Officials of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as some heads of subsidiaries under it on Tuesday failed to appear before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream) for 2015 budget defence.
The boycotted event, as explained by the chairman of the committee, Magnus Abe, was also to offer a platform for the corporation to explain reasons behind the current fuel scarcity being experienced across the country and possible way out.
However, giving reasons for the fuel scarcity, the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) attributed it to two rounds of devaluation carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) between November and February.
Speaking while defending the agency’s budget before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Down stream), Farouk Ahmed, executive secretary, PPPRA, told the committee that the devaluation caused huge confusion in the oil sector as the petroleum agency did not know the exchange rate to be used for payment on fuel importation.
Therefore, he said the marketers could not deliver the cargoes of fuel expected from them because they were not sure of the exact delivery cost as a result of the devaluation, explaining that the old template used for paying the marketers was no longer useful.
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However, Ahmed who explained that PPPRA had to seek the advice of the CBN before it could eventually draw up a new template added that the crisis had eventually been resolved as the Budget
Office on Monday approved payment for outstanding bills that the marketers are being owed.
He also said the truce was brokered after a meeting of the Ministry of Finance, PPPRA and other relevant agencies.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
