Signs show that as Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Co., Ltd. finally admits that due to debt of $ 6 billion, Nigeria National Petroleum Co., Ltd. finally acknowledged that the price of high -end car spirit (generally called gasoline) may rise.
After several weeks of denial, NNPC acknowledged on Sunday that the fuel supplier was $ 6 billion, saying that it faced financial pressure due to the cost of gasoline supply.
The state -owned energy company cleverly confirmed in a statement of its chief company’s communication officer Olufemi Soneye that debt was the reason why the fuel queue was filled in the radio station nationwide, indicating that it would affect the sustainability of supply.
The fist reported in July that Nigeria’s debt to gasoline suppliers exceeded $ 6 billion, which made NNPCs strive to make up for the gap between the price of fixed pumps and the cost of international fuel
The state -owned energy company cleverly confirmed in a statement of its chief company’s communication officer Olufemi Soneye that debt was the reason why the fuel queue was filled in the radio station nationwide, indicating that it would affect the sustainability of supply.
The explosion reported in July that Nigeria’s debt to gasoline suppliers exceeded $ 6 billion, which led NNPC to make up for the gap between the price of fixed pumps and international fuel costs.
A Reuters report pointed out that the country’s oil company began to struggle earlier this year, when PMS paid more than $ 3 billion.
The trader said the company has not paid the payment imported in January, and debt has continued to increase. According to the terms of the contract, the NNPC is designed to pay within 90 days after delivery.
A industry source said: “The only reason for traders to endure it is to delay payments for $ 250,000 a month (per capita).”
Traders said that since June, Nigeria’s bidding for PMS has been smaller.
From the beginning of July, it is said that three more traders stopped providing PMS to NNPC
However, Soneye denied $ 6.8 billion in international petroleum merchants in August.
“NNPC LTD does not owe $ 6.8 billion in international businessmen. In the oil trade business, transactions are carried out by credit, so it is normal for some time to repay. It has maintained many open trading credit lines with multiple traders.
NNPC gives various reasons for lingering fuel crisis, including bad weather and ships that cannot be unloaded, but no measures taken to prevent the queue of gas stations.
On Sunday, the company turned around and acknowledged that it was facing financial restrictions.
“NNPC LTD has acknowledged the company’s latest report on the company’s huge debt on gasoline suppliers
Soneye said in a statement called “NNPC LTD”: “This financial pressure brought tremendous pressure on the company and pose a threat to the sustainability of fuel supply.”
He added that the company is working with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to maintain the unanimous supply of petroleum products across the country.
“Consistent with the Petroleum Industry Law, NNPC LTD is still committed to its role as a supplier of Last Resort to ensure national energy security.
“We are actively cooperating with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to maintain the unanimous supply of oil products in the country.”
Since July, the Nigerians have continued to complain about the continuous fuel crisis, and NNPC has suddenly admitted that it claims that it has been seriously denied and promoted the federal government to stop paying the so -called “recovery” or the shortage of imported gasoline.
The company learned that the company may be considering the only way out of debt challenges, which is the shortage of stop paying.
When this happens, the operator stated that the price of gasoline will be higher than N1,000, and the recognized marketing staff who are interested will be able to import gasoline to delete the NNPC monopoly.
FG payment subsidy
Recently, NNPC is the only importer of gasoline. He acknowledged that the federal government subsidized the current price of PMS. Marketing personnel recently named it N1 for 117 per liter.
Although NNPC has refused to pay fuel subsidies to marketers in the past nine years, it said that the government allows it to sell it at a price below landing cost.
The company’s chief financial officer Alhaji Umar Ajiya expressed this in Abuja when the company submitted a 2023 report.
“In the past eight to nine years, NNPC has not paid any subsidies for any dime; NNPC has not paid KOBO in the name of subsidies. No marketers receive any money from us through subsidies.
“What happened is that we have always imported PMs PMS at a specific cost price. The government tells us that it sells it at half price. Therefore, the difference between landing prices and half -priced is insufficient.
“This transaction is reconciled between the federal and NNPC. Sometimes, they give us money, so they exchange currencies with any marketer in the name of subsidy.” He said.
However, with the continuous accumulation of international oil companies’ debt, it has led to the continuous fuel scarce of the country.
On May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu announced that the fuel subsidy had disappeared.
However, with the floating of Nara, the price of imported gasoline rose the normal purchasing power of Nigerians, which caused the federal government to intervene by restricting the price at the cost of landing and insufficient payment.
