Fuel Scarcity Looms As NNPC Goes On Indefinite Nationwide Strike(Photos)

 Oil workers have shut down the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) nationwide following Tuesday’s unbundling of the corporation.

Members of staff and management of the corporation arrived their various offices on Wednesday morning to discover that they could not gain entrance following the total strike.

The immediate impact of the strike will be nationwide fuel scarcity as products will not be lifted by NUPENG. It is not expected to affect the crude oil export yet except the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) joins in solidarity. Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources who doubles as the NNPC group managing director, had announced the creation of seven independent units on Tuesday, namely downstream, gas and power, refineries, ventures, corporate planning and services, and finance and accounts.

Fred Nwabufo The group executive committee (GEC) of the the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) convened an emergency meeting at 10pm on Tuesday to discuss the development.

At the end of the meeting, GEC sent this message to all members: “The GEC of NUPENG & PENGASSAN at its meeting of 8th March 2016, which started at 10:00pm has extensively discussed the pronouncement of the GMD on NNPC UNBUNDLING. We observed that the GMD/HMSP totally disregarded due process and failed to engage STAKEHOLDERS. Hence, from midnight today, ALL NNPC LOCATIONS will be SHUT DOWN COMPLETELY until further notice.

Further directives will be communicated accordingly.” When TheCable visited the NNPC headquarters on Wednesday, hundreds of the corporation’s staff littered the road causing gridlock on Herbert Macaulay way. Unionists in red were at the scene barricading the entrance to the NNPC building. Also, security agents were on hand to forestall break down of order.

A staff member of the NNPC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper that he was at the corporation’s building as of 7:30am on Wednesday but met “it barricaded by members of PENGASSAN.”

TheCable tried to speak with one of the leaders of the union, but he said: “We are not here for journalists. This is not for the press.”

Kachikwu had said the distribution of subsidiary companies of the corporation would further be restructured into direct management of the divisions. Last week, Kachikwu announced that the government was planning to unbundle the corporation into 30 profitable companies.

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Breaking : All NNPC Group Executive Directors Fired(Report)

 Just 24 hours after a new group Managing director was appointed for NNPC, the Executive Directors of the oil corporation have been sacked effective immediately while their replacements have been appointed by the Federal government .

The GEDs fired are Mr. Ian Udoh leading Refining and Petrochemicals, Mr. Adebayo Ibirogba leading the Engineering and Technical team, Dr. David Ige leading Gas and Power, Dr. Attahir Yusuf leading Business Development; Dr. Dan Efebo leading Corporate Services, Mr. Bernard Otti in charge of Finance and Accounts, Ms. Aisha Abdurrahman leading Commerce and Investments, and Mr. Joseph Dawha leading Exploration and Production.

The new replacements and their offices are Refining and Engineering Dr. M.K Baru; Exploration and Production, Denis Nnamdi; Commercial and Investment, Bankole Komolafe and Finance which now has Isiaka AbdulRazak as Group Executive Director.

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President Buhari Dissolves NNPC Board

 President Buhari today dissolved the board of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The directive to dissolve the board was conveyed in a letter signed by the Head of Civil Service, Danladi Kifasi dated today June 26th.

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Senate Clears NNPC And Minister Of Petroleum Mrs. Deziani Allison Madueke Of Alleged N49.8b Missing Money

 The Senate Committee on Finance investigating the NNPC over allegations of fraud leveled against it by the suspended Governor of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, today Wednesday May 28th submitted its concluded report to the Senate saying no funds were missing, according to The Will Nigeria.

Sanusi had spuriously claimed in a leaked letter to President Goodluck that $49.8 billion in crude oil revenue was missing.

The detailed report according to sources at the Senate also cleared the NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum of any wrong doing.

The report however directed the NNPC and the Ministry of Finance as well as other relevant agencies to reconcile a sum believed to be around $300 million dollars.

THEWILL can also report that the Senate said the suspended Governor of the Central Bank was hasty and got his figures wrong.

The report further recommended the immediate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) as the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Madueke continues to sanitise the industry.

The Senate Committee on Finance is under the chairmanship of Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi (Kaduna PDP).  The committee took about 5 months to complete its assignment.

