Fuel Price Will Not Be Hiked In January - NNPC

The pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) will not be increased in January, the Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Mr Fidel Pepple, has assured. What about after January?

He gave the assurance on Sunday in Abuja while speaking with newsmen, restating that the Federal Government had earmarked some money for fuel subsidy in the 2013 budget. Pepple also announced that the vandalised Ije-Ododo and Arepo pipelines in Lagos and Ogun had been restored.

“I can affirm to you that our engineers from the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Ltd. (PPMC), have finally fixed the Ije-Ododo pipeline that was ruptured last Monday by pipeline vandals.

“Going forward, the good news for Nigerians is that we have resumed pumping petroleum products through the pipeline and system 2B is equally working after the restoration of the pipeline,” he said.
Pepple assured motorists that with the restoration of the Ije-Ododo pipeline and the NNPC system 2B pipeline, normalcy had been restored in the supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country.

The general manager said that pumping of the PMS had resumed in earnest to depots and tank farms in system 2B, spanning from Atlas-Cove in Lagos to Ilorin in Kwara. He described media reports that fuel scarcity and queues in some parts of the country might last beyond the New Year as “mischievous and misleading”.

Pepple said that that the NNPC was working hard to check fuel scarcity and eliminate queues at filling stations across the country. He attributed the long queues at filling stations to the activities of vandals and the closure of some filling stations, due to the Christmas holidays.

The spokesman said that the company had product sufficiency that could sustain the country for more than a month. He said the NNPC was working hard to supply PMS so as to ease the hardship of motorists before and after the New Year.

Pepple appealed to independent marketers to stop diverting petroleum products to the black market, saying that sanctions would be meted out to culprits. The general manager stressed the need for marketers to team up with the NNPC in ensuring steady supply and distribution of petroleum products.

He also called on motorists to desist from panic buying and hoarding as the NNPC was doing its utmost to restore normalcy in the supply and distribution chain.

(NAN)

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Fuel Scarcity: Long Fuel Queues Mark Sallah Celebration

You have no idea the magnitude of heavy traffick this fuel scarcity long queues causes on the Lekki-Epe expressway, its so annoying

The persisting fuel scarcity became more noticeable in Lagos State on Eid-ek Kabir day, as many filling stations were either without petroleum products or suspected to be hoarding. Long queues were noticed at the few filling stations that were selling the products.

The queues of vehicles at the filling stations led to heavy traffic in some areas of the metropolis, forcing commercial vehicles to increase fares. Many major and independent petroleum marketers claimed that the scarcity resulted from their inability to get the products from depots.

In Epe, a Lagos suburb, petrol price has gone up to N120 per litre in some filling stations, against the official N97 per litre. Black market sale of the product has continued to thrive as young men sell 10 litres of petrol for between N1, 500 and N2, 000.

Some of them display gallons of petrol in front of filling stations on Ikorodu Road.

A taxi driver, Mr Kasali Jimoh, said that the scarcity was worsening and, “No government official has so far given any explanation on the matter; this is regrettable”. A commercial bus driver, Mr Tunde Sanni, said, ‘’transport fare for the “Lagos-Epe route increased from N500 to N1,500”.

Meanwhile, commuters in Lagos, on Friday, enjoyed free ride on the state-owned LAGBUS and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vehicles to mark the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

Lagos State government provided about 600 hundred of the buses to convey the residents on various routes.

Some of the residents who benefitted from the free ride thanked the government for the gesture which, they said, relieved them of the burden of fuel scarcity.

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