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Falling back to the option, according to a top industry
source, was in response to depleting supply following the inability of the
company to sustain products import as foreign exchange scarcity heightens.
Indications of looming scarcity were noticed in parts of
Lagos on Monday when motorists queued longer at filling stations.
At TotalEnergies filling station along Mobolaji Bank Anthony
way, Ikeja, a long queue emerged during midday, extending traffic close to
Maryland.
Although some stations were open to motorists, many were not
using all the pumps.
President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association
of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Okoronkwo, however, confirmed that members of his
association were still receiving products from NNPC Retail Company.
In Abuja and environs, LEADERSHIP checks indicated that many
independent petrol stations were shut, with petrol largely sold by NNPC retail
outlets
However, our source said that the NNPC was yet to obtain the
proposed $3 billion forex facility from Afreximbank, which is affecting its
importation.
Our source said that the company is presently hard hit with
dollar scarcity while marketers remain adamant to import.
In June this year, the group chief executive officer of NNPC
Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, said the company had terminated its crude-for-petrol
swap deal, otherwise called Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) contracts, with
foreign refiners and consortia of traders.
In an interview with Reuters, Kyari said NNPCL would now pay
cash for petrol imports.
He also revealed that private oil marketing companies in
Nigeria could begin importing petrol, but marketers have rejected the offer as
the landing cost of petrol continues to go up while the government has
maintained price control measures contrary to its deregulation policy.
However, with the latest indication, it appears that the
NNPC had jettisoned the earlier announcement that the crude swap initiative was
no longer in operation.
All enquiries made to NNPCL to get clarification on the
issues raised were abortive as of press time.
At about noon yesterday, LEADERSHIP sent SMS to Mrs Iyabode
Ayobami-Ojo, the most senior officer in the Corporate Communications Department
of NNPCL following the retirement of the former group corporate communications
manager, Garba Deen Muhammed, but received no response.
A reminder message was sent at about 8:50pm, and she
promised to send a response. However, there was no response until this report
was filed.
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(NEITI), in its recent report disclosed that the NNPCL exchanged crude oil
valued at N2.6 trillion for refined petroleum products in 2021.
An analysis of crude oil production figures obtained from
the just released 2021 Oil and Gas Report of NEITI also indicated that the
national oil company did not send any crude oil to Nigeria’s refineries during
the period under review.
The NEITI, however, stated that the non-supply of crude to
domestic refineries by NNPCL could be due to the fact that the facilities were
not operational at the time.
Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri have
been dormant for years, though rehabilitation is ongoing at the facilities currently.
The NEITI report stated that the oil firm exchanged
Nigeria’s crude oil for refined products under its Direct Sale Direct Purchase
programme, adding that crude oil sales receipt during the review period was
N2.23 trillion.
Under the DSDP scheme, initiated in 2016, selected overseas
refiners, trading companies and indigenous companies were allocated crude
supplies in exchange for the delivery of an equal value of petrol and other
refined products to the NNPCL.
Commenting on this in its latest report, NEITI said, “NNPC allocated a total of 98.92 million barrels of crude oil valued at $7.11 billion (N2.73 trillion) for the local market in 2021. However, no crude was delivered to any of the local refineries in 2021.”
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