Category: Nigeria

LONDON: Nigeria is suffering from a gasoline shortage as falling oil prices have affected the country’s ability to import and distribute refined fuels. Coming just weeks before elections scheduled for March 28, the shortage could have a big impact on the campaign trail. In Abuja, the lines of cars waiting for gas are growing longer. Acute fuel shortages are gripping towns and cities across the country. Workers reliant on their cars are losing money fast – like taxi driver Bartholomew Ode Akpa. “I work at the airport as a car hire and now I’m supposed to be at the airport and there is no fuel for me to go and look for something to do,” he said. Nigeria is one of the world’s top producers of crude oil, and exports around 2 million barrels per day. But it doesn’t have the refinery capacity to meet fuel demand, so it […]

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Zoology student Samuel Pelumi works on his laptop outside his home alongside the Lagos Lagoon. In a four-day sweep through Nigeria early last year, Aberdeen Asset Management’s Kevin Daly detected trouble. Yes, the country was a rising African power and yes, it had become the world’s fastest-growing major economy, but things weren’t quite right. An Islamic insurgency was heating up in the north and there were early signs that a nasty presidential campaign was brewing. Then financial disaster struck. Oil, the lifeblood of the country, collapsed in a breath-taking free fall. Daly had seen enough. By November, he had sold all of his Nigerian government bonds. Back in Lagos again last month for a fresh look, Daly found a country ravaged by crisis from all sides: the bloody clashes with Boko Haram insurgents had intensified; the violence had spurred authorities to postpone elections the president was in danger of […]

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A man fills in a car at a fuel station (file photo). Photo: Shell The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Wednesday that the Federal Government had agreed to pay 30 billion dollars foreign exchange differentials owed to oil marketers. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala made this known on Wednesday in Abuja while briefing journalists after a meeting with the Central Bank, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, major oil markers and depot owners. "The Federal Government has addressed all contentious issues with the marketers, such as the issue of the foreign exchange rate differentials. "The Federal Government has agreed to pay the 30 billion dollars exchange rate differentials owed the marketers over the last couple of months. "It is already in the process of offsetting the N185 billion debts owed the marketers with the issuance of the Sovereign Debt Note (SDN)," she said. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala added that the Federal Government had […]

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Abuja — THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured Nigerians that the queues at filling stations across the country will disappear before the end of this week. Group Executive Director Commercial and Investment, Aisha Abdulrahman, who stated this Tuesay in Abuja when the Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke led a team of reporters for on-the-spot assessment of the situation in the filling stations, said the glitch that disrupted fuel supply in the last few days had been addressed, adding that the NNPC now had adequate stock that could last between twenty and thirty days. Abdulrahman encouraged filling stations to complement NNPC retail outlets by selling petrol for 24 hours in order to clear the fuel queues across the country. She discouraged speculation, panic buying and hoarding because the NNPC had flooded the country with petroleum products. In his remarks, the Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem […]

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Petrol Station in Nigeria Photo: Daily Trust Abuja — As fuel scarcity bites harder nationwide, fresh facts emerged, yesterday, indicating that a combination of policies from Nigeria’s Central Bank and the high level of indebtedness of product marketers to some banks led to the low supply of Premium Motor Spirit PMS (petrol). Because of the high level of indebtedness of marketers to banks, most of the banks have refused to issue Letters of Credit to them. A competent source at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, disclosed that "the National Consumption level is predicated at 40 million litres daily and this is shared at ratio 50:50 between NNPC and other petroleum products marketers. "Against the foregoing, available record shows that at the moment, NNPC is meeting its allocated ratio while other marketers have blatantly refused to contribute a drop of their own quota". The Federal Government, in a […]

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Abuja — THE ongoing fuel scarcity across Nigeria is a result of the looting of the $12 billion domestic gas fund under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch and the administration’s failure to the pay fuel subsidy, the main opposition has alleged. The All Progressives Congress (APC), in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the People’s Democratic Party and the Jonathan administration decided to divert attention from those problems by accusing the opposition of being responsible for the scarcity, "a most laughable and irresponsible statement by a sitting government that is always so eager to blame everyone but itself for the nation’s woes." The party said Coordinating Minister of Economy and Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had, in February, promised to pay all subsidies owed to the marketers then in the sum of N264 billion, along with the accrued interest. It added that the failure to meet this […]

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ABUJA/LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) – Oil-rich Nigeria’s main cities are facing acute gasoline shortages as importers feel the pinch of a plummeting local currency, tighter credit lines and unpaid government subsidies, oil traders and local industry sources said. As queues of double-parked cars stretch outside filling stations in the capital Abuja, empty tanks elsewhere are forcing consumers onto the black market just weeks before presidential elections on March 28 in Africa’s biggest economy. "I have spent 12 hours here," taxi driver Bartholomew Odey Akpa told Reuters on Monday. "I work at the airport as a car hire … and there is no fuel for me to go." Nigeria exports around two million barrels per day of crude oil but is almost wholly reliant on imports for the 40 million litres per day of gasoline it consumes. The picture is an unwelcome one for President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces former […]

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Abuja — The fuel crisis in Abuja worsened weekend, as many of the petrol stations across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, were shut down, leaving motorists stranded. This was in spite of claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Friday, that it is injecting about 688 million of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, into the market. Motorists had to resort to the black market‎, where roadside petrol sellers now sell the commodity for as high as N250 per litre. However, the NNPC, Sunday, promised that it is working to ensure that the situation is addressed quickly and assured Nigerians that the fuel supply situation will improve in the coming days. Responding to enquiries from Vanguard, spokesperson for the NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said, "On Friday, we had stated that in 48 hours we will wet the market with 688 million litres of petrol. Distribution of products is by […]

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Lagos (Platts)–2Mar2015/519 am EST/1019 GMT A fresh round of gasoline shortages has hit Nigeria as fuel importers drastically cut imports following the government’s delay in settle over Naira 264 billion ($1.41 billion) on debts owed on subsidies for previous imports. Moreover, Nigerian businesses, hard hit by the fuel shortage, Monday restated their demand that the government completely abolish subsidies on imported fuel, saying it would avoid recurring shortages and free up resources. Motorists formed long queues at gas stations in major cities including the federal capital Abuja and the commercial capital of Lagos, which marketers blamed on low fuel stocks. "Most marketers have run out of stocks over the last two weeks because of the drop in imports," Femi Lawore, spokesman for the main oil marketers group, told Platts. "We have warned the government before about the danger of continuing to delay the outstanding claims on subsidies totaling N264 […]

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Miffed by the uncounted $20 billion, the House of Representatives has Wednesday issued a one week ultimatum to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to submit the report of the forensic audit. The mandate followed a resolution, passed last week by the House at plenary which directed its Committee on Public Accounts, otherwise called PAC, to investigate the matter. Chairman of the committee, Hon. Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (APC, Lagos) while briefing Journalists on the matter stated that the report "must include the Initial Draft Report, the Executive Summary and Management/Internal Control Letters." Olamilekan noted that the "condensed version" of the report released to the public through a press conference addressed by the Auditor-General of the Federation with the highlight that Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should remit a minimum of $1.48 billion to the Federation Account had rather prompted the demand for complete […]

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