Joseph Bakare
The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has explained that Government is more concerned in ensuring sustainable supply of petroleum products at competitive prices.
The Minister on Thursday convened the Nigerian oil sector’s maiden Industry Stakeholders’ Forum, to ensure the alignment of policies, regulations and activities in the sector, where he provided further details on fluctuations in price of petrol.
With the deregulation of the downstream, the Minister stated that fuel prices will eventually find their levels, explaining that what the government is concerned about now is quality of the fuels and their availability.
“As the crude price goes up, (fuel) price will go up and as it comes down, price will come down,” he maintained, adding that “what the government is more interested in is quality control. What the government is more interested in is availability. What the government is particularly interested in is dispensation of the right quantity.”
According to him, part of the challenges Nigeria faces is how to ramp up production, which it’s already doing.
“We’re not where we want to be, but we’re already getting there. The other challenge was availability of products. We’re also trying to address the issue of policy conflicts. Where you see one agency making a policy, there’ll be a conflict with another agency.
“We’re also trying to address whatever concerns people are talking about. Part of OPTS’ concern is that Nigeria has so many taxes and levies. Highest in the world. And these are issues that we want to sit down at a table to address,” he explained.
The Minister who hosted key industry players, noted that just like the bankers’ Committee, the capital market Committee, among others, there was the need to establish a forum where oil sector challenges are discussed and solutions proffered.
He explained that the Committee will decide when to meet, whether quarterly or bi-monthly, stressing that there was the need to sort out all the overlapping functions, including multiple taxes, levies and even agree on the need to stop the short-changing of customers at filling stations.
“We have a finance Committee that talks about banking issues, and what everybody is doing in that sector. You also have a similar committee in the capital market, which is the capital market Committee, where they sit together and form policies when there are some issues.
“So, we felt that it’s a good thing going forward for us to bring all the leaders of the oil industry together. So that we can have a better oil industry, and take all that forward in the coming years. Now, we’re going to be meeting maybe on a quarterly basis, or bi-monthly, or whatever. We’re going to agree on that.
“But the whole idea is to have a one-stop shop where all stakeholders will gather to address issues, concerns, or policy concerns, so that the oil industry will grow very fast the way we want it to be,” Lokpobiri stated.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, said that the upstream sector experienced growth in the national oil and gas reserves by 1.45 per cent and 0.206 per cent respectively in 2024 compared with 2023 and that oil production rose by 26 per cent from April 2023 to November 2024.
“The active rig count increased from an average of eight in 2021 to 38 as at today representing 79 per cent growth. Also, with effective collaboration with the security agencies, the theft and deferment has reduced drastically by more than 40 per cent in the last year. The import of this is that it’s not all gloomy for the industry,” he said.