The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), chaired by Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, to unearth the anomalies militating against the oil sector in the country’s interest.
Moving the motion, Osawaru pointed at the rot in the downstream and midstream sectors ranging from subsidy payments, depot sharp practices, non-availability of domestic crude supply to local refineries, fuel queues, high cost of petrol, source of funding of subsidy, endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, nefarious activities at the petrol depot, status of all downstream pipeline and depot project.
Other issues the committee would beam its searchlight on include the alleged indiscriminate issuance of licences, lack of product to marketers, use of middlemen in crude sales to refineries and non-domestication of profit from the sale of crude oil by IOCs.
Moving the motion, Osawaru decried the resurgence of fuel queues in petrol stations, high cost of petrol and non-availability of fuel stock for downstream domestic refineries in Nigeria and disruption of distribution of PMS products.
He expressed concerns about the failure of the regulators to enforce compliance with standards that will help achieve the growth of the downstream sector and the lack of support to local crude refiners and issuance of import licence, despite local production.
He also claimed to be privy to alleged racketeering and favouritism in the Pro Forma Invoice System (PFI) regime, indiscriminate issuance of licences and importation of refined petroleum products.
He added: “I have been further informed of the alleged return of PMS price intervention with its impact on the domestic market. There is also the allegation of product unavailability to marketers from NNPC Retail.”
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