The government said it cannot afford the payment of subsidies on diesel.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Downstream, alongside the CEO of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, among others.

The lawmakers had summoned stakeholders in the oil and gas sector, including Kyari and Ahmed, to an investigative hearing over the scarcity and the rising cost of Premium Motor Spirit (also known as petrol), diesel, and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG (also known as cooking gas) in the country.

In his presentation, the NMDPRA chief suggested three measures to be taken to address the challenges with the supply and distribution chain.

He said the “required amount of forex for importation of the petroleum products (should) be made available to the genuine importers at CBN official rate.”

Ahmed also asked the government to “encourage the establishment of more local refineries and LPG processing facilities to meet domestic demands,” adding that “an increase in the LPG supply from major domestic producers, including NLNG, BRT processing, CNL, LPG, FSO,” would resolve some of the issues.

The NMDPRA boss stated that in addition to the three suggested solutions, “an extensive consultation is required among key stakeholders towards lessening the present tension being generated by the global high oil prices.”

“Presently, Nigeria is a net importer of refined petroleum products, including AGO, as the country imports about 100 per cent of AGO consumed locally,” he said. “An average of 12 million litres is also being consumed daily based on average truck-out quantity.

“The upswing in international price, combined with the prevailing naira/US dollar exchange rate, contributes about 80 per cent of the product price at the pump. While the official naira/US dollar exchange rate has remained relatively stable at about N415/US dollar since the beginning of the (Russia-Ukraine) war to date, the parallel rate on the other hand has increased considerably.

“The challenge with this is that petroleum products importers are unable to access the required amount of forex at the official rate and, therefore, rely on the parallel market to complement their forex US dollar requirements. In addition, the monitored price of AGO currently ranges between N710/litre and N750/litre in the coastal areas, while the LPG price is about N800/kg.”

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the National President of the Association, Bennett Korie, said that about 75 per cent of filling stations across the country are currently out of business due to their inability to purchase diesel required to power their tankers and transport Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to their various outlets. He stated that the only solution to the current challenge is for the Federal Government to raise the pump price of petrol a little in order to reduce the huge foreign exchange used in PMS imports.

“If you go round now you will see that about 75 per cent of filling stations in Nigeria have gone out of business. There is no diesel to take fuel to their stations. All of them are going down.

And it is not that the fuel is not there, but the cost of bringing it to the stations is too high. We know that the crisis between Ukraine and Russia has contributed badly, but the government has to do something fast, otherwise we are going to buy diesel in the next two weeks at N1000 to N1500/litre.”

On what can be done to the address the situation, Korie said

“The only way out, if you want to know, is that they (the government) should increase the price of fuel a little to reduce the money spent on PMS subsidy.

I know Nigerians will not be happy to hear this, but this is the only solution. They should increase the price of fuel a little so that the savings will enable the Central Bank of Nigeria to have enough foreign exchange.

You and I know that we import everything now in Nigeria. Diesel is an imported product and it is fully deregulated. So the importers are not getting dollars at the official CBN rate to import diesel. Everybody is going to the black market to get dollars to import their products and so you expect the price of diesel to be high.”

Korie suggested that the Federal government needs to reduce the rate at which it spends foreign exchange on PMS imports as it will help other businessmen who import diesel to bring in products at low prices.

“So you need to increase fuel price a little in order to ensure that the dollars spent in importing petrol is reduced and there will be enough forex for importers of diesel and this will cut down the price of diesel.”he said

Speaking further, he said

“The reason why you are having scarcity of petroleum products particularly in Abuja is as a result of the high cost of diesel. The price of diesel today in the market is N850/litre. You will also agree with me that the money being paid as bridging claims to transporters is not enough.

The price is N850/litre and you are giving your driver 1,200 litres from Lagos to Abuja, if you do the calculation you will find out that the landing cost (for transporting the fuel) is about N40/litre.

So if you add that to PMS, buying at the depot price and selling here, it is too high. So if your cost of bringing it in is at N40/litre and you bought it at N155/litre, when you add this you will get N195/litre. But you are to sell at N165/litre. So who will do that kind of business? It is already a loss-making business.”