Source: LindaIkeji

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NNPC assures on steady power supply

Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Engr. Austin Oniwon, yesterday, assured Nigerians that the current poor power supply being experienced nationwide would soon be over. He said the current shortage of gas supply to Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, was being addressed by President Goodluck Jonathan. 

 Speaking at the Chanomi Creeks, shortly after inspecting the Warri/Escravos Gas Pipeline being handled by FENOG Nigeria Limited, Engr. Oniwon, who was represented by the Group Executive Director, Power and Gas of NNPC, Dr. David Ige, said the completion of ongoing gas pipelines would boost power supply nationwide and commended FENOG Nigeria for rising to the occasion. He said:

 “We started this site visit on Wednesday, we have visited the Escravos/Lagos Gas Pipeline system, which is a major backbone pipeline in supplying gas to most of the pipelines in the country. We are impressed with the progress we are making on the pipeline scheduled for completion four weeks from now. 

With the pipeline, we would have put in place a permanent solution to the challenge of gas supply to Olorunsogo and hopefully increase generating capacity in the country. “We are doing a significant work to make that happen. We have completed the pipeline between Oben and Geregwu. 

The beauty is that we are not just addressing the power problem, we are addressing a wider gas industrialization problem. “As you can see, this is being delivered 100 per cent by an indigenous company, FENOG and you can see the quality of the equipment that we have seen here, this is world class equipment, this is a perfect example of the kind of synergy we see between the agenda of the gas and oil sector as well as the Local Content for the empowerment of our people.”

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Subsidy Corruption: Nigeria Pays For 24m Litres of Unaccounted Fuel Per Day

The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on fuel subsidy regime yesterday learnt that Nigerians have been paying for 24million litres of petrol that were smuggled to neighbouring countries on a daily basis.

his was revealed when the management of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) appeared before the Farouk Lawan-led committee.

PPPRA Executive Secretary Reginald Stanley said the payment and smuggling have been going on since 2006.

According to the agency’s figures, while Nigeria imports 59 million litres of fuel on a daily basis, only 35 million litres are consumed in the country.

The Federal Government paid N649 billion subsidy on excess imported petrol in 2011, House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the subsidy regime was told yesterday in Abuja.

The revelation contradicted statistics given by Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, who told the panel on Tuesday that the average daily consumption of petrol in Nigeria was 35 million litres.

Stanley told the MPs that records available to him showed that the total daily import of petrol was 59 million litres thereby leaving a huge difference of 24 million litres. The new figures bring the annual over importation of petrol to 8.76 billion litres.

When computed side-by-side with the regulated price of N65 per litre which obtained in 2011, Nigeria might have spent N649.3 billion as subsidies on excess petrol.

“You told us that subsidies were paid based on 59 million litres daily consumption while the actual daily consumption is 35 million litres, leaving the gap of 24 million litres which is paid for as subsidy but not utilised by Nigerians.

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HOW NNPC DEFRAUDS NIGERIANS ON OIL EXPORTS AND SUBSIDY

The KPMG, in a forensic analysis of the operations of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation in 2010, unveiled startling revelations about the company. The report showed that the NNPC is a rotten egg, from which a miasma of stench oozes, to the detriment of the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people.

In one of the findings, KPMG found that the NNPC does not even have the data of crude oil production in a centralised manner as it is stored in the computer of staff.

NNPC approves oil lifting to companies not on the government approved list; there are delays in billing the oil lifters and variants between the invoice value and the LC value.

In one such instance, invoice number COS/02?PPMC/026/08 has a cargo valuation of $95.4 million, but LC value of $85million. The four refineries in 2008 and 2009 recorded capacity utilization of 18 per cent; the process of importing fuel is murky, sometimes companies not approved in a quarter, suddenly re-appeared on the list.

Others are that the NNPC incurs average demurrage of 31 days for oil cargoes, subsidy claims based on volume of products imported, not on what was actually lifted out of the depots for sale to Nigerians.

Some of the findings that will shock Nigerians and labour unions:

1. “No centralized location for storing electronic copies of historical production and allocation data. These information are stored on personnel (individual) workstations.

