AUGUST 11, 2015 : OKECHUKWU NNODIM AND FEMI ASU

Despite claims that Nigeria’s refineries are now operational, the country will have to depend largely on imported petrol in the third quarter of 2015.

It was learnt on Monday that import allocation for petrol was given to importers of the product last week.

Our correspondent gathered that no refinery had been able to produce petrol in commercial quantity in the past weeks, despite claims by the operators of the facilities that they had started refining crude oil to produce petroleum products.

In fact, senior officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency told our correspondent in Abuja on Monday that tankers still headed for Lagos to load products.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation last month announced that the Port Harcourt Refining Company was ramping up capacity to about 60 per cent of the 210,000 barrels per day of crude capacity, while production from the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company had been projected to hit 80 per cent of its installed 125,000 bpd capacity.

The Manager in charge of the Production Programming and Quality Control, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company, Shehu Malami, had reportedly said that the refinery would save about $5.33m daily for the country when it hits 90 per cent production capacity in the first quarter of 2016.

But officials at the petroleum ministry and the PPPRA wondered why the refineries had yet to churn out products, particularly petrol, if actually they were operational as claimed.

An official at the ministry, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, said, “Has any of the refineries stated the quantity of products that they are actually churning out? It is already known that Nigeria consumes an average of 40 million litres per day; so, if the refineries are working, then you can now say maybe they are producing about 20 million litres per day and you can now subtract that from the imports.

“We need to verify if indeed they have started churning out products, not just on paper. Just two weeks ago, they gave letters of allocation to importers to bring in products to meet the third quarter consumption demand.”

In his reaction, the National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Chinedu Okoronkwo, said the refineries were working but they had constraints in terms of supplying products to marketers.

He said, “For now, marketers go to where they think they can get the products easily without problems. The refineries are working, no doubt, but we know that the pipelines are not functioning properly because of vandalism. We are working with the Federal Government to see how we can connect, especially Aba and Enugu up to Makurdi.

Soon, a lot of things will fall in place. Considering what they are producing now, if the pipelines are not in order, then they will not be able to get products across. However, I’m sure that the new government, being a government of change, is working on this issue.”

Meanwhile, the daily subsidy on a litre of petrol has dropped to N33.86 from a high of N51.61 on June 11, 2015, pricing template by the PPPRA showed on Monday.

The PPPRA put the landing cost of the product at N105.37 per litre as of August 7, down from N123.12 per litre on June 11, while the Expected Open Market Price was N120.86 per litre, compared to N138.61 on June 11.

Subsidy refers to the money paid, usually by the government, to keep prices below what they will otherwise be in a free market system.

There have been calls in some quarters urging the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to remove fuel subsidy, which has been described as wasteful and prone to corruption.

Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, relies on importation for most of its fuel needs as the country’s refineries operate below installed capacity. The sustained fall in global oil prices has triggered the decline in the landing cost of petrol as crude oil constitutes a major component in the pricing template.

Last week, the global benchmark Brent crude plunged below the $50 per barrel mark, for the first time in six months.

Brent, against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, was trading at $49.86 per barrel on Monday.

Analysts at Ecobank Capital including the Head of Energy Research, Mr. Dolapo Oni, noted that the Federal Government had decided to retain its fuel subsidies at least for another quarter as the PPPRA had recently selected 29 petroleum marketers to import 1.6 million tonnes of petrol, approximately 2.1 billion litres, for the third quarter of the year.

They said, “The decision to retain the fuel subsidies is particularly surprising given the government’s fiscal position is significantly constrained by the drop in oil prices and difficulties in selling its crude.”

They said, going forward, the government’s revenue and ability to sustain the fuel subsidies could be significantly challenged by trends in the global oil market.

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/massive-fuel-imports-continue-as-refineries-fail/

It seems we have a super-clueless govt that can't even manage ongoing projects inherited from it's predecessor

Since May 29, we've not been able to buy fuel at govt approved #87 in the whole of the south east and many other parts of the country. Prices fluctuates between #105 and 110. Even NNPC Mega stations now hardly ever have fuel. It seems we're back to the dark era (obj and yar adua era) when govt subsidized fuel for only Lagos and Abuja, while the rest of Nigeria should go and die.

In the last regime, we bought fuel at govt approved prices for the most part, except during rare general fuel scarcity. Using public fund to subsidize fuel for only Lagos and Abuja, and maybe a few other cities, cannot be said to be fair. It's either the subsidy goes round, as much as possible or they scrap it entirely. And it is possible to go round because it went round in the last regime, just that govt will have to pay more for fuel subsidy because more volumes will obviously be needed.

This govt should get down to work already and roll out it's programmes and policies rather expend energy and scarce resources on propaganda and trying to lay claim to projects and programmes of the last administration

Goats


Work is ongoing in the refineries , nobody said it is operational , i think it was announced that it would be operational by end of August / September

and What if it's not , You are not happy that[size=14pt] fuel now sells for 87 naira and its available everywhere[/size]??

Enemies of Progress

The NNPC spokesperson, Ohi Alegbe, said the refineries are to start receiving crude oil next week.

