BUSINESS
Fuel Scarcity: Bayelsa Gov’t Sets up Special Team on Petroleum Products
FROM TAYESE Mike, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Government has set up a special monitoring team on the pricing and distribution of petroleum products in the state.
The special team is made up of the Bayelsa State Petroleum Taskforce (BSPT), the Bayelsa Field Office of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
The team also has the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Department of State Services (DSS), as well as the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) as members.
Setting up the team at a critical stakeholders meeting on Thursday in Yenagoa, the deputy governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said government was taking every necessary steps to end the scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS) in the state as soon as possible.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo charged the team to monitor the activities of all the petrol filling stations in the state and ensure that none of them sells above N230, pending when supply sufficiency is restored.
The Deputy Governor further directed the team to enforce compliance with government’s directive that no filling station should sell more than 25 litres to individual buyers in jerry cans until normalcy is restored in fuel supply.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who lamented that Bayelsa has the least allocation of petrol in the country from the NNPC, pointed out that making Bayelsa to pay the same amount with other states for fuel subsidy amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
He therefore urged the Federal Government to stop the injustice by ensuring that each state pays for fuel subsidy based on the volume of petrol consumed or number of trucks allocated to it every month.
On the issue of absence of fuel depots which badly affects the fuel supply chain in the state, the Deputy Governor said government would look at the possibility of establishing at least one deputy through a public private partnership initiative.
The Operations Controller of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Bayelsa Field office, Mr. Ogbe Nicholas, urged the public not to panick, assuring that there would be normal fuel supply soon as there is enough PMS now at the loading jetties.
He said the Bayelsa Field Office had already placed an order for 10 trucks of PMS from the Warri and Port Harcourt depots.
Mr. Ogbe, however, noted that the absence of any depot in Bayelsa adversely affects supply of the product thereby leaving the state at the mercy of oil marketers.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Petroleum Taskforce, Mr. Richman Samuel, said the taskforce had been working round the clock alongside other stakeholders, including the NUPRC and the oil marketers, to ensure that the situation was brought under control.
Mr Samuel disclosed that through effective negotiation, fuel price in the wake of the current scarcity was brought down from N300 to N230 per litre in the state and appealed to the marketers to maintain the negotiated price.
On his part, the state Chairman of PETROAN, Mr Dukumor Taremi West, while assuring that marketers would not take undue advantage of petrol consumers in the state, stressed the need for relevant agencies to query the whereabouts of the two truckloads of PMS allocated to the NNPC Floating Station at Nembe.
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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