By Yemie Adeoye
IN an effort to find a lasting solution to the prevalent queues at various petrol stations across the country occasioned by the perennial fuel scarcity in the country, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ,NNPC, has concluded plans to convene a high level forum of all the key operators and stalkeholders in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

According to the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, the meeting which is slated for 13th and 14th January, 2010, is to be convened to find a comprehensive and lasting solution to the fuel supply and distribution challenges facing the downstream sector.

This is coming even as the Minister of state for petroleum resources, Odein Ajumogobia held a closed door meeting with major stakeholders in the downstream sector which includes Major and Independent marketers, the Labour unions and so on.

The meeting which held at the corporate head office of the Department of Petroleum Resources in Lagos saw the announcement of the federal government to the payment of N32 billion Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF) being owed marketers for some time now.  The Minister also announced at the meeting that having identified the unpaid funds as one of the major reason for the present scarcity, the government is now set to clear up the debts in two tranches.

Aside from the N32 billion which has been paid according to sources, the federal government would also be paying the balance of N41 billion foreign exchange differentials today.

Meanwhile, the Forum which is billed for Lagos is expected to have in attendance such stakeholders as the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC, a subsidiary of the NNPC), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, (DAPMA), Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Police, Nigerian Army, and other security agencies as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other operators in the banking sector.

“The NNPC had in the past few months adopted a number of strategies aimed at ameliorating the fuel supply and distribution challenges amongst which was the commencement of distribution of petroleum products from the Ore depot in Ondo state. Though the measures introduced by the NNPC have begun to yield positive results, it has become very clear that if all the stakeholders in the sector do not work together the problem would still linger’’.

That is why NNPC is convening the stakeholders’’ forum to work out ways all the operators in the downstream sector could cooperate to facilitate a copious supply and effective distribution of petroleum products,” Dr Ajuonuma said.
He said invitations have been sent to all the relevant stakeholders and that the forum would come up with a communiquéé on areas and ways of collaborating with one another to solve the problem once and for all.