A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
By Favour & Akinola Ajibade
The Federal Government, yesterday ( Monday) said that it has received approval from six new companies to import petroleum products into Nigeria this July.
The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA), Farouk Ahmed disclosed this to state correspondents at the Presidential Villa.
According to him, several companies have applied to import petroleum soon, aside the approved six.
He however, debunked the rumours making round that Dangote Group was one of the companies, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had given approval to import fuel into the country, adding that the National Oil Company has no approval to give that approval.
He further said that that there are several companies that applied for fuel importation permit and anyone can apply for importation to get access to the port as the authority is open to all those interested in importing.
Ahmed said, “There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December in November, or anytime but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.
“The beauty of it is that there are interests which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we’ll be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency, so we do not anticipate any gap in supply or in distribution.”
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has taken steps to stop ship owners from withdrawing their vessels over what they see as excessive back charges.
The Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji, who led government officials in an interactive session with shipping stakeholders at the State House, warned that Nigeria cannot afford not to have vessels move in and out of the country.
Reports had suggested that at least two ship owners said they were keeping their vessels away from Nigeria after a series of multimillion dollar tax bills were sent out, seeking to recover back unpaid duties from 2010 to 2019.
Adedeji while briefing State House Correspondents on the issue of fuel importation, allayed fears within the oil and gas sector, spelling out the agreement reached to avert vessel withdrawal so as not to disrupt the flow of products.
He said that a technical committee has been set up to resolve the issues in contention.
He noted that no vessel would be arrested or detained as the committee works to reconcile the back taxes
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