Former Minister of Petroleum, Prof. Tam David-West, has described continued importation of petroleum products as a national embarrassment, adding that it showed that the oil and gas industry is a “badly managed entity”.
He said it was also a reflection of bad leadership that had encouraged corruption.
David-West, who was minister under the military regime of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) regretted that since the construction of the 150, 000 barrel per day (bpd) Port- Harcourt Refinery II in the 80s, no other refinery had been built in spite of the huge revenue that had accrued from the sector and the number of fuel users in the country.
On the crash of crude oil price, David-West, who is also a retired professor of virology, argued that the government should have by now, reduced the pump price of petrol. He based his argument on the government’s reason while increasing fuel pump price in 2012 that it was due to the landing costs of the commodity.
He asked rhetorically: “Now that crude oil price has crashed considerably, it, therefore, should translate to a reduction in the landing cost. So, why has the pump price not been reduced locally?”
David-West said the failure of the government to reduce the pump price of petroleum products is an indication of government’s insensitivity to the citizens’ plight, adding that from all indications, a litre of fuel should not sell for more than N40 locally, insisting that the price of N97 per litre is a complete rip-off of the public.
He said: “There is no justification for not reducing the pump price of fuel. What the Federal Government is doing by not reducing the pump price is to transfer the financial burden they created on the public in the hope of using the excess proceed on the product to make up for the mis-managed wealth of the country. It is clear that the government is not taking care of the people and that is bad governance.”
He said in the wake of the price crash, countries, such as America had cut their local pricing. David-West’s position was validated by the recent reduction in the fuel price in Kenya by the country’s Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
ERC’s mandate, which is to ensure the regulation of electrical energy, petroleum and related products, renewable energy and other forms of energy, also protects the interest of consumers, investor and other stakeholders.
In reducing the price, the ERC was said to have noted the weighted average cost of imported refined petroleum products, which made it possible for the reduction of super petrol by 9.13 Kenyan shillings, while diesel and kerosene went down by 7.50 and 5.78 shillings. The fuel price drop is the highest since the ERC was set up four years ago. Super petrol is down to 92 Kenyan shillings per litre; Diesel is at 83 Kenyan shillings per litre, while Kerosene is down to 65 Kenyan shillings.
