Fuel Importation Continues Till December This Day (Lagos) April 14, 2000 By Tokunbo Adedoja

Lagos - The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr. Jackson Gauis Obaseki, has said that the current importation of fuel for domestic consumption would continue until December when the turn-around maintenance of the Kaduna and Warri refineries would have been completed.

Disclosing this yesterday at a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Petroleum resources, Gauis-Obaseki said that over 60% of the nation's petroleum comsumption is being imported due to the low capacity production level of the three refineries at Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.

Commenting on the ongoing fuel scarcity, Obaseki attributed it to the activities of saboteurs who vandalise NNPC's pipelines.

He told the committee, that when his team was appointed to manage the NNPC, the eradication of fuel scarcity was their priority, and added that his team meets twice a month with the marketers to review the problem and situation of vandalisation According to him, the recorded cases of vandalistion has risen from the 1993 figure of about seven to 450 cases in the last six months. Giving a breakdown, he said that there were ight cases in 1994; seven in 1995; and 33 in 1996.

The figure, he said dropped to eight in 1997 and seven in 1999. But presently he noted it stands at 450 recorded cases.

Obaseki sought the assistance of the Senate towards ensuring that this and other problems in the oil sector are permanently solved

http://www.africanews.org/west/nigeria/stories/20000414/20000414_feat3.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 15, 2000

Answers

It's hard to believe that Nigeria, exporter of 2.5 million barrels of oil daily, must import 60% for its own fuel needs.

And, the claim that vandalism is the culprit is patently ridiculous. An average of ten incidents a day over the past seven years? Now four hundred fifty over the last six months? The dog ate whose homework?

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freport.net), April 15, 2000.

I can't figure out this Nigerian thing either. Royal Dutch/Shell has a big stake there, and they say a lot of their facilities are being reduced to rubble. This is going to put a big dent in OPEC deliveries.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), April 15, 2000.