… Consultants misled him to sack PPMC top officials
Amos Dunia, Per Second News
Abuja - Some administrative actions carried out by Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu on the recommendation of hired consultants may have been responsible for what some inner circle members in the petroleum sector, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), described as ‘sabotage’ in the free flow of the distribution and sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), in the country in spite of the quantum of importation.
Per Second News authoritatively gathered that Kachikwu, who doubles as the Group General Managing Director of the NNPC, may have ran into troubled waters by relying on external consultants that have very little understanding of the actual workings of the NNPC and its subsidiaries.
Specifically, the Minister on assumption of duty was believed to had assumed office with a mindset concerning the top management staff of the Petroleum Products and Market Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC that is saddled with the responsibility of importation and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
And as if justifying the perceived mindset and based on advise from the external consultants he engaged, Kachikwu directed that officers from the position of Deputy Managers and above should be redeployed from the PPMC to the NNPC without proper arrangement and consideration for replacement and effective takeover of their functions.
The development created a wide gulf in the system that the NNPC is still battling to correct without success. And as an emergency stop gap, the Minister hurriedly directed the Department of Crude Oil Marketing of the NNPC to as a matter of urgency takeover the function of the PPMC’s redeployed managers. Unfortunately, most top marketers have strong links with the redeployed PPMC officials who understand their chains of distribution network.
A top ranking staff of the NNPC told our correspondent on condition of anonymity, that it is like asking an aircraft pilot to drive a Railway train, saying “the two don’t go together because they have completely different training, experience and functions.”
According to him; “Crude Oil Marking is not saddled with the responsibility of importing refined petroleum products. That is why they are now battling with the system while the PPMC are watching the drama go on.”
Kachikwu, according to industry experts lack the technical know-how in the Up and Down stream sector of the oil industry as he mainly worked in the administration department of Exxon-Mobil thus not really in a position to understand the complexities of a corporation like the NNPC and its subsidiaries.
The Minister, it was further gathered made a big mistake by neglecting the experienced hands at the PPMC and went ahead to create “Direct Sales, Direct Purchase” unlike the module the PPMC used in giving crude oil and in return got marketers to bring in refined petroleum products.
The development has thereby created a big vacuum in which those that presently take the crude based on the “Direct Sales, Direct Purchase” still take the crude to the open market thereby making NNPC to import refined petroleum products into the country at more exorbitant price than what was hitherto being imported by the PPMC.
Per Second News equally gathered that marketers that are presently being given approval to import petroleum products are taking advantage of the emergency situation to jack up the prices of the products they are bringing into the country.
While the former officials of the PPMC were importing petroleum products, they were said to have adopted a formula in which about 950 barrels of crude oil which is equal to a cargo is sold to marketers in a barter arrangement and in in return get about three cargos of refined petroleum products.
But presently, the same amount of crude in the “Direct Sales, Direct Purchase” can hardly get two cargos of refined petroleum products into the country.
Further findings by Per Second News indicate that while the Independent Petroleum Marketers are finding it difficult to import fuel due to the present forex situation, the NNPC has imported enough quantum of PMS to meet about 50 per cent of the nation’s daily consumption.
The snag however is the distribution chain which the NNPC lacks the capacity to effectively monitor in spite of the number of its top management staff that are sent out on daily basis to monitor and ensure compliance.
The vacuum is most likely to remain except the Minister is willing to reverse some of his actions and until then, Nigerians have some more weeks and months to continue the suffering of acute shortage in the midst of plenty.
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