Fuel Scarcity: President Buhari Heads 14-Man Committee

A 14-man Steering Committee has been constituted to find lasting solutions to the problems surrounding the supply and distribution chain of petroleum products in the country.

Naija News reports that the committee which was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari would be chaired by himself and co-chaired by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.

The development was contained in a statement issued by the minister’s Senior Adviser on Media & Communications, Horatius Egua.

According to Egua, the committee has the mandate to among other things ensure transparent and efficient supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country.

This comes after months of lingering fuel scarcity in most parts of the country as oil markers have continued to lament the shortage in the supply of fuel.

The Steering Committee as noted in the statement is also expected to ensure national strategic stock management, and visibility on the NNPC Limited refineries rehabilitation programme and ensure end-end tracking of petroleum products, especially PMS to ascertain daily national consumption and eliminate smuggling.

The committee is as well saddled with the duty of ensuring sanity in the supply and distribution across the value chain, as the minister has directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to ensure strict compliance with the government-approved ex-depot and retail prices for PMS also known as petrol.

The minister further directed the NMDPRA to ensure that NNPC Limited, which is the supplier of last resort meets the domestic supply obligation of PMS and other petroleum products in the country.

Sylva further directed that the interests of the ordinary Nigerian are protected from price exploitation on other deregulated products such as AGO and DPK and LPG, noting the federal government will not allow misguided elements to bring untold hardship upon the citizenry and attempt to discredit the government’s efforts in consolidating the gains made thus far in the oil and gas sector of the economy.

Along with President Buhari and the minister, other members of the committee are the Minister of Finance, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, National Economic Adviser to the President, Director-General, Department of State Services (DSS), Comptroller-General, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Member (EFCC), and Commandant-General, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)

Others are the Authority Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Member Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), G r o u p Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Limited, Special Advisor (Special Duties) to the HMSPR while the Technical Advisor (Midstream) to the HMSPR will serve as Secretary.