I found this interesting and enlightening article online. It's a must read especially for lucid minds. I'll like to get your thoughts on this. Happy reading.
For some time now, especially since the beginning of 2015, Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol has been very scarce in Abuja and many other cities across the country. I live and work in Abuja and can count the number of times I have got fuel at the official rate of N87 per litre since the year began. Of course, for those who do not attach much value to time, they do not mind queuing for hours on end at the few filling stations that are selling at the official rate. For some of us, we have embraced buying at the black market even if we have to pay twice or thrice the official price.
I have tried to conduct a preliminary study as to the root causes of the perennial scarcity of petrol in Nigeria. What I found out is mind-boggling. The problem came to being largely as a result of the non-maintenance of our oil refineries. Nigeria currently has five of them. Two in Port Harcourt; the old refinery inaugurated in 1965 with the current nameplate capacity of 60,000 barrels per stream day and the new refinery inaugurated in 1989 with an installed capacity of 150,000 bpsd.
This brings the combined crude processing capacity of the Port Harcourt Refineries to 210,000 bpsd. There is also the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, a 1,000bpd topping plant located at Ogbelle, Rivers State, which was established to produce diesel. The other two refineries are in Warri and Kaduna. The Warri Refinery was established in 1978 to refine 100,000 bpsd and was expanded in 1987 to 125,000 bpsd. The Kaduna Refinery was commissioned in 1983 with a nameplate capacity for 110,000 bpsd.
Read full article here: http://www.theopinion.ng/resolving-the-petrol-scarcity-conundrum/
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