Abuja pays N22.7b claims after transporters threaten to disrupt fuel supply
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A total N22.7 billion bridging claims have been paid to fuel transporters who had threatened to disrupt supply in protest against unpaid bills that mounted over at least two months.
Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Chief Executive Officer Farouk Ahmed confirmed the payment in Lagos.
He said Abuja will pay another N30 billion to the transporters to ensure smooth distribution of fuel products across the country.
“Lightering cost” is the cost of using light vessels to move fuel products from mother vessels to depots because mother vessels cannot berth in shallow water depth.
“Bridging cost” is the cost of transporting fuel from a depot to other parts of the country to ensure a uniform pump price nationwide.
Ahmed disclosed that regulations are being drafted by the Presidential Steering Committee chaired by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources for the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
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Draft regulations
Ahmed said out of 38 regulations that relate to the NMDPRA, eight drafts have been received for review.
“The intention is to review these regulations and invite all the stakeholders to get input because we do not intend to do this alone.
”We need to invite stakeholders to review the regulations before they are put in place because the PIA is here to stay,” Ahmed said, per reporting by Nairametrics.
“Another area of concern is the transporters and payment of their bridging funds. Since the last meeting in December, we have paid about N12.7 billion to the transporters and on January 24, we paid another N10 billion.
“This week, we are paying another N30 billion to transporters in a bid to give them respite because of the difficulties they are facing with the economic realities.”
“We had to do our due diligence to reconcile before we make the payment. The reconciliation is still ongoing and the more we collect, the more we pay, in order to catch up with the backlog we inherited.”
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Group Executive Director Adeyemi Adetunji added that the NNPC will play its role of an energy supplier of last resort.
His words: “We will continue to ensure that all petroleum products are available. Thankfully, we went through the last festive season (Christmas/ New Year) with zero queues in the country.
“So, we thank all the stakeholders in the industry, we thank Nigerians for ensuring that they were able to access petroleum products at all retail stations and outlets.
“NNPC will continue to put in place and supply the market with adequate petroleum products even as we are now NNPC Ltd., a fully commercial company governed by both the PIA and Companies and Allied Matters Act.”
Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) Chairman Olumide Adeosun said a lot of key issues raised by the marketers have been addressed.
“Some are yet to be addressed and some are works-in-progress. A case in point over work in progress is the plan that we need to have in place a post-announcement of the postponement of the subsidy removal with the PIA,” he said.