Nigerians may celebrate the Christmas and New Year in acute fuel crisis as shipowners are threatening to stop rendering services to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited over the non-payment of $90m owed for their chartered services and which has accumulated in the past nine months.
The ship owners told Sunday PUNCH that if nothing was done quickly to settle the indebtedness, they would be forced to terminate the arrangement they had with the NNPC.
A former President of the Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association, Aminu Umar, said if the issue was not satisfactorily addressed in the coming weeks, the current petrol supply hitches might be compounded as the members would not be able to fulfil their obligations.
Umar added that if the workers decided to stop because they were not being paid, it would affect the movement of cargoes and that would increase the already existing scarcity.
He said, “There are so many members whose funds have not been paid, so the President is speaking on behalf of SOAN members, who have done business with the NNPC Limited and moved some cargoes and payments are not made. The total amount is almost $90m or over and it is affecting the operations of those companies.
“This may cause more fuel crisis. It is not like the ship owners have stopped lifting for now, but as it is going, they may end up not lifting fuel. Because if someone is not being paid, how will he be able to discharge his duties?
“Remember they too have salaries to pay; they also have to maintain the ships and also pay the banks that fund them. So, all of them are facing problems because of their unpaid funds. In the coming weeks if nothing is done, there may be more fuel crisis because at the end of the day, they will not be able to fulfil their obligations. And if their workers decide to stop because they are not being paid, then it will affect the movement of cargoes and that will compound the already existing scarcity.”
The National Public Relations Officer, IPMAN, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, earlier stated that queues in Abuja and other parts of the country were due to the unavailability of mother vessels to ship PMS to Nigeria.
“There is a serious lag in product sufficiency from the NNPC because of the unavailability of mother vessels. These are vessels that ship the product from abroad. That is why we have a gap,” Chinedu stated.
He also called for the speedy revamp of refineries as it was now important to get the facilities functional in order to avert further queues for petrol during the Yuletide.
[PUNCH]
