(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) on Tuesday revealed that the current fuel scarcity in the northern part of the country will end in the next two weeks after the damaged pipelines delivering crude oil to Kaduna Refining and Petro-chemical Company (KRPC) has been renovated.

According to the Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, upstream sector, NNPC, Alhaji Bello Rabiu Barbuda, the period of shortage of petroleum product supply will soon end. “As you can see, the whole country is under siege because of fuel supply. We are looking at the entire value chain to solve the problem. We were actually having problem with the supply of crude oil to this place from Warri. It is about 640 kilometers line. At least in ten days, we would bring the crude to Kaduna, and about two or four days we would make everything ready,” he said.

According to the Chief Operations Officer, in charge of Downstream at the NNPC, Henry Ikem-Obih, before the end of this month, all the refineries will restart production and start contributing positively to improve the fuel scarcity situation facing the country. “As you know, forex was one of the prime reasons we did not do well in the first quarter. Most marketers, who had allocation, could not import because they do not have forex. They will help provide foreign exchange for them to import and meet their Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, allocations. Through the CBN, NNPC would support importation of fuel in the second quarter. These oil companies also would work with us, including the CBN. These combined efforts, we hope, would enable us meet a 100% of import requirement for the second quarter,” he told Independent Nigeria.

Anita Fatunji