The turnaround maintenance of the refineries begun in November 2014, with the original builders called in to do the job. However, the NNPC later had to resort to in-house engineers after the original builders “kept coming up with outrageous bills”.

The Port Harcourt refineries had to deal with lack of electricity, but the NNPC, according to Alegbe, “have now installed a mini-power plant to solve that problem”.

Restarting the refineries does not mean Nigeria will stop fuel importation.

https://www.naij.com/466835-4-nigerian-refineries-to-commence-operations-next-month.html

Sincere9gerian:
It seems we have a super-clueless govt that can't even manage ongoing projects inherited from it's predecessor

Why is PMS still at 110 naira per liter despite the subsidy payment?
Has subsidy payment been stopped?
Anyone with answer should kindly explain
Cc.passingshot, israeliairforce

OGOg:

Why is PMS still at 110 naira per liter despite the subsidy payment?
Has subsidy payment been stopped?
Anyone with answer should kindly explain
Cc.passingshot, israeliairforce

Who brought us here?

Do you seriously expect the fuel problem to be solved in ten weeks of this administration?

The fact remains that there is an improvement and the issue will finally be dealt with.

Sincere9gerian:
It seems we have a super-clueless govt that can't even manage ongoing projects inherited from it's predecessor
Since May 29, we've not been able to buy fuel at govt approved #87 in the whole of the south east and many other parts of the country. Prices fluctuates between #105 and 110. Even NNPC Mega stations now hardly ever have fuel. It seems we're back to the dark era (obj and yar adua era) when govt subsidized fuel for only Lagos and Abuja, while the rest of Nigeria should go an

Miss leading Title to the people who don't read the details.
The news said things well get better b4 the end of 1st qtr of 2016.

And if your brothers decided to hike the price in the SE to blackmail this gov.its your problem completely.

And the Op must be igbo

Ok...some folks need to loose their jobs

Making false announcements....


Check my signature Call or whatsapp

I think subsidy is scam?...
Let's try our working refineries and see how it goes.
Deceit everywhere.

PassingShot:

Who brought us here?

Do you seriously expect the fuel problem to be solved in ten weeks of this administration?

The fact remains that there is an improvement and the issue will finally be dealt with.

What kind of improvement? Fuel sells for N110 almost everywhere. What nonsense are you talking about?

PassingShot:

Who brought us here?

Do you seriously expect the fuel problem to be solved in ten weeks of this administration?

The fact remains that there is an improvement and the issue will finally be dealt with.

Could remember I comfortably bought PMS since 2011 at 65 naira and 97 naira subsequently until early 2015 . I don't see any improvement cos recently, the only hope of getting it at 87 naira is to queue at nnpc stations whenever they have pms
You are yet to answer the question , ha subsidy payment been stopped? Oil marketers should not be allowed to shortchange Nigerians.

fx45:
What kind of improvement? Fuel sells for N110 almost everywhere. What nonsense are you talking about?

I don't dignify dolts with proper response. You should have known. Take note!

When Buhari talk about improvement in refinery they (wailers) said it was hand work of GEJ now news on failure in refinery they blame it on Buhari. Haba hypocrite set of people. If the past government have done it right , any thing failure would not be in our dictionary , as at now i believe the present government is correcting the anomaly past government have caused the country.
Lest i forgot, i thought people like op does not believe in Punch, they call APC media , so what makes op believe this news now ?

This is purely mischievous. why are some clerks always speaking in confidence. there is freedom of information act. a diligent journalist will keep vigil at refineries to check if tankers are going in empty and coming out empty. there are operational hitches no doubt but to cast a shadow of failure on the refineries on 'conditions of anonymity' is outrageous.

dridowu:
When Buhari talk about improvement in refinery they (wailers) said it was hand work of GEJ now news on failure in refinery they blame it on Buhari. Haba hypocrite set of people. If the past government have done it right , any thing failure would not be in our dictionary , as at not I believe the present government is correcting the anomaly they have caused the country.
Lest i forgot, i thought people like op does not believe in Punch, they call APC media , so what makes op believe this news now ?

True said.
PDP will not attribute the failure of the refineries to GEJ's failure to do anything tangible to revamp them, but they will be quick to take credit for every laudable achievement of the Buhari administration.
Talk about hypocritical wailings!

*****just watching***


Dont even know what to believe anymore..

This is the kind of news TANoids love to hear.

If the refineries fail to refine crude oil,then the blame should go to Jonathan. After all, president Muhammadu Buhari never took glory for what TANoids have been claiming is Jonathan's achievements.

Petrol price is still N110 per litre in Port Harcourt.

Sincere9gerian:
[s] It seems we have a super-clueless govt that can't even manage ongoing projects inherited from it's predecessor

Since May 29, we've not been able to buy fuel at govt approved #87 in the whole of the south east and many other parts of the country. Prices fluctuates between #105 and 110. Even NNPC Mega stations now hardly ever have fuel. It seems we're back to the dark era (obj and yar adua era) when govt subsidized fuel for only Lagos and Abuja, while the rest of Nigeria should go and die.

