The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has said it is shameful that Nigeria cannot produce sufficient fuel for its citizens after over 35 years.
Kachikwu stated this on Thursday in Abuja during a one-day public hearing of the National Assembly Joint Committees on Petroleum (Downstream), investigating the causes of recent fuel scarcity recorded across the country in December 2017.
The minister, who decried the poor state of the refineries over the years, condemned their inability to produce sufficient fuel for the country.
Kachikwu who blamed the inability of major oil marketers to import fuel due to price differentials between rise in price of crude oil and the cost in Nigeria as the reason for the fuel shortage, stated that the Federal Government is working assiduously to revamp the country’s refineries to address the problems of lingering fuel crisis.
He disclosed that government had mapped out strategies to ensure availability of petrol which will be sold at government regulated price.
