Subsidy claims: Oando will continue petrol imports

NOTWITHSTANDING agreements with oil marketers to
distribute fuel brought in by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Company, NNPC, Oando Plc said it will continue to import
Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol despite the
huge debt owed marketers.
The oil company also said that it had put in place measures
to ensure tranquillity in the system, since marketers have
been promised that they will be paid.
The Chief Operating Officer, COO, Oando Marketing, Mrs.
Olaposi Williams, reiterated the company’s commitment to
enhance fuel supply and distribution in the country, during
the commissioning of the Terminal 2 and Sapara Road, in
Lagos last week.
She said: “We meet with the government regularly, and our
Chief Executive Officer and other executives are always in
Abuja. We are speaking with the Group Managing Director,
NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, on this, and we are not going to
down tools.
Recall that a couple of months ago, Oando and other Major
Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, had
threatened to discontinue the importation of petrol due to
outstanding debts of over N40.6billion in subsidy claims
owed by the Federal Government.
Continuing, she said: “Yes, we want to get paid, though we
are going to continue to push. We are not going to suffer the
community, the people of Nigeria, because once we stop
importing, which won’t happen, then the country is going
down to a halt because two wrongs cannot make a right.
“We will continue to dialogue with the government, and we
are hopeful. We are not oblivious to what the situation is in
the country, and we will continue to support the government
to turn it around.”
Furthermore, Williams said Oando Marketing will be
commissioning two terminals in a bid to ease the constant
traffic gridlock along Apapa Road, due to fuel trucks parked
indiscriminately on the road.
She said that the road leading to the terminals will house
over 90 trucks upon the completion of the Phase 1 in two
months.
According to her, “If trucks want to load, they come into the
terminals against the next day of its loading with a standard
operating procedure. So if you have to load tomorrow you will
have to park here a day before. This is to discourage road
side parking of our trucks.
“We spent about $3million on the projects. This is our
community, our families; this is where our business is and so
we are not going to stop here and we will continue to give
back to the community.
“Right now, we have stakeholders meeting which Oando is
championing with the community. We put some of the
students in the community through college and have also
helped them for small menial jobs as well as employed some
of them in our parks.”
“The need for the terminals came as a result of the persistent
heavy gridlock and congestion on the Apapa axis. We’ve met
with the government, the local government and also the state
government to see how we can decongest Apapa Road.
“We don’t condone them parking on the road and it’s not just
tanker drivers, we also have the container drivers as well.
Oando is part of the larger picture.”
Also commenting, the Chief Executive Officer, Oando
Downstream, Mr. Abayomi Awobokun, said: “Our company
is at the forefront in ensuring that Apapa is restored to its
former glory, where sanity, tranquillity was the standard
practice.
“We have invested billions since two years ago, and we are
looking forward to commissioning the Apapa Jetty in the next
three months which is worth over $150 million on
completion.”