Lai Mohammed Finally Speaks on Fuel Scarcity Crisis in Nigeria

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Lai Mohammed Finally Speaks on Fuel Scarcity Crisis in Nigeria

Nigeria's Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, during a visit to the offices of Daily Trust, has expressed optimism that the fuel scarcity situation in the country will soon come to an end.

According to him, immediate measures are being taken to end the scarcity while medium and long term solutions are being worked out to prevent a recurrence.

"Petroleum supply and distribution have been ramped up across the country by the NNPC to ensure product availability in the country, but repeated trips to filling stations and the backlog are making it impossible to immediate feel the impact. Monitoring has also been intensified to ensure full compliance with approved prices"

Mohammed said that in the medium term, the supply constraints due to foreign exchange challenges are being resolved through collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria on innovative ways of closing the gaps in accessing foreign exchange.

He also announced the willingness of the International Upstream Oil Companies to support major oil marketing companies with some of the required foreign exchange, thus complementing the efforts of the NNPC which has been solely importing the refined products. He said this is in addition to the fact that the Corporation is pursuing an improved model for ‘crude oil for refined product’ exchange to eliminate inefficiencies.

"The ultimate is to ensure self sufficiency in refined products supply by ramping up our local Refining capacity. All local Refineries will be made to run at a minimum 70% capacity utilization in the weeks ahead,” the Minister said.