By Ademola Adedoyin

In this season of acute moral famine when all institutions of state have been bastardized and every societal value desecrated, the temptation to dismiss every honorary award as lacking in credibility is not only high, but dismissing the recognized as beneficiaries of a rigged process is difficult to resist.

But then, at such time as this when society appears to have lost its soul and  its institutions have surrendered their self esteem to the highest bidder, there is always that flicker of hope that should remind men of conscience and those that refuse to join the bandwagon that all is not totally lost, after all.  At such season of moral decline, a few institutions stand out of the crowd, refusing to be compromised and insisting on not lowering the standard, no matter the pressure.  Or the temptation.

It is in this context that the recent Distinguished Public Service Award with which Reginald Chika Stanley, the head of Petroelum Products Pricing Regulatory, Agency PPPRA, was decorated by the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics (NAEE), can be situated.

The Nigerian Association of Energy Economics, by the way, is the Nigerian affiliate of the International Association for Energy Economics, IAEE. The Association berthed  in Nigeria in 2006 and has since grown so rapidly with membership cutting across energy professionals in the academics, energy industry, government and several others operating in different areas of economics of energy-oil and gas, electricity, nuclear energy, renewable energy, energy finance, energy technology, energy law and regulation environment and climate.  Its current president is Professor Adeola Adenikinju of the Department of Economics at the University of Ibadan and a Research Professor, at the Centre for Econometrics and Allied Research at the same University.

NAEE Award Winners this year are in four categories.  And the caliber of winner(s) in each category speaks eloquently about the standard and quality of the award.  The Achiever Award Category went to Professor Omowumi Iledare, the first African President Elect of the IAEE and a renowned Energy Economics Professor; the Distinguished Corporate Service Award Category went to Platform Petroleum (Now Seplat) that indigenous upstream sector operator that has emerged today as perhaps the biggest independent player in the nation’s crude oil and gas production.

In the Distinguished Fellowship Award Category, the Winners were: Professors: Yinka Omorogbe, former Legal Adviser at NNPC and Professor of Energy Law and Layi Fagbenle, a retired Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ibadan and former Energy Adviser to Botswana Government.

The Distinguished Public Service Award went to  Dr. Timothy Okon, Group Co-ordinator, Corporate Planning and Strategy, NNPC and Stanley.

To keen Energy watchers and analysts, the Stanley Distinguished Public Service Award stands out among the lot.  First, until his arrival at PPPRA in November 2011, the twin issue of subsidy regime and importation of petroleum products had become the most daunting problem for the government as dozens of oil trading and importing companies feasted on the country under the guise of importing fuel with the regulator appearing helpless while the revelry lasted.  By the time the stock was taken, Nigeria had expended over N2.2 trillion on alleged fuel importation in 2011, an amount even higher than the Capital expenditure for that year.

Determined to clean this mess and institute a regime of transparent operation at the Agency, a major plank of its transformation Agenda, President Jonathan gave matching orders to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison Madueke to reform the Agency and get it working as it should.

Stanley’s appointment came on the heels of this presidential directive with his supervising minister (Alison-Madueke) giving him an unambiguous  mandate to clean the Augean stable and put in place, a transparent system that is result driven.  Dead line was November 21 2011.

One year and five months down the line, what Stanley has accomplished in that Agency is not just about the fact that he has saved for Nigeria billions of Naira which could have gone into the private pockets of some fat cats, he has put in place a system that is so transparent that it is impossible to circumvent.

Stanley’s stride at PPPRA is worth taking a look at.  As noted earlier, fuel importation had become an all-comers’ affair and one endless cash cow for fat cats with contacts in the corridor of power up till November 2011.  By this time, about 128 companies, many with only their brief cases as their offices, were in the business of importing fuel.  Today, Stanley has reduced that figure to less than 40.

How did he do it?  One of the earliest measures he took on assumption of office was to restrict participation of marketers under the PSF scheme to only owners of coaster discharge/depot facilities.  This measure ensured that only credible, established operators with verifiable investment can participate in the business.

