This is no easy time for Nigerians
following the endemic fuel shortages that have crippled the nation
because of a long-running row over controversial subsidy
payments between the government and oil marketers.
In the last one month, petroleum
products particularly petrol has remained scarce, with the price
now gone above the reach of majority of the citizens.
Incidentally, the economy is heavily
dependent on fuel as electricity, another essential commodity that aids
the growth of the economy, is in its lowest ebb, below 3,000 megawatts
for a country with a population of about 170 million people.
It is can confirm that Nigerians
now source for petrol from neighboring Benin Republic. Ironically, Benin
does not produce oil, but Nigeria ranks seventh largest exporter of
crude oil, and it is a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC), a global oil cartel where Nigeria’s petroleum
minister currently serves as president.
Nigeria owns four oil refineries where
billions of naira is regularly sunk, but non currently produces
to installed capacity, forcing the country to depend on imported fuel
which government subsidises to make it affordable to the
citizens. Unfortunately, however, despite claims of billions of naira
voted annually to subsidise fuel imported into the country, Nigerians
still buy fuel at far over official price of N87 per litre. With major
marketers importing products claiming the Federal Government owes them
N200 billion from subsidy, and stopping, resulting in scarcity, petrol
is sold for N400 per litre.
With scarcity becoming more severe with
almost all filling stations running out of the product, black
marketers now source petrol from Cotonou in Benin Republic, which they
sell to motorists and other consumers at N400 or N500 per litre.
On Sunday, air travel was seriously
impaired as domestic airlines shut many of their counters to
travellers who barely found their ways to the airports as a result
of the scarcity of Jet-A1 (aviation fuel) in the country.
Scores of travellers that had purchased
advanced tickets and those wanting to buy current tickets
were disappointed to meet almost empty counters at most of the ticketing
units of the airlines on Sunday.
Arik Air, the largest domestic carrier,
said it would only operate about 30 to 40 percent of its flights,
adding that the scarcity was taking a heavy toll on its operations.
Ola Banji, the airline’s spokesman, said
they had limited fuel to operate with. This was after the
airline completely shut down its operations on Saturday as a result of
the situation.Its Lagos to London flight had to go through Kano to fuel
before flying to London, because the airline could not source about
120,000 litres of Jet-A1 needed for the aircraft in Lagos.
Airlines like Aero, Medview, Air Peace,
Dana and Firstnation cut their flights by almost 80 percent, as
passengers scramble for flights.
Aero, in a statement signed by Simon
Tumba, its spokesperson, said due to the scarcity of aviation fuel in
the country, the airline would not be able to operate over 80 percent of
her domestic flights as scheduled, adding that in the last few weeks
the supply of aviation fuel had been very irregular, which had compelled
the airline to cancel some flights.
“We apologise to our esteemed customers
for the inconveniences they may have been experiencing due to flight
delays and cancellations caused by the scarcity of aviation fuel. We
urge our customers to always check our website or contact the call
centre agent to affirm if their scheduled flight will operate. Aero
regrets any inconvenience the changes will cause. All measures are
being made to ameliorate the situation and revert to her regular flight schedule. We hope that the situation improves very soon”, he summed.
Aviation fuel accounts for 40 percent of
operations of a domestic airline and its availability or scarcity
could make or ground the industry.
Meanwhile, foreign airlines operating into the country, though delay flights for
several hours, prefer to come in with full tanks and refuel at
neigbhouring countries, delaying flights more than necessary.
Nigeria’s biggest mobile phone operator,
MTN, has warned that its network faces shutdown due to fuel
shortages that have crippled the nation.
The company, the biggest subsidiary of
the South Africa-based MTN Group, said it needed a “significant
quantity of diesel in the very near future to prevent a shutdown of
services across Nigeria”.
“If diesel supplies are not received
within the next 24 hours the network will be seriously degraded
and customers will feel the impact,” it added on its Twitter account
@MTNNG on Saturday evening.
On Friday, the Ministry of Power said electricity production was at an all-time low of 1,327 megawatts.
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