President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday night, in London, United Kingdom, UK, apologised to Nigerians and Nigerian businesses for the hardship caused so far by the ongoing petrol crisis in the country,
In a statement by his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, he said: “The administration knows the fuel shortage has placed a strain on Nigerian citizens and businesses, but relief is on the way. I specially apologise to all sections of the society for this.
“The government is working round the clock to attend to this issue. An action plan agreed earlier this month is being implemented to address the scarcity. Working together with the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), this plan is now bearing fruit.
“Sufficient fuel supply has returned to a handful of States, with the queues at Stations falling. In the coming days, we expect this to be the case across the rest of the country. Looking to the longer term, funds are being targeted towards keeping fuel availability affordable for the country.
“The international energy markets have surged drastically in recent months, the government will however, ensure that consumers are protected against these price spikes.”
The President speaking further, revealed that he has received information that some people were not behaving properly at the depots, and among owners of petrol Stations.
In this regard, he directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, and the entire Security apparatus of the nation, to take strong action against those responsible.
President Buhari also spoke about the issue of Power outage witnessed recently in various parts of the country.
He said: “The blackouts seen in the national grid are also being addressed.
“A dip in hydroelectric generation due to seasonal pressures has coincided with technical and supply problems at thermal Stations.
“On this, the government is also working tirelessly to resolve the issues at the latter, to guarantee sufficient Power flows into the national grid.”
He noted that as part of emergency measures put in place following a meeting convened with key Stakeholders to address the low Power generation in the country, the main challenge was identified as being one of low gas power generation, as a result of sabotage of gas pipelines leading to the shutdown of Power plants, coupled with routine maintenance on other gas power plants.
To recover over 1,000MW, President Buhari said that actions were agreed upon between the players in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, and the NNPC.
According to President Buhari, the actions targeted the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, plants, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, and Power plants run under the NNPC Joint Ventures, Agip and Shell, NAOC and SPDC.
He explained that progress on the key actions has already ensured the restoration of 375MW to the grid, after the pipeline from “Okpai 1” was repaired.
To also ramp up the under-utilised capacity of the NDPHC capacity, he stated that a $50 million gas supply agreement is being finalised, to secure the sustainability of up to 800MW of under-utilised NIPP assets.
The President assured Nigerians that the government’s attention to these problems would bear fruits very soon.
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