WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2009-05-19 Time: 08:00:03 Posted By: Jan
By Kayode Ekundayo
A major energy crisis may soon be brewing in the nation’s downstream oil sub-sector following the resolve of the federal government to remove the subsidy on petrol, Sunday Trust checks has revealed.
Investigations by Sunday Trust shows that a litre of petrol may cost N90, if the planned removal of subsidy is implemented by the Yar’adua administration based on the current rising price of crude oil at the international market which presently hovers between $50 and $54 per barrel.
Minister of petroleum, Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman had during the week insisted that there was no way Nigeria can escape from full deregulation of the downstream oil sector of the economy, saying that the volume of funds spent on subsidising petrol is more than what federal government spends annually on capital projects.
The minister however, cautioned that if the federal government goes ahead in implementing the deregulation plan, Nigerians must be ready to pay more for litre of petrol.
As at Tuesday last week, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) template, a litre of petrol is expected to be sold at N90.45 as against the official price of N65.00 per litre.
According to statistics provided by the PPPRA, the landing cost for a litre of fuel into the country is N77.25 per litre; margins N13.20 per litre while the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) sells for N55.90 per litre.
With crude oil currently hovering around $50 and $54 per barrel and with the resumption of fuel importation by oil marketers, after the federal government agreed to pay $200 million out of the over $400 million outstanding claims owed oil marketers, the subsidy claims by the marketers may go up by N890.75 million per day or N26.722 billion per month if the fresh fuel ordered by the oil marketers arrives Nigeria.
The oil marketers, under the umbrella body of the Major Oil Marketers Association (MOMAN) said last week that they have resumed fuel importation. According to the association’s chairman and group managing director of Oando Plc, Mr. Wale Tinubu, the oil marketers agreed to resume oil import after the federal government acceded in principle to pay $200 million out of the $400 million subsidy arrears owed importers.
“Import orders have already been placed partially, so the ships have started coming in. I would say over the next two to four weeks there should be normalcy,” Tinubu said, adding however, that with the government’s renewed interest, it is clear that government is ready to bear the price diffentials arising from the fresh order.
He said the scarcity of petrol being experienced by Nigerians at the moment is not in the best interest of the oil marketers, adding that the marketers are doing their best to ensure fuel availability in the country.
His counterpart in African Petroleum, Mr. Femi Falasinu told Sunday Trust that AP is willing to import fuel into the country despite the glaring financial implications.
He said in April, AP applied to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for importation of four cargoes of petrol, but the department only approved the importation of two cargoes.
Minister of state for petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia had last week accused the oil marketers of holding the nation to ransom. “Marketers are in many ways holding us to ransom but we are exploring various options to close the supply gap,” he alleged.
But Falasinu countered this allegation, saying “we are always willing to import. Look at April; AP alone imported two cargoes even at a period when other marketers were unwilling to import due to the federal government’s stance on subsidy. But we took the risk. Now that we have exhausted the cargoes, we have placed order for two new cargoes”
He said the cargoes would be arriving in two or three weeks’ time. Falasinu explained that the marketers were unwilling to import fuel until last week when it was apparent that government was ready to pay the subsidy arrears owed marketers.
“You see, government’s stance is not yet clear on deregulation. You say you want to deregulate, yet, nothing like that and you don’t want to pay subsidy? Who will then bear the cost of the difference in prices? That is the problem,” he said
He said since it was the federal government that asked oil marketers to import fuel, the marketers are sure that the federal government would continue to bear the price differences on the 35 million litres consumed daily in the country.
Also, the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Tunji Adeniji accused the federal government of bungling the implementation of the deregulation policy by stopping subsidy payment even before reaching an agreement on the details of how a more liberalised fuel regime would work
Adeniji alleged that government is unwilling to give the marketers a say in the reform process.
According to an oil industry expert and executive director of Falcogaz, Mrs. Audrey Ezigbo told Sunday Trust that the removal of subsidies on fuel would definitely lead to much higher prices for Nigerians.
“While it is said that the market will stabilise, what is not being said is that it will stabilise on a much higher scale. There is always the argument that if people are able to buy fuel at the black market prices, then they can bear the increase.
“It is better to put things in a better perspective. The question is how many people can buy from the black market? I believe deregulation is the only way to go because of level of subsidisation is clearly not sustainable”, she said
“Some of us have more cars than we need because our fuel costs are not real. Some undertake more journeys than are truly essential for the same reason. However I do not agree that we can look at subsidy removal in a vacuum.
“We cannot talk of subsidy removal in isolation of the key question of our refineries, existing or proposed. We are one of the major oil producing countries. We cannot ad infinitum remain an importer of our own natural resources,” she added.
Ezigbo said for the deregulation policy to succeed there must be visible government’s commitment to address some of the problems on ground
“Government must as well be looking at how to provide succor to its citizens. Basic infrastructure and amenities that are required to give some form of comfort are sadly lacking. These must be addressed in concert even as the removal of subsidy is being planned.
“If this is done, there will be a net-net effect between the higher fuel prices and the higher standard of life available to the man on the street”, she said
According to her, since fuel impacts directly on transportation and transportation impacts directly on almost every other sector of the economy, government she said, should offer some succour to traumatised Nigerians.
“Our people are daily going through immeasurable challenges with the rising levels of poverty”, she said.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 17 May 2009
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200905181189.html?viewall=1