An imminent scarcity of petroleum products looms in northern Nigeria, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has warned.

NUPENG said the Kaduna Refinery which refines and supplies the bulk of fuel to the northern part of the country was down and not producing and that the only source of fuel from the Lagos port was compromised with the court injunction on MRS Oil & Gas Limited restraining it from further supply of products to northern Nigeria.

“With the Kaduna Refinery down and MRS Oil & Gas injunction and shut down, the supply chain to Northern Nigeria is broken and the route jeopardized,” NUPENG said. “From all indications, the injunction will lead to products shortages in the North and all jetties and depot owners may decide to close shop in solidarity to what is happening to their colleagues.
“If it continues, apart from the hardship that Nigerian citizens in the north will suffer, it will lead to capital flight from the region,” the union said through its President, Igwe Achese.

Bank PHB recently issued a mareva injunction against MRS Oil & Gas, a member of the NUPENG thus preventing the company from withdrawing money to pay over staff salaries as well as the inability of the company to import and discharge petroleum products. MRS is the major marketer that supplies products to the north.

“We see it as an abuse of judicial process as the injunction is injurious and will scare investors from the down stream sector of the oil and gas industry,” Achese further said. “The way forward is for the Chief Justice of the Federation to call the judge to order to avoid this draconian dispensation of justice and the aftermath of throwing the nation into chaos and hardship,” he suggested.

The NUPENG boss said that the Central Bank Governor should look at the volume of business in the sector and have a change of heart to bail out the sector as refusal to do so and calling them names would impact negatively on the nation’s economy.

According to him, many private oil and gas depots are in dilemma and groaning from the weight of loans from Nigerian banks or are underutilized with signals of impending scarcity because of low and inadequate petroleum products allocations from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency(PPPRA).

He said that they need an olive branch from the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Executive of PPPRA. “We are therefore calling on all constituted authorities to intervene in the unilateral mareva court injunction against MRS Oil & Gas to be immediately vacated in order to apprehend the impending fuel crisis,” he said.

Achese said that the injunction has led to the freezing of the bank account of MRS Holdings Limited and all MRS oil and gas limited bank accounts. He said that the order has led to the non-payment of salaries and the union dues by Nigeria.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/newsonthehour/2010/nov/29/newsbreak-29-11-2010-001.htm

They have gone on nationwide strike today