…it’s just a body under NMDPRA -Head of Media
By Ime Silas
As discussions on the issues of high cost of fuel continue to take the centre stage in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Oseagah, Head of Media Team, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has exonerated the FG-owned company, revealing that rather than blame the wrong agency, the real body responsible should be held accountable.
It is a known fact that the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol which was sold at the cost of about N198/litre as at May 29, 2024, is now (September, 2024) sold at between N1,350 and N1,450 per litre, depending on locations in Nigeria.
While Nigerians continue to suffer multifaceted excruciating effects of the high cost of the product following subsidy removal by President Tinubu on May 29, 2023, the skyrocketing price has been blamed on various charges incurred by importers in the course of importation of the product.
Despite being one of the highest producers of crude oil in the world, Nigeria with a population of about two hundred million (200,000,000) citizens, for many years, was depending on foreign refineries for supply of refined petroleum products until last week when Dangote Refinery announced that its PMS was ready for supply. Prior to the completion of Dangote Refinery, Nigeria was the only OPEC-Member country without a functional refinery. OPEC is the acronym for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Nigerian-born Africa’s wealthiest man and President of Dangote Group; Alhaji Aliko Dangote had begun the construction, about seven (7) years ago of what has today become the seventh (7) largest refinery in the world in Lagos, Nigeria with a 650,000bpd capacity.
Meanwhile, there are four (4) Federal government-owned refineries which have a combined plate capacity of 445,000 bpsd (barrel per stream day), namely the: Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) in Delta State; Old Port Harcourt Refinery; New Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemical Company (PHRC) both in Rivers State, and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) in Kaduna State.
As at the time of this report, none of the four refineries was producing fuel despite huge funds in Billions of Dollars reportedly sunk into them, and repeated promises by the CEO of NNPCL; Mr. Mele Kolo Kyari who has been in charge in the last five (5) years.
Most Nigerians have continued to heap the blame on the NNPCL for not just its failure to resuscitate FG-owned refineries with a view to ending importation of refined petroleum products with its attendant outrageous prices, but also for fixing outrageous prices, including for PMS recently produced by privately-owned Dangote Refinery.
But, speaking last week during a Media Parley with newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, Head of NNPCL Media Team, Mr. Solomon Oseagah absolved the company of any fault pertaining to fixing of prices of fuel. While explaining that it’s not the duty of NNPCL to fix prices, Solomon also divulged that the company was not the sole importer of fuel as believed by Nigerians.
“The truth is that there’s a body that even regulates the NNPCL. It is called the Authority. It’s the NMDPRA”, Solomon hinted adding that it’s the NMDPRA that was responsible for most of activities in the petroleum sector in the country.
Checks by our paper reveal that the NMDPRA being acronym for The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, is the Technical and Commercial Regulator of Midstream and Downstream Operations with Headquarters in Abuja.
Solomon continued “They are in charge of metering; they are in charge of downstream; they are in charge of the fuel that is being allocated per depot and per storage facility; they issue licences to those that import.
NNPCL is not the sole importer of fuel. If you need license today, just visit Farouk Lawan, the Managing Director of NMDPRA, he will issue you with license to bring in refined products. It is not the work or the duty of the NNPCL. It is the work of NMDPRA, which comprises PPRA, TEF, etc. They are now the authority. So, how do you separate the NNPCL from NMDPRA? That is the big problem but the truth is that they are separate entities operating on their own.
So, the NNPCL don’t do the metering, they don’t issue licences. For example, the Management of Dangote Refinery were asking the NNPCL to give them price and they said no we don’t give price. It is NMDPRA that gives price and not the NNPCL”.
In somewhat contrast to the Media Head’s position, the NNPCL in it’s official release over the weekend pegged the price of PMS according to geographical location in Nigeria as follows:
Borno State: N1,019.22
FCT: N992.22
Kaduna State: N999.22
Kano State: N999.22
Sokoto State: N999.22
Imo state: N980.22
Rivers State: N980.22
Oyo State: N960.22
Lagos State: 950.22.