NEWS UPDATE

Cartels divert kerosene abroad – Diezani

Daily Trust - Friday, 08 July 2011

Written by Turaki A. Hassan & Hamisu Muhammad

The scarcity of Kerosene being experienced in the country for many weeks now was as a result of diversion of the product by cartels, including independent petroleum marketers, Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke has said.

Speaking when she appeared before members of the House of Representatives yesterday to explain the reasons for the hardship Nigerians are subjected to over the scarcity, Diezani said independent marketers have been smuggling and hoarding the products to other neighbouring countries at the expense of the Nigerians masses.  

But President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abulkadiri Aminu, denied the allegations, saying even if there were diversions, the quantity may have been “too insignificant to cause the nationwide scarcity.”

Aminu blamed the government for under estimating the consumption need of the people which he put at 8 million litres per day.

Allison-Madueke disclosed that the daily consumption of the product in Nigeria is 2 million liters per day and added that the intendment of the N1.3 trillion annual subsidy on petroleum products has been defeated since the beneficiaries are citizens of those countries where the product is being smuggled to.

She said the cartel in the oil and gas sector were doing everything possible to resist the government’s drive aimed at transforming the sector to make it vibrant.

The minister added that last week, the NNPC Retail commenced the test run of kerosene distribution scheme designed to take the product directly to consumers in their homes using mobile dispensing trucks.

She said, “In the last one year, the operational capacity of the refineries has been increased from 30% to 60% and with the measures put in place, the refineries would be operating at 95% capacity in the next two years.”

Speaking, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation Mr. Austin Oniwon said in the last six months, the corporation had provided a total of 500 million litres of Kerosene but regretted that since the corporation control only a small number of retail outlets, it could not effectively check whether the products reach members of the public.