Other measures aimed at entrenching transparency and compliance with best global business practices were to follow in quick succession.  One of such initiatives was the introduction of independent cargo surveyors to undertake the verification of product discharge on all transactions under the PSF Scheme.

These inspectors were actually mandated to fiscalise the shore tanks and vessels at berth before and after discharge and also monitor quantity of products trucked out of the depots. This measure which is aimed at curbing sharp practices has, according to industry operatives, worked wonderfully well that such under hand deals as volume manipulation and round tripping now belong to the past.

In order to reconcile imported volume with volume that is evacuated for consumption from the depots, and to ensure that imports get to end users, the new dispensation, through nominated surveyors, monitor truck out of PMS from the depots as an added check on marketers operations.  This is also used as a basis for subsidy reimbursement.

In its determined battle against shady practices, the Stanley team rejects “homogenized cargo” for multiple vessels with no defined origins.  Under the new regime, importers are required to produce Certificate of Origin for Cargos from refineries or blending plants only.  This measure, which is aimed at ensuring that products supplied into the system are from credible and verifiable sources only, has put paid to the issue of off-spec products with their damaging effect on engines and machines.

And to make proper tracking of imported products easier and put round tripping to a halt, a total ban has been placed on cargos procured from floating storage in the West African Coast.

To authenticate sources of imported cargo and ensure that international suppliers are held accountable for products supplied into the country and to track all transactions relating to the operations of suppliers, marketers and banks under the Scheme oil traders now have to submit the following additional documents to have their subsidy claim processed:  Certificate of Origin, Affirmation Letter from supplier and Complete “Family Tree” of transaction.

Still in respect of supplier, a    prequalification exercise for traders/suppliers in form of technical audit of suppliers of PMS into the Nigerian market was embarked upon.  The initiative, which is aimed at weeding out unscrupulous suppliers, will leave only prequalified suppliers/traders to supply products into the Nigerian market once the Minister of Petroleum Resources signs off on it.

Adjudged as remarkable on the list of the reform initiative of the Stanley- led management team was the subscription to Lloyd’s List of Intelligence Tanker/Channel/Sea Searcher Services and Reuters Eikon tracking system.

With this subscription, it is possible for the Agency to track and validate movement and location of vessels worldwide and confirm import claims of marketers.

The initiatives listed above are, by no means, the only ones put in place to sanitize the downstream sector by Stanley.  There are others already working along those listed here and many more are in the works.  But the poser, at this juncture, could be: have these measures really worked?  What difference have they made?

A lot, as any interested observers will discover.  The figures tell the success story. Between January to October of 2011, the average daily quantity supplied (from both NNPC and marketers) was 59.7 million litres per day.  Stanley came on the beat in November 2011.   Between January and October 2012, the Stanley Reform Initiative has crashed supply to 35.6 million litres per day.

In monetary term, between January and October 2011, the Nigerian government under the Petroleum Support Fund, (PSF), subsidy payments stood at N1.35 trillion.  During the same period in 2012, the total subsidy payments was N679.736 billion; thereby saving for the country some N671.7 billion, when compared with the 2011 figure. It is estimated that subsidy payment for 2012 may not exceed a little over N1 trillion as against over N2 trillion in 2011.

Another major gain of the on going reform initiative at PPPRA is that a system is being put in place, an institution is being built.  Today, to earn a license to import fuel, the criteria are very clear.  For the first time, whom you know does not count, where you come from is irrelevant and your political affiliation is of no use.

It is perhaps in this regard that discerning analysts contend that Stanley owes his strides at the Agency to the transformation Agenda of the present government and the iron cast resolve of the supervising minister to reform and sanitize the downstream sector.   Mr. President and Madam Minister just happened to have found the right guy for the job.  He deserves this award!

Adedoyin, an Energy Analyst, is the Editor-In-Chief of Energy Thisweek.