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FG to pay oil marketers N100bn debt

By on November 15, 2014

To avert possible fuel scarcity that often characterises end of year festivities, the Federal Government has announced that it will pay the outstanding debts owed petroleum product marketers by the end of this month.

The marketers have been complaining that they are grappling with heavy debts due to the refusal of the Federal Ministry of Finance to pay them their outstanding verified subsidy claims and importation costs.

It was gathered that the total debt owed the marketers as of October 10 this year was over N100bn and this included outstanding oil discharges for 2013 and 2014.

Speaking during a meeting with members of the Depot Owners and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, pledged to intervene and ensure that the outstanding arrears of fuel subvention owed them were paid by the end of November.

Alison-Madueke said she was already in consultation with the Minister of Finance on the issue.

The minister noted that she had already briefed President Goodluck Jonathan on the implications of the continued delay in the payment of subsidy arrears to the marketers.

She was quoted as saying in a statement that a meeting had been scheduled with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to work out ways of getting the banks not to make good their threat to withdraw facility lines from the marketers on account of the debts arising from the delay in settling the subsidy arrears.

The Chairman, DAPPMA, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, urged the minister to intervene in order to resolve the issue before it degenerated into another round of fuel scarcity in the country.

The Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, stated that already product levels in the various depots in Apapa, Lagos were depleting fast.

He urged the minister not to allow the nation to get to the point where products would dry up at the depots before intervening, as such a situation would not augur well for the country, especially at as it approached the festive period.

The marketers, according to the statement, expressed gratitude to the minister, adding that they felt reassured by her promise to ensure that the subsidy arrears were settled by the end of the month.

In another development, Alison-Madueke, stated that the groundbreaking of the Gas Revolution Industrial Park earlier billed for today (Friday) at the GRIP project site, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State had been postponed.

No new date was given for the ceremony.

A statement from the Petroleum ministry said the postponement was arrived at following consultations with the Delta State Governor, adding that it became necessary to reschedule the event due to unresolved community issues.

The minister expressed regrets for the inconveniences the postponement might pose to the various stakeholders, but assured that the GRIP project was still on course and that a new date would be communicated to investors and the general public as soon as possible.

 

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