Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerians nursing the idea of the return of subsidy payment on Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, may have to perish it as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has said such will not happen anytime soon.
Diesel was deregulated and in recent times, the price has continued to rise up to N850 per litre due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and this has pushed the prices of food items and others higher.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Downstream, alongside the CEO of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed and others, stated that the government cannot introduce subsidy on diesel due to a number of reasons, including the strain brought about by the scarcity of foreign exchange (forex) in the country.
The lawmakers had summoned stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to an investigative hearing over fuel scarcity and the rising cost of Premium Motor Spirit (also known as petrol), diesel, and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG also known as cooking gas) in the country.
“In our country today, we do not produce AGO and we regret that our refineries are not working,” he said. “Are we doing anything about it? Yes. I have heard the honourable members lamenting; yes, they (the refineries) are not working.
“This is the truth. I don’t want to bore you with why they are not working, but they are not working; I admit they are not working but we regret it. I will invite this committee at your convenience to join us to see how much work we have done to get them back to work, but they will not come back tomorrow.
“They will not! You cannot start it tomorrow. We regret this; we regret this situation, and we are doing everything possible. As a matter of fact, we have decided to do a quick fix for the Warri refinery. The reason is very simple: we don’t even want to go the long route of doing comprehensive turnaround maintenance because we are concerned.”
The NNPC boss disclosed that Saudi Arabia’s Aramco recently bought a large amount of AGO and stockpiled it. “We were very surprised that Saudi Arabia would do this.
“No one knows what will come tomorrow. No one can guarantee the security of supply. That is why people are resorting to self-help. People are preserving the excess volumes that they have,” he said.
Mr Kyari, however, decried that Nigeria imports almost every commodity “perhaps, maybe with the exception of food.” He added that while the country does not export, it cannot have foreign exchange.
As a result, he believes the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, might not be able to provide forex intervention.
“There is a limit to what he (Emefiele) can do because as long as we are not productive, the only way you can cover FX gap is for you to go and borrow FX, and no one is going to lend you money to put on a subsidy; it does not happen anywhere in the world. No bank will lend you FX to go and put it into consumption.
“When Nigerians living in the diaspora used to be a very great source of forex. They can no longer send back because many of them are out of employment. So, they can no longer send money even to their parents. So, you cannot have it in your banking system,” he stated.
