the possibility of reducing the fuel pump price, Kachikwu said there was no padding in the petroleum pricing template for PMS currently sold at N145 per litre.

    According to him, 71 percent of the cost is for the production and freight, 18 percent balance is covered by depot charges and retailers margin.

    “In other words the storage tanks, the amount you get by verge of operating a filling station takes another 18 percent, the output of those is already taking you to roughly about 90 per cent.

    “The transportation is less than 10 percent; we probably can do better, the templating is an insignificant 1 per cent or 2 per cent but that’s not where the problem is.

    “The problem is with foreign exchange rate

    “There are two key elements in the template, how much you buy it is internationally fixed, it is not a Nigerian issue the cost of foreign exchange is a monetary policy issue.

    “So at the time we did the template the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) monetary policy was N245, that was the basis upon which we calculated the pricing, today N305 is the exchange rate.

    “And what we have tried to do is to ensure that anybody who sells us foreign exchange follows basically the instructions of the CBN in terms of the amount.”