Implication: Potential loss of historical production information in event of staff turnover or system failure. Difficulty in retrieving prior documents/ reports.

2.NNPC is invoiced in US$ for domestic crude allocations but is expected to remit the equivalent Naira value to the Federation Account. However we observed that exchange rates used by NNPC were lower than the average exchange rates published by the CBN during the review period.

Exchange rate variances for 2007, 2008 and 2009 were estimated at N25.7 bn, N33.8 bn and N26.7 bn respectively. (using CBN rates for the month of transaction)

NNPC claimed they obtained the exchange rates from CBN via phone but there was no document to substantiate the claim.

Implication: Significant underpayment of domestic crude cost to the Federation Account.

3.We observed that NNPC‟s subsidy claims and PPPRA‟s verification are based on volume of petroleum products available for sale (volume of products imported and actual production from the refineries) as against duly verified volume of products lifted out of the depots (volume of petroleum products sold) as stipulated in the subsidy guidelines.

Implications:Potential risk of subsidy payment on products not consumed by end users due to losses from pipeline vandalism, theft e.t.c. A rough estimation of subsidy payment on product losses for the period under review (2007 – 2009) is estimated at N 11.8 billion.

Risk of payment of subsidy on locally refined products which is not the intent of subsidy may encourage inefficiencies in the refinery process.

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How NNPC Defrauds Nigerians on oil exports and subsidy

The KPMG, in a forensic analysis of the operations of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation in 2010, unveiled startling revelations about the company. The report showed that the NNPC is a rotten egg, from which a miasma of stench oozes, to the detriment of the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people.

In one of the findings, KPMG found that the NNPC does not even have the data of crude oil production in a centralised manner as it is stored in the computer of staff.

NNPC approves oil lifting to companies not on the government approved list; there are delays in billing the oil lifters and variants between the invoice value and the LC value.

In one such instance, invoice number COS/02?PPMC/026/08 has a cargo valuation of $95.4 million, but LC value of $85million. The four refineries in 2008 and 2009 recorded capacity utilization of 18 per cent; the process of importing fuel is murky, sometimes companies not approved in a quarter, suddenly re-appeared on the list.

Others are that the NNPC incurs average demurrage of 31 days for oil cargoes, subsidy claims based on volume of products imported, not on what was actually lifted out of the depots for sale to Nigerians.

Some of the findings that will shock Nigerians and labour unions:

1. “No centralized location for storing electronic copies of historical production and allocation data. These information are stored on personnel (individual) workstations.

Implication: Potential loss of historical production information in event of staff turnover or system failure. Difficulty in retrieving prior documents/ reports.

2.NNPC is invoiced in US$ for domestic crude allocations but is expected to remit the equivalent Naira value to the Federation Account. However we observed that exchange rates used by NNPC were lower than the average exchange rates published by the CBN during the review period.

Exchange rate variances for 2007, 2008 and 2009 were estimated at N25.7 bn, N33.8 bn and N26.7 bn respectively. (using CBN rates for the month of transaction)

NNPC claimed they obtained the exchange rates from CBN via phone but there was no document to substantiate the claim.

Implication: Significant underpayment of domestic crude cost to the Federation Account.

3.We observed that NNPC‟s subsidy claims and PPPRA‟s verification are based on volume of petroleum products available for sale (volume of products imported and actual production from the refineries) as against duly verified volume of products lifted out of the depots (volume of petroleum products sold) as stipulated in the subsidy guidelines.

Implications:Potential risk of subsidy payment on products not consumed by end users due to losses from pipeline vandalism, theft e.t.c. A rough estimation of subsidy payment on product losses for the period under review (2007 – 2009) is estimated at N 11.8 billion.

Risk of payment of subsidy on locally refined products which is not the intent of subsidy may encourage inefficiencies in the refinery process.

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P/Harcourt refineries to work at full capacity by November

Port Harcourt refineries would begin to work optimally from November after a Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM), the NNPC has assured.

