Four days after marketers resorted to fuel hoarding in anticipation of the take-off of the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, the issue is still being discussed in official quarters in hush tones.

Most senior Federal Government officials except one contacted yesterday on the new date for the take-off of the scheme were non-committal.

The Guardian learnt that the silence of the government on the issue prompted anxious marketers at the weekend to hoard products so that they would not be beaten to the game by the industry regulators.

However, an official of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources said that the policy would come into place before the end of the year.

The official said the Executive arm of the government was only waiting for the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to legalise the deregulation of the sector.

According to the source, the government was also using the period to perfect its arrangement by addressing the observed lapses in the policy and parley with stakeholders. He added that "as far as I know, the deregulation of the downstream sector will surely come into effect this year."

The official cited the omission in the 2009 budget the yearly provision for the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) as an indication that deregulation would begin this year.

The source further disclosed that the previous administration voted N150 billion for PSF as make-up for the price gap between the importation rate and pump prices of products to keep marketers afloat but that the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua government did not reckon with it in the budget.

Continuing, he said the money being paid as subsidy on the fuel imported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was being drawn from the Federation Account. "This is taking a toll on government's finances and if it is allowed to continue, the figure could reach N1 trillion by the end of this year."

But as the coast remains unclear on the programme, commuters are bearing the brunt as transporters in the major cities have hiked their fares.

It was also learnt that the government was keeping the issue to its chest to check lobbying, hoarding and other sharp practices in the industry.

The worse hit are residents in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Lagos, where fares have gone up by 50 per cent.

Although several fuel outlets dispensed products in Lagos yesterday at the official pump price of N65 a litre, transporters refused to bring down their fares, which they raised at the weekend.

An official of the major marketers' body who said he had visited 75 filling stations in Abuja yesterday, claimed that the queues had disappeared because his members were selling products to the public.

But motorists faulted the claim, insisting that the queues had lengthened.

In a reaction to the development, the Action Congress (AC) accused the government of deliberately inflicting hardship on the citizens under the guise of deregulation.

The party in a statement issued in London by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said despite assurances from some government officials, who have been quick to describe the scarcity as artificial, "it is possible that the scarcity is being slowly but deliberately orchestrated to force Nigerians to swallow the bitter pill of deregulation."

The party's position is strengthened by insinuations by industry players that "the government is testing the waters" by its silence on the actual date for the start of the policy.

When asked about the starting date of deregulation recently, the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Dr. Billy Agha said: "I don't know the time, but what I know is that we are deregulating. No going back."

Also yesterday, Agha warned marketers to desist from acts that could undermine the smooth distribution of products.

He said the DPR had set up a task force to ensure that products were distributed to dispensing points and sold to the public at appropriate price and quantity.

He said that the department would not hesitate to impose sanctions on erring marketers.

The DPR yesterday inspected filling stations to ensure that products were dispensed accordingly to motorists.

Agha, who led the monitoring team, told reporters that the department embarked on the exercise to ensure compliance by marketers.

He said the marketers' suspension of the sale of products to consumers at the weekend was uncalled for, adding that their action would be tabled before the appropriate authorities.

The DPR chief said the task force was set up to check the excesses of marketers.

"We have formed a task force on 24 hours surveillance of filling stations in the country. Anybody found hoarding fuel would face the wrath of the law," he said.

The Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Mr. Obafemi Olawore, expressed dismay over the artificial fuel scarcity in Lagos, Abuja and other cities. He said that the situation had normalised.

Olawore added that he had monitored about 75 filling stations, with all of them dispensing products.

On the speculation that the government wants to outsmart the marketers, he said the government cannot do so, "because deregulation is a phenomenon that requires the attention of all parties.

"Deregulation is not a secretive thing. It is not something you can do in isolation and take people by surprise. I don't think they can do it in seclusion. They need to carry all the stakeholders along."

The Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Lagos chapter, Mr. Michael Alogba Olukoya, who ascribed the queues as the dealers' move to create artificial scarcity, said his members had started the picketing of some stations.

Olukoya said the weekend experience was deliberately created to text-run artificial scarcity in Lagos and then extend it to other states of the federation, "but we shall say no to that because it is detrimental to the well-being of most Nigerians."

There was however availability of products at various filling stations in Lagos yesterday, thereby easing the orchestrated queues that came up at the weekend.

But fares for intra-city movement in Abuja have gone up by between 50 per cent and 100 per cent. Long queues, which resurfaced at most filling stations in Abuja at the weekend, lengthened yesterday. Commuters were stranded at the bus stops in the major roads. For instance, fares from Kubwa, in the suburb to Abuja metropolis yesterday rose from N100 to N150. The time of movement is also determining the fares charged by commercial vehicle operators.

Going to Kubwa after 4.00 p.m. is now N200 as against N150 before the deregulation saga.

Also, fares charged for trips in the metropolis have been increased, especially by cab drivers, who complained that they spent longer time in queue for fuel. They said that the only way to make up for the "lost time" was to increase the fares.

One of the motorists said that the timing of the deregulation of the oil and gas industry was wrong and frustrating.

He said: "The worst of it is how to get the petrol. I spent more than six hours on the queue before I got a few litres of fuel. During the waiting period, one dared not leave to eat. So, I stayed in the hot weather without food for six hours."

Further reacting, the AC said the weekend fuel scarcity was the fallout of the planned deregulation of the downstream oil sector.

"The calculation seems to be to first ensure that there is scarcity of petroleum products, subject Nigerians to untold hardships and risks while they search for the products and then quietly raise fuel prices, which is what all the noise about deregulation is meant to achieve," it said.

AC said despite the outcry of concerned individuals and groups, especially the organised Labour, the government had insisted on going ahead with the ill-thought-out deregulation, especially now that the policy was out of sync with the economic reality.

A chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Senator Joseph Waku, has described the proposed deregulation of the sector as anti-people policy.

He told reporters in Minna, Niger State, yesterday shortly after attending the meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Ahmadu Bello Foundation, that it was wrong for the government to inflict more pains on Nigerians who have had enough of its tough economic policies.

He faulted the claim by government that it could no longer subsidise fuel prices, pointing out that the removal of subsidy was not the solution to the problem of the downstream sector.

Source: Guardian