In the last regime, we bought fuel at govt approved prices for the most part, except during general fuel scarcity. Using public fund to subsidize fuel for only Lagos and Abuja, and maybe a few other cities, cannot be said to be fair. It's either the subsidy goes round, as much as possible or they scrap it entirely. And it is possible to go round because it went round in the last regime, just that govt will have to pay more for fuel subsidy because more volumes will obviously be needed.

This govt should get down to work already and roll out it's programmes and policies rather expend energy and scarce resources on propaganda and trying to lay claim to projects and programmes of the last administration [/s]

Wailing TANoid, price of a litre of fuel in the southeast has never been the same price like what is being sold in other parts of the country since time immemorial. Why blaming it on Buhari?
besides,i thought you wailers said Jonathan repaired the refineries,why has the refineries refused to work as you claim?

Interesting. This report reminds me of Obasanjo, then Nigeria's President who made noise years ago that the country's power supply problems will be a think of the past by 2007. Well, instead of power getting better one year after 2007, it got worse. What really happened? OBJ embarked on constructing gas powered power stations without gas pipeline plan to feed them. That act was not only an embarassment to experts in energy field but an act that smacks of low IQ. What a project. It was like building a car without tires. How will it move
Juxtaposing the above with this article, the story confirms the theory that the completion date for TAM of all four refineries was actually scheduled for 2016. By then all underlying problems associated with the refineries especially matters of broken oil pipelines would have been fixed and resolved amicably. But because the Buhari led APC administration were desperate for fame and glory to decieve Nigerians that things are working because of fear of Buhari, they pressurized experts to backtract on completion date. Soon stories began flooding the media that refineries will begin production in june 2015 instead of 2016 as originaly calculated by experts in the oil sector. What a sad development.
The truth is repairs of all four refinaries are still ongoing, otherwise what will the nation gain from TAM if there are no oil pipelines to feed and ship petroleum products to distribution depots for final delivery to consumers Nothing.
It takes a great deal of effort to fix refineries and a bit more to repair all broken pipelines, that actually had been the bane of Nigeria's refineries for years.
This is what happens when politics is mixed with infrastructural developments for cheap political points.

Third quarter of the calendar year = (July, August, September)

How could they have aggregated an incomplete quarter and ridiculously compare it with other quarters?

DaBullIT:
Goats


Work is ongoing in the refineries , nobody said it is operational , i think it was announced that it would be operational by end of August / September

and What if it's not , You are not happy that fuel now sells for 87 naira and its available everywhere??

Enemies of Progress

Its obvious you don't have a generator talkless of a car, otherwise you won't come here to expose your ignorance by saying fuel is everywhere and at sold RRP.

frankyychiji:
Its obvious you don't have a generator talkless of a car, otherwise you won't come here to expose your ignorance by saying fuel is everywhere and at sold RRP.

For your mind abi ?

Ode of Nigeria Limited,

Instead of your arrant nonsense, why don't you tell us where you live and let's have other people's opinion

Besides that , If you owned a car or a gen , you would know my claim is true

I know one day one day
One day e go better

major466:
Interesting. This report reminds me of Obasanjo, then Nigeria's President who made noise years ago that the country's power supply problems will be a think of the past by 2007. Well, instead of power situation getting better one year after 2007, it got worse. What really happened? OBJ embarked on constructing gas powered power stations without gas pipelines to feed them. That act was not only an embarassment to experts in the energy field but an act that smacks low IQ. What a project. It was like building a car without tires. How will it move
Juxtaposing the above with this article, the story confirms the theory that the completion date of TAM of all four refineries was actually scheduled for 2016. By then all underlying problems associated with the refineries especially matters of fixing broken oil pipelines would have been fixed and resolved amicably. But because the Buhari led APC administration are desperate for glory, with aim to decieve Nigerians that they are working because of fear of Buhari, they pressurized experts to backtract on the completion date of the refineries.
Stories began flooding the media that refineries will begin production in june 2015 instead of 2016 as originaly calculated by experts in the oil sector.
What is the gain of TAM of refineries if there are no oil pipelines to ship petroleum products to distributing stations What an embarassing situation.
It takes great effort to fix all the country's refineries and a bit more to repaire all broken pipelines, that actually had been the bane of the terrible state of Nigeria's refineries for years.
This is what happens when politics is mixed with infrastructural development for cheap political point.

Well said!

otokx:
Petrol price is still N110 per litre in Port Harcourt.

Buhari-phobia should have made it #87 by now

Meanwhile, why is this thread not worth front page?
Cc: lalasticlala

Sincere9gerian:

Well said!

Lets just relax ourselves and enjor the comedy of this administration as they go about embarassing themselves by themselves on the big screen.

k

And what about fuel SUBSIDY

Is our DauraDullard still paying something he knows NOTHING about?



www.nairaland.com/attachments/2589504_subsidy2_jpeg57ea79bc1f8758353f00f8db1d53dbf1



www.nairaland.com/attachments/2571027_buharipoker_jpeg226b8276c6a021ac1a07f80d2f9b8246

All these Different type of news blowing everywhere like fart