By Yemi ADEOYE  and Daniel ALFRED
Unless the nation’s refining capacity is raised, the fuel scarcity persistent in the country is likely to continue in years to come, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Mohamed Sanusi Barkindo has said.

However, Barkindo was quick to add that due to the downstream all-stakeholders forum held in Lagos to find a lasting solution to the acute fuel scarcity currently rocking the nation, all of the nations refineries would be in optimal operation by the end of this first quarter. He also assured of the corporation’s commitment to a stable downstream sub-sector, as well as constant supply and distribution of petroleum products nationwide.

The GMD who made this assertion during his courtesy visit to the Corporate Headquarters of Vanguard Media in Lagos yesterday, stated that the forum which brought together all the players and stakeholders in the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry identified the challenges and also proffered solutions to all the problems which has brought about the current fuel crises in the country.    He noted that even the marketers, transporters and other stakeholders are not comfortable with the lingering scarcity as they all waited till the end of a deliberation which lasted a whole day.

Dr. Barkindo also noted that a major highlight at the deliberations was the importance of the nation’s refineries as a major panacea to the steady supply and distribution of refined products in the country.

“We are embarking on a major transformation of the NNPC beginning with a transition phase that will begin next week, this transition phase will run for 18 months and it’s a transition phase that will elevate the corporation and begin to transform it from the amorphous cost center that it has been since its inception since 1977 as a quasi government organisation to a full fledged commercial entity that would play its role in the domestic as well as the international oil and gas industry.

Since it was a downstream forum these two gentlemen here were on the spot, we can not meet our objectives of overcoming the recurring challenges of supply and distribution of fuel without getting our refineries operating optimally.”

“We have a deficit in refining capacity in this country and this deficit is most likely to continue to manifest itself in the years to come until we’re able to raise the refining capacity by new and additional investment in refining in the country.

We must get the existing current capacity optimally utilised.  We spent several hours on Wednesday addressing the issues of the refineries and theses issues and challenges are sometime internal and external.  The external challenges are being addressed by government, particularly the supply of feedstock of crude supply to the inland refineries as well as the Portharcourt refinery.

For the in house internal challenges, issues of managerial and technical capacity, i think we have been able to address them thoroughly, I personally demanded and received pledges from all the MD’s of the refineries and their management under the leadership of their Group Executive Director here that these refineries must come back on its feet in the first quarter of this year because Government in its own wisdom has been able to midwife the amnesty program and our inability to access the crude pipeline that has been vandalized since May during the insurgency has been overcome, our contractors and staff have gone back to site and has been working day and night, and we have been receiving very positive reports from them that in no distant future we would be able to get all our pipelines back and it will enable us to supply crude, because without crude there is no way we’re going to get our refineries to operate and this is what has been happening since May and hence the shut down officially of all the plants.

The fundamental thing here as far as the downstream is concerned is to get the refineries back on their feet and I’m satisfied and please to report to you that the two days forum has been able to identify the challenges, proffer the solution and got pledges from the management that these refineries must be back on track during the first quarter of the year.”he enthused.