03092019 - FG weighs options as another $2.3bn fine looms

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38 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 Oil price remains low despite OPEC's intervention, others•Bonny Light hovers at $59.68, $0.32 below budget benchmark By Udeme Akpan THE price of crude oil, including Nigeria's Bonny Light, remained low in the volatile global market, despite the efforts of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in achieving market stability. A survey of the London oil market showed yesterday, indicated that the prices of Bonny Light, Brent and OPEC Basket, dropped from $60.53 to $59.68, $60.50 to $59.25 and $60.30 to $60.24, respectively. Despite the poor market situation, OPEC disclosed that it would continue to work towards market stability for the interest of oil producers and consumers. In a report obtained by Vanguard, OPEC stated: "The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), has reviewed the monthly report prepared by its Joint Technical Committee (JTC) and recent developments in the global oil market, as well as near-term prospects in 2019 and 2020. "The JMMC noted the overall conformity of 159% in July 2019 was 22 pp higher than in June 2019, and the average conformity of 134% since January 2019 was the highest to date in 2019. This high level of overall conformity has offset uncertainty in the market due to on-going economic growth worries. "The JMMC underscored the growing importance of the Declaration of Cooperation in supporting oil market stability, which along with on-going healthy oil demand so far has arrested global oil inventories growth and should lead to significant draws in the second half of the year. The JMMC also noted that, going forward, the forecast for oil market fundamentals by major forecasters remains robust in 2019 and 2020. "The JMMC urged all participating countries in the DoC to continue their strive in achieving full and timely conformity with voluntary production adjustments based on the decisions of the 176th Meeting of the OPEC Conference, 1 July 2019, and the 6th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, 2 July 2019." However, in his recent address at the OPEC Secretariat, Ban Kimoon, former UN Secretary General, stated: "OPEC has always sought to undertake its activities in strict conformity with the UN's principles and purposes. Indeed, the OPEC Secretariat has been a regular participant in meetings of various institutions and agencies of the UN, particularly the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "Over the years, OPEC has actively participated in UN sponsored climate change negotiations, particularly through its observer status at the 'Conference of the Parties' to the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change. I know Mr. Barkindo has been a veteran of these negotiations. As leader of Nigeria's technical delegation to the UN climate change negotiations since 1991, Mr Barkindo contributed to producing the UNFCCC and the Kyoto protocol. He served as Chair of the Group of 77 and China at the UNFCCC and was elected to serve three terms as Vice President of the Conference of the Parties - COP13 (Bali, Indonesia), COP14 (Poznan, Poland) and COP15 (Copenhagen, Denmark), where he chaired the opening session attended by more than 100 heads of state and government. "Clearly, OPEC is an intergovernmental organisation which takes the principles of multilateralism seriously. And this has been seen in the 'Declaration of Cooperation' and 'Charter of Cooperation' that you have agreed with 10 non-OPEC oil producing countries. Under this initiative, 24 countries have come together to work for sustainable oil market stability in the interests of producers, consumers and the global economy. "We live in a world where the concept of multilateralism is under attack. However, the long experience of the UN and OPEC has shown that the peoples of the world stand to gain more by working together, respecting all nations, under a rules-based order. Therefore, I encourage you to continue your outreach activities. Keep working with others and strengthen the relationships you already have. Listen to consumers. Promote dialogue. Respect all points of view. Reach consensus. These goals underpin your 'Charter of Cooperation' and I am particularly pleased of your commitment, under the Charter, to intensify efforts on "improving the environmental credentials" of this industry, a theme which I will return to later." LPG off-takers commend NLNG for supplying 350,000 of tonnes yearly DPR begins digital measurement to check under-dispensing By Michael Eboh THE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has, commenced the gradual phaseout of manual measurements of fuel at petrol stations, during its enforcement activities, with the introduction of a digital measuring device to detect sharp practices by petrol filling stations across the country. Addressing newsmen in Abuja after conducting a surveillance of petrol stations, Zonal Controller, Abuja Office of the DPR, Mr. Buba Abubakar, said THE average price of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries, OPEC’s basket of fourteen crudes in the past one week averaged $59.73 compared with $60.05 recorded the previous week. According to OPEC’s calculation, the highest price of crude was recorded on August 29, 2019, which averaged $60.24 per barrel, while the lowest price for the period under review averaged $58.18. .Oil rig the agency has identified three focal areas in its quest to restore sanity in the downstream petroleum industry. Abubakar identified the digital measuring device as Seraphin can, noting that this was a significant improvement on the previous device which was analogue. He noted that with the digital measuring device, DPR officials would provide the exact quantity of the commodity being dispensed to motorists by fuel pumps in petrol stations. He further listed the three areas of interest of the DPR to include diversion, hoarding and under-dispensing. "We are going to look at diversion, hoarding and underdispensing very well because they are cheating the public in terms of under-dispensing. We are going to look at these three things and we are going to sustain our surveillance on petrol stations," he said. Abubakar added that the DPR LIQUEFIED Petroleum Gas, LPG off-takers in Lagos have lauded the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), for increasing domestic supply of LPG, also known as cooking gas, from 250,000 tonnes to 350,000 tonnes yearly. Rising from its recent meeting in Lagos, the LPG off-takers, noted that the increased supply has culminated in domestic market stability and relatively lower prices. In a statement obtained by Vanguard, the off-takers stated that since 2007, the NLNG has demonstrated adequate commitment to flooding the market with LPG. It stated: "The intervention, which is in line with the company's vision of helping to build a better Nigeria, has significantly contributed to the stimulation and development of the domestic LPG market in Nigeria, thus, making it more affordable to consumers. "Domestic LPG off-takers are made up of 33 buyers approved by the NLNG Limited to take gas through the Third Party Access (TPA), in some designated terminals within a guided engagement with three depot owners, who also double as buyers. "The off-takers, including Nigeria Product Marketing Company (NPMC), Hyson Nigeria, and NNPC retail, take their volumes through the PPMC jetties at Apapa, which had TPA to all buyers ostensibly due to the lower logistic cost of receipt while a few of them receive products through the Lister jetty." The off-takers stated: "If any offtakers is complaining of marginalisation may be they have peculiar issue with NLNG or have allotted Annual Contract Quantity (ACQ) that they are about or completely lifted and going through a waiting period to allow NLNG approval for additional volumes." had conducted an audit of retail stations in Abuja and environs, which had led to the sealing of 10 filling stations. He said: "We are going into the ember months and that is why we have audited the retail stations to make sure that they are up and doing. And out of the over 320 stations that we have in Abuja, we discovered that 10 were not performing up to the required standard. We sealed all the 10 of them and when we went there today we discovered that five have upgraded to the standard set by DPR and they were unsealed. "So, right now, I want to tell the marketers that we are going to sustain our surveillance and they should be very careful in what they are doing. We have come to realise that marketers are cheating the public by under-dispensing products. So we are going to take a critical look at these three highlighted items and, of course, we will sustain surveillance." C M Y K
Vanguard, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 — 39 Bauchi: When a leader’s word is his bond By EMMA AGU WHAT makes history so unforgiving is that those who forget its lessons are often brutally reminded of their idiocy, by experiencing the misfortunes that bedeviled their forebears. While the correlation between the plight of Nigeria’s pensioners and the country’s stunted growth may not be easily perceptible, nothing suggests that a country that permits the scale of humiliation and injustice to which retired workers are exposed, can expect to enjoy prosperity in peace, notwithstanding the overflow of natural and other resources. One does not need to be a soothsayer to realise that, by virtue of the sordid neglect to which senior citizens who diligently served Nigeria are subjected, like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, a huge moral incubus will continue to overhang the country until justice is done. All over Nigeria, at all levels of government and even the private sector, retirees gnash their teeth as they wait endlessly for either their gratuities or pensions. Paradoxically, while they wait, the younger generation for whom they sweated and toiled, the politicians, civil servants and the rest of us, mindlessly plunder the collective patrimony, always claiming the absence of funds, to settle legitimate entitlements of patriots who served their country with distinction and utmost loyalty. It is as painful as it gets; the depth of betrayal, the death of conscience; the imperiling of hope and the murder of the future. In spite of their trauma and endless betrayals, these elder citizens continue to live on hope; that every new administration would live up to its campaign promise, of breaking the jinx of non-payment of pensions and gratuities. Each time, they are disappointed. The pattern of their humiliation cries to heaven for restitution. Perennial verification