The resolution followed a motion moved by Chike Okafor on Tuesday during plenary.

Okafor in his motion, accused some persons in the oil sector of sabotaging the economy by hoarding the products.

Recall thar in the past month, the prices of diesel have increased from N350 to N750.

He said the “hike in the cost of diesel is alleged to be the handiwork of unscrupulous stakeholders in the industry, and is tantamount to economic sabotage, causing untold hardships for Nigerians as it will result in an increase in prices of food as well as other goods and services.”

Okafor said the inflation in prices of diesel is “making it impossible for average Nigerians to meet their basic needs.”

He added that if the “ugly trend of the increasing price of diesel is not checked, the multiplier effect will spell doom for Nigeria’s economy.”

Ibrahim Isiaka, while contributing to the motion, moved an amendment to include the hike in the price of cooking gas.

Consequently, the House ordered its committees on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Petroleum Resources (Upstream), and Gas Resources to investigate the unexplained astronomical increase in the price of diesel and gas.

The mock examination is expected to hold on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at CBT centres where candidates are assigned to sit for the examination.

Recall that JAMB promised to provide soft-landing for CBT centres due to the hike in the price of diesel in the country.

The board also reiterated its stance that the mock examination is optional.

This was contained in weekly bulletin released by the Head of Media and Public Relations, JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in Abuja on Monday.

The board said, “All candidates who had indicated their interest to sit the optional Mock-UTME are to pay N1,000 to the CBT centre where they are assigned to sit the examination as a service charge.

“The optional mock examination was introduced by the Board to give candidates the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the CBT environment.

“The candidates who indicated their interest to take the examination are to pay the N1000 at their respective centres for the use of the private facilities deployed for the examination.

“However, candidates assigned to JAMB owned centres would not be required to pay for the use of the centres. Much as the Board would like to keep the cost at a minimum, the prevailing high cost of diesel and other consumables has necessitated the increase from N600 to N1,000 to enable the CBT centres provide the needed infrastructure, as partners of the Board, to host the examination which is scheduled to hold on Saturday, 9th April 2022.

“The Board has thought through this increase and resolved that instead of cancelling the mock-UTME, which introduction has improved candidates’ confidence in sitting the examination owing to the high cost of diesel, it is better to increase the service charge to make the exercise worthwhile to participating centre.”

The Board said it is not oblivious of their plight regarding the high cost of diesel in the country.

The Registrar, JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, made the appeal in a statement on Tuesday issued by the board’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, four days to the closing date for the sale of the 2022/23 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination application form.

The Registrar spoke while on the last lap of the monitoring tour of the 2022 UTME/DE registration exercise scheduled to end on March 26.

He disclosed that JAMB was in consultation with relevant government agencies to provide remedies as part of its strategies for a holistic solution.

Oloyede reiterated the Board’s desire to offer critical support to its service partners at every point of its operational processes.

The Registrar admitted the heavy reliance on diesel-powered generators to administer the examination in many centres.

“JAMB would always go the extra mile to render support to its critical partners such that no service provider would have any excuse for failure”, he said.

Oloyede further assured of necessary palliatives to CBT centres within approved government limits.

The official reiterated that the 26th March, 2022 closing date for the sale of the 2022/23 UTME application documents to prospective candidates would not be extended.

Director-General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed this in a statement on Thursday, stated that no deaths or injuries were recorded in the incident.

He added that emergency responders, including the LASEMA response team and officials of the state fire service, were on ground to salvage the situation.

“Distress calls were received at 12.05 am concerning the above incident and upon arrival at the above-mentioned scene, it was confirmed that a truck with an unknown registration number loaded with AGO had fallen due to suspected brake failure,” the LASEMA statement said.

“This resulted in the obstruction of free vehicular activities along the corridor.

“A multi-stakeholder team comprising Agency responders, LRU Firefighters, Lagos State Fire Service, LASTMA, LSNC, and the Nigerian Police worked together to evacuate the impediment off the road.

“The Agency heavy-duty equipment (Super metro) was used for Recovery, while the area has been blanketed to prevent any secondary incident. The operation concluded with no loss of life or injury,” he said.