Diesel was last imported in 2009 – NNPC

The Group Executive Director and Chief Operative Officer Down Stream in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr. Henry Ikem-Obih, on Monday disclosed that the corporation last imported Automotive Gas Oil (popularly known as diesel) into the country in 2009 following the full deregulation of the sector by the Federal government.

Mr. Obih disclosed this in Abuja during a two-day public hearing on the ‘Review of Petroleum Pump Pricing Template’ organised by an ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives.

He stated that the sudden increase in the prize of Diesel was as a result of the fact that NNPC has since the deregulation of the sector hands – off diesel importation, leaving the private sector to source for the product.

He went further to say that the hike and scarcity of the product which skyrocketed the pump prize at retail outlets to as high as N260 per liter was due to the fact that the marketers were unable to source for foreign exchange to import the product, which made NNPC to intervene recently by importing some of the products.

He said that the local production of Diesel has been hampered by the skeletal production going on in the refineries in the country as such, local product could not augment the shortfall in imported product, a situation that led to a hike and even scarcity of the product.

Mr. Obih however shied away from stating the position of Petroleum Motor Spirit also known as fuel with reference to subsidy but maintained that access to foreign exchange is a major challenge to petroleum product importers, adding that NNPC is making every effort to ensure that most refineries are running optimally to sustain supply.

The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Nnanna Ugokwe (Imo) stated that Nigerian feel short-changed by the present prize of the product, hence the House through the committee is not out to witch-hunt any individual but to find out if the actual prize N145 paid by Nigerians on every liter of fuel is just.