The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has been left alone to import fuel as marketers had abandoned importation of petrol due to the losses they incurred.
Chief Financial Officer of NNPC, Mr Isiaka Razak, disclosed this to the members of Senate Committee on Public Accounts investigating the fuel supply situation in the country.
He expressed worry that the task of importing fuel into the country was left alone to NNPC, saying that for one year, marketers avoided importing fuel because they incurred losses.
“The private sector cannot bring in the product because it does not make economic sense for them.
“They cannot land it at a price for which they are going to sell and make profit; that is the main reason they are not bringing in the product.
“As a national oil company, the NNPC is that supplier of last resort and we must take that responsibility where the private sector, which is profit-driven, runs away from a particular business.
“The economics is that if you bring in the product into Nigeria, you will make a loss; if there was profit in this business, the private sector would have been the ones bringing in this product.
“NNPC was designed to bring in the product 100 per cent; the private sector has stepped out but we have a national responsibility that Nigeria does not suffer and that is the role the corporation is playing by bringing in the product,’’ Razak said.
He added that the NNPC was absorbing the operational loss in the course of importing petrol.
“There is a loss element to it which the private sector is running away from but the NNPC is absorbing it and that is the basic summary of where we are,’’ Razak added.
