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How We Are Going To End Fuel Scarcity- NNPC

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The
 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) has reassured Nigerians 
of its commitment to end the persistent fuel scarcity in the country.</div>
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This is contained in a statement signed 
by Mr Garba Deen Muhammed , Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs 
Division, on Monday in Abuja.</div>
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“We wish to re-assure Nigerians that we 
are on top of the petroleum products supply and distribution situation 
and we remain committed to eliminating this endemic issue once and for 
all within the next few days.</div>
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“We genuinely empathize with the 
attendant sufferings and wish to reassure that we are focused and 
committed to bring an end to this situation within the next few days.</div>
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“We kindly call on all Nigerians to 
partner with us on this journey to allowing the whole process of change 
come into fruition,” it said.</div>
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It said the current administration 
inherited a huge catalog of issues and problems in the downstream sector
 not limited to arrears of subsidy payments to Oil Marketers.</div>
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Other issues, it said, included 
corruption and inefficiencies in the supply and distribution chain, 
incessant vandalism of pipelines and poor performance of refineries, 
among others.</div>
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It noted that a combination of these issues resulted in most oil majors completely pulling out from the importation business .</div>
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This, it said, led to NNPC assuming a near 100 per cent importation obligation without the necessary logistics put in place.</div>
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It said the NNPC Management had initiated and made progress on various key solutions to providing a lasting end to these issues.</div>
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It added that with the firm support of 
President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly, the debt burden 
had been reduced since Jan. 1.</div>
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“We have been able to eliminate subsidy payments by managing prices at current levels through price modulation.</div>
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This has resulted to savings of over N100 billion monthly for the nation.</div>
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“Nationwide Petroleum supply and 
distribution have been ramped up to all states to ensure product 
availability in the country,” it said .<br />
According to the statement, the current supply to states is in excess of
 the normal consumption especially in the five major consuming cities.</div>
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It added that monitoring had been 
intensified to ensure full compliance with approved prices adding that 
violations of approved prices and hoarding of petroleum products 
attracted penalties.</div>
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The penalties include giving out of 
petroleum products free to the public and sealing off fuel stations 
found to be hoarding petroleum products and payment of a fine.</div>
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Others were withdrawal of Marketer’s 
Licence and penalising any NNPC, DPR, PPPRA or government agent found 
conniving and wanting in line with public service guidelines and 
procedures.</div>
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It encouraged the general public to report product hoarders and saboteurs of the change efforts .</div>
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“We encourage everyone to shun panic buying and undue return trips as this attitude emboldens marketers to hoard products.</div>
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“Supply constraints due to foreign 
exchange challenges are being resolved through collaboration with the 
Central Bank of Nigeria on innovative ways of closing the gaps in 
accessing foreign exchange,” it said.</div>
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The statement noted that the major 
international upstream oil companies had indicated their willingness to 
support major oil marketing companies with some of the required foreign 
exchange.</div>
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It added that corporation was pursuing 
an improved model for ‘crude oil for refined product’ exchange (the 
Direct Sale – Direct Purchase arrangement).</div>
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This, it said had eliminated inefficiencies with an attendant cost saving for the nation of about one billion dollars.</div>
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It said that the corporation in the 
medium term was working on sustainable strategies to permanently address
 the issues and challenges facing the midstream and downstream sectors.</div>
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“The overarching objective is to make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products as was the case in the 1970’s.</div>
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“Our commitment to ramp up our local 
refining capacity and availability remains unwavered with the ongoing 
rehabilitation works targeted at running all refineries at a minimum 70 
per cent capacity utilisation within the next six to eight months.</div>
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“This is in addition to our initiative 
of increasing the combined capacity of the domestic refineries through 
co-locating smaller but cost efficient modular refineries within the 
existing refineries premises within a time frame of 12 to 24 months,” it
 stated .</div>
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It added that NNPC had secured presidential approval to take additional crude oil volume to guarantee national supply of petrol.</div>
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To curb storage and logistics 
challenges, it said, the corporation was working on a joint partnership 
with technically and financially capable investors.</div>
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It said this would help to ensure that 
petroleum products transportation and storage facilities were 
efficiently operated on an open-access common-carrier user-tariff basis.</div>
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It added that some of these depots would
 be nominated as strategic reserves while the NNPC would take possession
 of a strategic reserve vessel in the next three months.</div>
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It expressed the hope that tangible results would be delivered within the next three to six months.</div>
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Credit: Guardian</div>

How We Are Going To End Fuel Scarcity- NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) has reassured Nigerians ...