He said the contractors handling the repair works on the Shanomi pipeline that supplies fuel to the refineries which was vandalized February could not mobilize to site on time due to the activities of Niger Delta militants, and therefore, importation of refined petroleum products would continue till August.

He said the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries are expected to come on stream by August.

Kupolokun, who was at the National Assembly yesterday told Speaker Patricia Etteh that “even if the three refineries in Kaduna, Port Hacourt and Warri come on stream in August, only 75 percent of the nation’s requirements of about 30 million liters daily may be achieved.“

Etteh had expressed concern that Nigerians would want to know why a country that is the sixth largest producer of crude oil should be the highest importer of the refined products.

The NNPC boss gasoline the scarcity of fuel in Abuja was caused by shortfall in product supply that arose from the dislocation in product lifting caused by the recent nationwide strike.

He said the daily average consumption of gasoline in Abuja and environs stood at between 100 tankers and 120 tankers of 33,000 liters each but the supply at the moment fluctuated between 80 tankers and 90 tankers daily.

He said there was the need to bridge the gap to attain normalcy in product availability and explained that insufficient supply could cause sharp practices.

“The Gasolineeum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) determines the threshold of prices to prevail in the country to enable marketers recover their margins,“ he said.

“It takes three to four days for tankers to load in Lagos and arrive in Abuja to off-load. Any liter of the product consumed in the North comes from Lagos and both the Kaduna and Warri refineries have not been producing since February 2006.

“Unfortunately, the Port Harcourt refinery is not also producing. It means that every liter is being imported,“ he also said.

He blamed the continuous scarcity on pipeline vandalization.

Kupolokun told newsmen at the closing ceremony of Chief Officers Management Develo-pment Programme at NNPC headquarters that fuel could not be transported through depots for now as a result of the vandalization.

He said the only reserve Nigeria has was on the high seas and any strategy to intervene in the current crisis would only come from the high seas since the depot is out of supply.

Meanwhile, six days after the nationwide strike was called off, the price of gasolineeum products are still on the high side in Anambra State.

A survey of some of the gasoline stations in the commercial city of Onitsha revealed that almost all the service stations were selling between N120 and N128 per liter of fuel while diesel sold for between N100 and N110.

Also in Benue State, instability in the prices of gasolineeum products in the state have been blamed on deregulation and existence of multiple sources of the product.

Speaking to newsmen in Makurdi, Benue State capital yesterday, the State Chairman of the petroleum Product Monitoring Committee, Bishop Yima Mokuwa said under the prevailing conditions, marketers source for gasoline eum products from private firms in Lagos and Port Harcourt as well as the open market aside the NNPC.

PIN/Allafrica.com