Mr Philip Chukwu, Group Executive Director (GED), Refining and Petrochemicals at the NNPC gave the assurance on Thursday in Port Harcourt during an inspection of the refineries alongside officials of Maire Tecnimont, the contractors which the Federal Government engaged for the TAM.

Chukwu who decried the lack of maintenance of the twin Port Harcourt refineries in the last 12 years, commended the Federal Government for engaging the original constructors of the refineries for the TAM.

“Everyone knows that the refineries have not been properly maintained over the years and we have had to manage things. What we are doing now is to have the TAM and complete rehabilitation of the refineries by the original contractors,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two Port Harcourt refineries which consist of the old refinery with capacity to process 60, 000 b/d and 150, 000 b/d, respectively, had been functioning at very low capacity with the old one not working at the moment because of lack of maintenance.

Chukwu explained that the TAM, which would start in October, would require a total shut down of the plants for between 45 days and 60 days to ensure a thorough job.

He said the TAM and rehabilitation process would also entail overhauling the supply chain and pipelines that bring crude oil and capacity building for staff so as to meet international best practice.

He said the NNPC was also working with all stakeholders, including security operatives, to ensure the pipelines were safe and no longer vandalised.NAN

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PETROLEUM MINISTER DIEZANI ALLISON MADUEKE ACQUIRES $25 M HOUSE IN VIENNA,AUSTRIA

According to news from grapevine, Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison- Madueke just acquired a 'wondrous home abroad'.

The purchase tagged 'an architectural master piece' by those in the know is said to be located on all of 12 plots of lands.

The buy is said to be located in Vienna, Austria.

We gathered that she shelled out about $25M for the house.

Her husband is said to recently staged a get together for friends at the place.

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NNPC to Dispense Kerosene Direct to Neighbourhood

Diezani Alison-Madueke, Petroleum Resources Minister

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is to commence direct distribution of kerosene to households in the country through the use of ultra-modern mobile fuel dispensing trucks.

The project, to be carried out by the corporation’s downstream retail outfit, NNPC Retail Limited, in conjunction with a major player in the downstream petroleum products storage and distribution business, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, was designed to provide a lasting solution to the challenge in the distribution of kerosene to homes in Nigeria.

Speaking at the flag-off of the pilot scheme at the weekend, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division at the NNPC, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, said the exercise, which would begin in the Lagos area, would provide an invaluable knowledge base for the NNPC in good time to perfect any noticeable shortcomings in the programme before the eventual full blown deployment of the dispensing trucks.

“Our determination to arrest this artificial challenge in the distribution of kerosene to Nigerians is total. What we are doing here today is to guarantee that the product gets to the end user at the right time and correct price of N50 per litre,” Ajuonuma said.

He disclosed that the deployment of the mobile dispensing trucks was not just an ad hoc exercise “but a well thought out product distribution strategy by the NNPC Retail and Capital Oil designed to complement the conventional method of selling kerosene at regular filling stations.” 

Under the arrangement, NNPC Retail will provide the product, while Capital Oil will make available its ultra-modern dispensing trucks. Each of the trucks has a capacity of 33,000 litres of kerosene, but to ensure that profiteers do not exploit the situation, nobody would be allowed to buy more than 25 litres.

Also to reduce the risk involved in the cash transactions, customers are expected to come with a kerosene voucher which can be purchased at the nearest NNPC Retail Mega/Affiliate stations. 

“Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, earlier this year inaugurated the trucks and the ultra-modern Capital Oil and Gas loading gantry in Apapa. So what we are doing right now is in furtherance of this vision to ensure complete sanitisation of product distribution channel as we believe that the provision of alternate and direct sales point like this would go a long way in curbing profiteering,” Ajuonuma stated.

Commenting on the partnership, Chairman/CEO of Capital Oil and Gas, Mr Ifeanyi Uba, disclosed that the company was deploying a fleet of 200 trucks in the test run. He urged members of the public to support the project, which he described as “Capital Oil’s response to the recent call by Mrs Alison-Madueke on downstream players to innovate means of product distribution”.

Meanwhile, the NNPC at the weekend distributed 30,000 metric tonnes of DPK between members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) for onward distribution to the filling stations operated by their members across the country.

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