Uche Usim, Abuja; Adewale Sanyaolu
The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has directed the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, to end the persisting fuel queues in Abuja.
The directive of the Minister is to avert any form of embarrassment on the part of the Federal Government and foreigners attending the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) slated for February 18-22, in Abuja.
Kachikwu also said the Federal Government has given the Ministry the nod to get experts and private investors to retool the ailing refineries and get them working up to 90 per cent capacity in order to meet the 2019 deadline of ending fuel importation.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja to highlight the upcoming petroleum summit, the Minister said he would instruct the NNPC to work day and night to ensure the queues disappear, even as he said the crisis sprang from both policy and operational challenges.
Kachikwu said: “On these fuel queues, we are working round the clock to address it. Lagos is relatively okay. Abuja is struggling because of logistics challenges. But there is improvement from what you used to have late last year.
“I’ll instruct NNPC to work night and day to ensure this is over before next week. It won’t speak well for visitors to come and see queues everywhere. Mr President is also committed to addressing this challenge.
We have had price adjustments since I came in and he has said the price will remain where it is today. He understands the suffering Nigerians are going through and very committed to ending it,’’.
On the forthcoming NIPS, Kachikwu described it as a Nigerian version of the popular Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held annually in Houston, USA, assuring that it would attract loads of investments for the country by opening new business windows for both the private and public sector players.