A 14-person committee will be formed by President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation’s lack of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as gasoline.
The President will serve as the committee’s chairman and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, will serve as the committee’s alternate chairman.
The committee’s task is to address problems in the petroleum industry’s downstream sector that contribute to a shortage of gasoline in Nigeria.
Additionally, it will monitor petroleum products, particularly gasoline, to determine daily national consumption and stop smuggling.
According to Sylva, Nigeria was losing at least 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day to thieves as of October 2022.
At the Petroleum Training Institute’s graduation ceremony for students in 2002, the minister made this statement through Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, the ministry’s permanent secretary in charge of petroleum resources (PTI).
The government won’t “let misguided groups to bring immense pain upon the populace and attempt to tarnish government’s efforts in consolidating the accomplishments earned thus far in the oil and gas sector of the economy,” according to a statement delivered by Sylva on Tuesday, according to the Sun.
It also listed the National Economic Adviser to the President, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Member (EFCC), and the Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps as members of the committee (NSCDC).
According to the statement, the Steering Committee is made up of the Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Chairman of the Nigerian Midstream and Member Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, and the Special Advisor (Special Duties) to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. The Technical Advisor (Midstream) to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources will serve as the Committee.
Sylva said that he had instructed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to strictly enforce adherence to the ex-depot and retail rates for PMS that had been authorized by the government.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, and other parties involved in the oil industry were given a 48-hour deadline by the DSS in December 2022 to find a solution to the fuel issue.
After the ultimatum, the secret police vowed to pursue them if the shortage lasted, but the issue followed Nigerians into the new year of 2023 and has not subsided since then.
