NNPC’s fuel subsidy payment hits N774m daily

[Edoman]

• Baru decries proliferation of fuel stations in border towns
  

 
The subsidy being paid by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to keep the pump price of petrol at N145 per litre has hit N774 million per day. The rise is due to abnormal consumption of petrol from less than 35 million litres per day to about 80 million litres per day. NNPC, at the weekend, declared that this N774 million petrol consumption under-recovery is denying Nigerians the “benefit of the Federal Government’s benevolence of keeping a fixed retail price of N145 per litre despite the increase in PMS open market price above N171 per litre.”
The state-owned oil firm also sounded the alarm bells on the proliferation of fuel stations in communities with international land and coastal borders across the country. Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated that the development has energized unprecedented cross-border smuggling of petrol to neighbouring countries, making it difficult to sanitize the fuel supply and distribution matrix in the country.

Leading a top management team of the corporation on a visit to the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), Baru claimed that detailed study conducted by NNPC indicated strong correlation between the presence of the frontier stations and the activities of fuel smuggling syndicates.
He alleged that the activities of the smugglers had led to recent observed abnormal surge in the evacuation of petrol from less than 35 million litres per day to more than 60 million litres per day, which is in sharp contrast with established national consumption pattern. Daily evacuation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, varies in recent past months, ranging from 35 million litres per day to 60 million litres per day and even to as high as 80 million litres per day as at December last year. It is now settling at an average of 50 million litres per day, Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, said when New Telegraph called him for clarification on the exact consumption figure.
According to NNPC, “Providing a detailed presentation of the findings, the NNPC GMD informed that 16 states, having amongst them 61 local government areas (LGAs) with border communities, account for 2,201 registered fuel stations. “The fuel tank had a combined capacity of 144,998,700 litres of petrol.
“Eight states, with coastal border communities spread across 24 LGAs amongst the states, account for 866 registered fuel outlets with combined petrol tank capacity of 73, 443, 086 litres. “A further breakdown of the finding shows that among the states with land border, three LGAs in Ogun State account for 633 fuel stations with combined petrol tankage of 40,485,000 litres while nine LGAs in Borno State have 337 fuel outlets with combined petrol storage capacity of 21,114, 480 litres. Lagos, with one LG as border community, has 235 registered fuel stations with total petrol storage facility of 19,916, 600 litres.”

On the coastal front, Lagos with six LGAs, the NNPC’s figure read, “leads with 487 registered fuel stations with combined in-built storage capacity of 50,239,560 litres. Akwa Ibom, with five LGAs, has 134 registered retail outlets with capacity to store 8,322,986 litres, while Ondo State, with two LGAs, has 110 fuel stations with capacity to store 3,871,320 litres.”
Baru explained that because of the obvious differential in petrol price between Nigeria and other neighbouring countries, it had become lucrative for the smugglers to use the frontier stations as a veritable conduit for the smuggling of products across the border. He said this had resulted in a thriving market for Nigerian petrol in all the neighbouring countries of Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Cameroon, Chad and Togo and even Ghana which has no direct borders with Nigeria.
“NNPC is concerned that continued cross-border smuggling of petrol will deny Nigerians the benefit of the Federal Government’s benevolence of keeping a fixed retail price of N145 per litre despite the increase in PMS open market price above N145. On his part, Ali said the Service would work with the corporation to stem the tide of cross-border smuggling of petroleum products, noting that all hands must be on deck to ensure the economic survival of the country.

https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/03/n...74m-daily/