OIL MARKETERS LINKS FUEL SCARCITY TO GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS
Olumide Adeosun, Chairman,Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria,MOMAN,Wednesday,link fuel scarcity currently ravaging the country to global energy crisis even as he advocated the need for Nigeria to gradually reduce the subsidy of Premium Motors Spirit to nip the excruciating fuel crisis in the bud.
Nigeria,the oil marketers also said,should also considers investing subsidizing mass transportation and productive activities in such areas such as agriculture.
The Chairman,disclosed these during FCCPC/MOMAN Consumer Protection Regulatory Framework Workshop in Lagos
He told the gathering that there is an energy crisis impacting the world, developed and developing countries alike, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him,countries have different approaches of dealing with the problem. There is some energy nationalism going on, leading to some major refining countries hoarding petroleum products like diesel for local use as was the case with COVID-19 vaccines.
He said some developing countries are subsidizing the cost, leading to widespread outages in those countries.
He also said most countries are allowing the price to adjust, leading to higher prices but with product availability.
He added:”MOMAN believes the answer is somewhere in between. Having subsidized PMS for so long, Nigerian institutions now have a diminished capacity to deal with the current international energy crisis. If the country had spent monies spent on subsidies on education, health and infrastructure,
“Nigerians and Nigerian businesses would have been better equipped to face today’s energy challenges. However, better late than never.Everyone has a role to play. We must all reduce consumption and find other ways to weather the current energy crisis as no government can make this painless.
“Predictably, as a country, we shall be faced by the choice of queues and unavailability of products or increases in price at the right pace to make product available”
He said his association appreciates the challenges the NMDPRA (the Authority) and NNPC face in making the product available despite the restrictive supply environment, extremely high international products costs and the almost insurmountable international logistics challenges occasioned by the unavailability of diesel and its ubiquitous place in the supply chain.
