Reps Want Fuel Sold At N70 Per Litre

The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to review the current price template for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) with a view to reducing the price to N70.

This followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Rep. Abubaker Fulata titled “Urgent Need to Review the Petroleum Price Template”.

Moving the motion, Fulata expressed dismay over the circulating rumour of a possible hike in the price of petrol in the country. Although the rumour was denied by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Fulata said it was coming at a time when the nation is going through difficult times.

According to him, the hard times are occasioned by dwindling revenues, high inflation rate, unemployment and general fall in the standard of living of many Nigerians. The lawmaker noted that the current template for the price of PMS could be reviewed downwards without affecting the profit margin of marketers and transporters.

The review would also contribute to reducing the current inflationary trend in the economy. “I am aware that the current cost of freighting PMS stands at N109.1, Lightering expenses N4.56, Nigeria Ports Authority charges N0.84, NIMASA charges N0.22, Financing N2.51 and Jetty put charges at N0.60.

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Aviation Fuel Price Soars Above N240 Per Litre

The pump price of aviation fuel (popularly known as Jet A1) yesterday surged above N240 per litre, representing 100 per cent increase from the N120 per litre price sold about this time last year.
The development also jolted the flight schedule of domestic airlines as cancellations and delays became the order of the day.
Nigeria’s aviation industry has been hit by severe scarcity of Jet A1 with prices rising steadily from N120 per litre to N150, N180 and eventually steadying at N200 per litre throughout last week. The scarcity and exorbitant cost had resulted in several scheduled commercial flights either rescheduled or cancelled with attendant hardship and frustration on passengers. The industry is reported to be losing between N300 and N500 on weekdays and weekends respectively due to the crisis caused by flight delays and cancellations.
It was learnt that yesterday it had become almost impossible for airline owners to source fuel to power  aircraft in their fleet and that the huge demand had forced the few marketers who still had the product at their depots to sell at between N240 and N250 per litre to airlines.
“It’s now all about demand and supply,” an airline official said on the 100 per cent rise in price of Jet A1. “The depots are running out of stock and the price had been fluctuating between N170 and N200 per litre. As at yesterday, some of us bought at about N240 and N250 per litre because we just had to fly,” added the official, a spokesperson for one of the local airlines who won’t want to be named.
Three airlines, Arik Air, Dana Air and Air Peace have separately addressed the media explaining how they are grappling with flight schedule disruptions due to the severe scarcity of aviation fuel across the country.
“For the past week, the airline had to face another round of aviation fuel scarcity, which got worse over this weekend leading to many flight delays and cancellations,” said Arik Air spokesman, Banji Ola.
“At the root of the fuel supply crisis is low stock due to the inability of marketers to get the foreign exchange to import more Jet A1 fuel into the country. This has forced airlines to postpone flights while waiting for the fuel marketers to source and deliver the product.
“On many occasions, despite all efforts at engaging the marketers of fuel, flights may eventually be cancelled causing not only revenue loss for the airline but also inconveniencing or stranding the passengers,” Ola said yesterday.
The airline industry yesterday  identified supply and infrastructural challenges of the marketers as some of the key factors responsible for the epileptic supply of aviation fuel.
There is also a distribution challenge as the discharging of vessels bringing Jet A1 and other petroleum products is done in the same jetty and loading various trucks for distribution to cities like Kano or Abuja take considerable effort and time. The situation in the North is even more difficult since the product takes longer to be delivered due to the trucking distance. Oil marketers have also resorted to trucking of aviation fuel to the airports because hydrants are not consistently available at the airports.
The Federal Government and oil marketers are working hard to address the supply and distribution challenges as marketers have assured that the situation would improve this week with the delivery of additional stock.

Credit: Sun

I Never Said Petrol Will Sell For N40 Per Litre– Tam David-West

A former Minister of Petroleum Re­sources, Prof Tam David-West, has denied newspaper reports, Daily Sun not included, that Buhari will crash the price of petrol to N40 per litre.

The Professor of Virology who spoke in a telephone interview at the weekend, said at no time did he ever made such com­ment, regretting that he must have been misquoted.

Rather, he said, he only canvassed that some 14 items currently listed in the petrol pricing template be re­moved as that would help crash pet­rol price to N40.

David-West said some of the 14 items included, Petroleum Equal­ization Fund (PEF) charges, trans­porters margin, lithering expenses among other charges, currently con­tained in the pricing template tend to increase the cost of petrol.

The former Minister said it was shameful that Nigeria is still in­volved in importation of petroleum products despite having four refin­eries capable of meeting the energy needs of the country.

He equally took a swipe at those pushing for sustenance of subsidy re­gime, saying the scheme was a fraud that should not be encouraged by all Nigerians.

‘‘I signed the contract for the re­finery in Port Harcourt in 1985. And I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with our refineries. But the is­sue is just that some people bent on sabotaging the efforts of government are frustrating plans to ensure that the refineries produce at optimal ca­pacity. David-West equally berated proponents of the co-locating of re­fineries, arguing that such idea was a waste of resources.

‘‘How can you co-locate refiner­ies within the existing refineries that NNPC has tagged as scraps? For you to co-locate refineries that means the refineries still have value and can be efficient,’’ he said.

Recall that NNPC had recently said that it was targeting to increase the nation’s refining capacity from 445,000 barrels per day(bpd) to 650,000 (bpd)

The Corporation said the move was aimed at reducing fuel importa­tion in the foreseeable future, adding that nine companies have submitted bids for the co-location of new re­fineries within the complexes of its three existing refineries in Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt.

Credit: Sun

Fuel Subsidy To Go Next Year, FG To Sell Petrol At N97 Per Litre

Following increased pressure on revenue and the expenditure profile, the Federal Government has finally yielded to domestic and international pressures to remove fuel subsidy.

This is coming as crude oil prices hit a seven-year low with global reference crude, West Texas Intermediate and Brent trading yesterday at $34.7 and $36.7 per barrel respectively, effectively disrupting Nigeria’s $38 per barrel benchmark for 2016 budget.

The crash has resulted into about N1.45 trillion shortfall in the value of the projected oil output in the international market based on production target increased in the 2016 plan to 2.2 million barrel per day (mbpd), up from actual 1.9 mbpd in 2015.

On official exchange rate of N198/ $1 upon which the revenue projection was based, the value of the total budgeted oil output is $35.14 billion or N6.95 trillion but with the latest price development, the output would now yield $27.8 billion or N5.5 trillion

Credit: Vanguard