exercises; dubious biometrics that produce questionable data bases; excruciating long distance travels to Abuja (in the case of Federal employees) that further impoverish the retirees; debilitating and agonising wait on queues under the sweltering heat of the sun, Governor Bala Mohammed has demonstrated that a leader’s word should be his bond and that, in line with his inaugural speech mantra, under him, hope has come summarise the plight of our elder citizens. Some succor has been brought by the new pension scheme. But it has not eliminated the scourge that afflicts our elder citizens. It is against this background that the frontal approach of the Bauchi State Government, to the problem of gratuities, should be celebrated as a reassuring shift from the painful insensitivity of past leaders and a veritable model for every state government. Last August, the Bauchi State Government announced the setting aside of a monthly charge of N100 million, for the payment of the gratuities of state workers and another N100 million for local government retirees, until all such outstanding liability it inherited is completely settled. This may look like a drop in the ocean compared to the N27 billion liabilities it inherited. However, such a view will fly in the face of the evidence, the starting point being that, by swiftly commencing the settlement of the gratuities, the State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed is living up to the pledge he made, in his inaugural speech that he will promptly redress the plight of the elder citizens. His words were unmistakable, loud and clear. Lamenting the plight of the retired workers, he described his election as “a victory for the senior citizens, the patriots who have been denied their legitimate entitlements in terms of pensions and gratuities and who, for one moment, are left to wonder whether the section of our first national anthem that assures, that the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain, was inserted in error” (his emphasis). He then pledged that “…immediate steps shall be taken, through a committee that will comprise all stakeholders, to devise ways and means of ensuring regular payment of gratuities while offsetting outstanding liabilities”. The good news is that, in today’s Bauchi and in keeping with Governor Bala Mohammed’s promise, gratuities and pensions are paid as at when due; outstanding liabilities are being offset while salaries are paid as from the 26th of the month. In decent societies where governments are alive to their responsibilities and where entitlements of citizens are not treated as favours, these actions of the Bauchi State Government cannot count as being spectacular. But in Nigeria, where the provision of amenities such as pipe borne water and roads earn government officials awards and national honours, Governor Bala Mohammed is demonstrating that his national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger CON, is predicated on service delivery and contribution to national development. Service delivery There is no doubt that the beleaguered senior citizens of Bauchi State are mindful of the fact that neither has the government used the hefty debt portfolio of N150 billion, it inherited, as an alibi to renege on its pledge nor has it compelled them to sign a dubious forfeiture agreement whereby they receive only a percentage of their entitlements. Yet, the monthly receipts of Bauchi State pale into insignificance compared to the monthly receipts of some states that continue to deny or delay their indigenes their entitlements, for unsustainable reasons. If retired workers in the state have taken the monthly release in good faith, it should be understood within the context of this paradigm shift, this jinx-breaking initiative by the Bala Mohammed-led Administration in the state. That was exactly the position of the Chairman of the Bauchi State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, Alhaji Habu Gar. Gar was in order when he remarked that although the N100 million set aside appeared ‘paltry’ compared to the total outstanding, nobody would be talking about accumulated entitlements if previous administrations in the state had taken Bala Mohammed’s approach. By imploring his colleagues to exercise patience, Alhaji Gar has demonstrated the kind of reciprocity that ought to undergird stakeholder engagement as the government wades through the miasma of anti-people policies and actions that it inherited. To some state governors elsewhere, here is the catch: there will never be enough money to do everything, settle the entitlement; but with the right moral gumption, out there, there is always enough courage, a rich pool of wisdom, to re-order priorities in such a way that human values take precedence over exhibitionist projects. Besides, it amounts to a betrayal of the people’s trust to renege on campaign promises, under the guise of insufficient funds. By fulfilling his pledge to place the settlement of workers emoluments on first charge, Governor Bala Mohammed has demonstrated that a leader’s word should be his bond and that, in line with his inaugural speech mantra, under him, Hope has come. •Agu, a former MD of the Champion Newspapers, wrote from Abuja
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03092019 - FG weighs options as another $2.3bn fine looms

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