Tina Amanda
An Expert in the Oil and Gas Industry, Comrade Azubuike Azubuike, says Nigeria will continue to experience scarcity and increase in pump price of premium motor spirit (fuel), if the outrageous rise of AGO (Diesel) price and foreign exchange is not tackled.
Comrade Azubuike who stated this in an interview with our correspondent, maintained that so long as petroleum products are being imported at a high cost into a country where the economic situation is already battered, fuel scarcity is inevitable.
He emphasized that the hike in AGO which has tripled in pump price from two hundred and fifty naira to eight hundred naira per liter, transportation and landing cost of petroleum products into the country are all factors causing scarcity and increase in price.
“One of the greatest problems we have in ending this fuel scarcity is because we are not refining the product, coupled with the economic predicament. When you look at the foreign exchange using naira, you would discover that the product is sourced at a high cost.
“Another issue is transportation in terms of petroleum trucks, they make use of AGO and it has drastically tripled in pump price which adds to transportation cost. You can not tell an importer after spending such an amount to import product to sell below the cost price.
“We do not even have where the bigger ship’s will land in our ocean, it first land in Benin Republic and other parts then vessel will be used to convey which is another cost altogether. Also people are equally buying and storing fuel for fear the product may increase, all these are the things that stress the petroleum market”.
Azubuike further said that the only way forward is for government to be held accountable by ensuring the nation’s refineries become functional or modular refineries are urgently setup to cushion the effect on importation.
“First of all, the government needs to be responsible, government and key people need to be held accountable, the present administration promised us every year one refinery, where are the refineries? What solution are we going to get when our refineries are not working.
“The modular refineries government talked about, how effective is it? They make polices without putting anything on ground to make the polices survive. If the modular refineries were working, it would have helped to cushion the effect on importation.
“And again, when Union comes up to agitate, the next thing the public will say is that they want to be settled. All these are emotional blackmail which puts leaders under stress”.
