NNPC targets 50% ownership of filling stations

…Takes over 133 filling stations from marketers

By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

ABUJA  In a bid to put to rest the perennial artificial fuel scarcity in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said, Thursday, it has concluded arrangements with some Independent Marketers to take over their filling stations in order to sustain steady fuel supply.

The move is also seen as part of plans to fully transform the Corporation into a wholly commercial company in line with the reforms recommended by Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo gave the hint during a two-day consultative meeting between the Federal government and labour leaders on deregulation at the Labour House Abuja.

Dr. Barkindo stated that the NNPC has already taken over 133 filling stations from independent marketers who are willing to partner with the Corporation, noting that the arrangement would expand the mega and floating stations across the country which now stands at 37 and 12 respectively.

“In all developing countries, their national oil companies operate across the supply chain, including the strategic downstream sector and it is not only seen from commercial perspective but also from national security implications.

You cannot handover that sector to a group of people, private individuals, who you cannot predict their political coloration, cannot predict the decision they may take and the implication of such decision,” he said.

The NNPC GMD maintained that the move was informed by the determination of the corporation to break the monopoly that currently exists among the marketers who play key roles in the supply chain.

According to him, “Today, it only needs a text message round the marketing companies that simply says, stop loading in Mosimi for one day and you will see the multiplier effects across the country, from Sokoto to Maiduguri .

“If they don’t load for one day, you will see queues across the country. Why? They have the monopoly over the supply chain. About 15,000 stations in the country are not owned by the NNPC nor are they owned by the Product and Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC).

They are owned by these marketing companies. Once we sell products from the depot, they take over in terms of where they will supply the products.”

Barkindo further averred that the Corporation was empowered to regulate the operations in the petroleum sector within a commercial framework but got its function wrong when it evolved as an appendage of Government therefore functioning as a civil service outfit.

He attributed the inability of the refineries to distribute petroleum products to the incessant vandalism of pipelines noting that the non functional refineries have been a drain on resources as their workers and other logistics are kept and serviced without any work and added value to the system.

In his address, the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Abdulwaheed Omar observed that the meeting was an avenue for dialogue with Government saying that the National Executive Council of the NLC would meet soon to deliberate over the contentious issue.