…Fuel queue intact in Ibadan, Onitsha***

…As IPMAN urges FG to invest more in modular refineries***

The Presidency on Tuesday in Abuja summoned the Minister of Petroleum, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, Director-General of the Directorate of State Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, and the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Maikanti Baru, alongside other  critical stakeholders in the nation’s oil sector to a close door meeting, in determined effort to end the fuel scarcity in the country.

The meeting which was presided over by the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari was attended by the leadership of security agencies which included the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Alhaji Muhammed Babandede, some presidential aides and other stakeholders in the oil industry.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Jan. 1, during a nationwide broadcast, expressed sadness over the unnecessary hardships inflicted on Nigerians during the Christmas and New Year celebrations following acute petrol scarcity across the country.

He attributed the hardships to the activities of a few but heartless individuals working within the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Buhari, however, reiterated the determination of his administration to get to the root of the persistent petrol scarcity, and ensure that whichever groups were behind this manipulated blackmail would be prevented from doing so again.

The scarcity is said to be caused by greedy marketers who tried to take undue advantage of the high inter-state movements during the season.

It would be observed that while the fuel queue may have significantly disappeared in Lagos and Abuja, it was still intact, in Abuja and the cities in the Southeast, particularly Onitsha, contrary to promises made by the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru.

Baru had on Friday vowed that Nigerians would not go into 2018 with the scarcity of petroleum products.

Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Tuesday in Lagos, urged the Federal Government to invest more in modular refineries as a way of  ending perennial fuel scarcity.

The Chairman, South-west zone of IPMAN, Alhaji Debo Ahmed the  gave the advice, echoing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo remarks only three ago, affirming that 10 modular refineries were already at advanced stages of development in the Niger Delta.

Ahmed said that the modular refineries could help address any shortfall in fuel supply pending when additional refineries would be built.

“It will also boost the country’s revenue generation and address frequent fuel capacity experienced during the yuletide seasons.

“Our expectation in 2018 is for the government to invest more on modular refineries to be able to have more petrol locally to address scarcity,’’ he said.

Ahmed said that government had performed credibility well in the downstream sector in 2017, adding that it should crown it by building more modular refineries.

According to him, a modular refinery is cheaper to build and it can move from one place to another.

“A modular refinery is capable of refining between 10,000 and 35,000 barrels of crude oil per day,’’he said.

He also urged the government to provide incentives that would attract investors to the oil and gas sector.

The Vice President had disclosed that 10 modular refineries located in five out of the nine states in the Niger Delta region were already in various stages of completion.

The states include Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Imo states.

Osinbajo said that two of the refineries, Amakpe Refinery (Akwa Ibom), and OPAC Refinery (Delta State), have had their mini-refinery modules already fabricated, assembled and containerized overseas and ready for shipment to Nigeria for installation.

The total proposed refining capacities of the 10 licensed refineries stands at 300,000 barrels.