The reason why the federal government fails to pay the shortage is affecting fuel imports.
In May, the International Monetary Fund warned the Nigerian government to cancel the so -called hidden fuel and electricity subsidies.
In a report issued by the International Monetary Fund, the organization told Nigeria that subsidies will laugh at 3 % of the country’s GDP in 2024, and the previous year will be 1 %.
According to the report, the International Monetary Fund praised the federal government. In addition to other, it eliminated the “expensive and regression energy subsidy”, saying that this was related to the fiscal space of creating development expenditure and strengthening social protection while maintaining debt sustainability at the same time. important.
After the Tinubu canceled subsidies, the International Monetary Fund pointed out: “The appropriate compensation measures of the poor have not been scaled in time, and then the problem of corruption is suspended. High inflation and exchange rate depreciation.
It seems that the federal government is now ready to understand the advice of the International Monetary Fund.
“Local relaxation control”
Hammd Fasholala, the vice chairman of the Nigerian Independence Petroleum Marketing Association, accused the government of requesting the government to refund the fuel subsidy or completely cancel the fuel instead of partial relaxation control.
“The federal government and NNPC should do this once and for all. If they want to relax the control, please let them completely relax the control, because we know where we are going. This is why you see this difference, that is, the NNPC retail industry Sale in Lagos’s N580, and independent marketers will be sold at the N800. You can see the gap.
“If the federal government wants to bring back subsidies, let them recover fully so that everyone knows that we are using subsidy products; it should not only reduce the NNPC retail industry. Therefore, we will know that we will return to that I think it is unfavorable to the country’s economy. “Subsidies” Fashola emphasized.
He said that price differences are not good for the image of independent marketers, saying that the masses do not understand why they sell them at higher prices.
He assumes: “If we are not attempting to educate people, many people regard us as bad people. They don’t know that this is not our fault.”
IPman leaders added that the fuel crisis is because NNPC is still the only importer of PMS.
“The problem is that because of foreign exchange, only NNPC can bring the product. They are the only people who sell. Two or three independent marketers have tried to import, but they cannot be imported.” He said.
The marketer proposed: “We need to prepare and face reality once and for all. If we should get subsidies, please let it go so that all of us will run on the horizontal field. This is what we require, not NNPC retail will be affected Favorite, and others will suffer, people will see us as a Sherlock businessman.
As the fuel crisis lasted for about two months, our reporter observed that prices continued to rise in the filling stations owned by independent marketers.
Starting from less than N700 in July, one liter of gasoline gradually rose to N900 in most gas stations ending in August. As of today, the upward trend has not been successfully stopped.
An angry bus conductor negotiated a passenger on a passenger along the Lagos-Ibandan highway to negotiate. “I just bought N980 gasoline on Ogree.”
In a filling station operated by major marketing personnel such as NNPC retail, MOBIL, MRS, Conble, Ardova, and Totalenergies, the product sold below N700, but the driver lined up for a long time to buy fuel.
You can also observe on weekends that many major marketing personnel, including NNPC, run bone services due to inconsistent fuel supply.
NNPC spokesman Olufemi Soneye told the Punch at different occasions that the queue of the national fuel station will end a few days later.
However, these commitments continued to fail, causing Nigerians into a struggle for energy security, especially in the transportation department.
At the same time, warehouse operators told us that the despair of marketers should be attributed to rising prices.
The operator who does not want to print his name tells Punch that many marketers are working hard to surpass each other and are going to buy at any price because they know they can sell at a higher price.
Nevertheless, the operator believes that the lack of sufficient supply is the reason for despair, saying that many warehouses have fallen for several weeks.
The source said: “Most of the time, it is not the owner of the warehouse, but to work hard to surpass each other in the warehouse,”
Our correspondent learned that some people who played the middle people between the warehouse and the gas station only sold to the highest bidders and omit those who could not afford bidding.
These intermediaries they have learned only earn profits by negotiating prices with gas stations through telephone.
At the same time, another warehouse sources told us that weekend’s fuel loading improved, expressing the optimism of improvement of this week.
“On the weekend, loading is better. It is expected that supply will become better. We are full from Saturday to Sunday. We hope that the fuel condition of this week will improve.” The source revealed.
However, our correspondent reported that Nigerians have not yet felt higher fuel to purchase fuel loading.
The results of the fist’s survey show that the cost of transportation increased by nearly 40 %, depending on the destination
