Page 6 - AfrOil Week 07 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

“We’ve been on this matter of bad roads for more efforts succeeded, but as of February 15, NNPC
than three years and last year we reached an said it had ascertained that it had more than 1bn
agreement with the NNPC, which promised to litres of gasoline that met specifications in its
rehabilitate these critical roads and earmarked inventories.
NGN621bn [$1.49bn] for it,” he commented. On that date, the company began keeping its
“Some of these roads are less than 25 km in fuel depots and retail filling stations in operation
length. Tanker crashes were almost a daily 24 hours a day in a push to speed up distribution.
occurrence. Security challenge on these roads As of press time, there were signs that this initi-
can’t be overemphasised.” ative might be making a positive difference in
PTD is a member of the umbrella labour big cities, but shortages were still widespread in
organisation known as Nigerian Union of Petro- most areas of the country.
leum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). It seems, then, that Nigeria’s government is
It has been called upon to help alleviate fuel now facing some of the same problems it was
shortages, but as of February 14, NUPENG’s trying to avoid by keeping the gasoline subsidy
leadership was said to be ready to recommend in place. Consumers are unhappy because their
a nationwide strike. best option for filling the tanks of their cars
is to pay more – even if the money is going to
The same problems it hoped to avoid? black-market sellers and not to retail filling sta-
Meanwhile, NNPC has been trying to alleviate tions. Labour unions are unhappy and threat-
the supply disruptions over the last week. ening to strike – even if the proximate cause has
On February 8, for example, sources with more to do with truck drivers’ grievances than
direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that with the plight of all workers.
the company was seeking to procure emergency And in the meantime, Nigeria’s government
supplies of around 500,000 tonnes of gasoline is still locked into paying hundreds of billions
from trading firms. It is not clear whether those of naira each month for the gasoline subsidy. ™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
Libyan oil workers reportedly threaten

strike at Marsa el-Hariga terminal

LIBYA WORKERS at Libya’s Marsa el-Hariga terminal stoppage in which a branch of the PFG halted
have reportedly threatened to suspend crude oil operations at Sharara and three other crude oil
exports by the end of February unless their sal- and gas condensate production sites. That strike,
ary demands are met by the National Oil Corp. which lasted from December 20 to January 10,
(NOC) subsidiary that uses the facility as one of caused Libyan output levels to drop by more
its main points of access to world markets. than 300,000 bpd.
A source in the shipping industry told Argus Marsa el-Hariga is located along the eastern
Media on February 15 that members of the section of Libya’s Mediterranean coast. It spent
Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) contingent at part of January out of service – not because of
the Marsa el-Hariga terminal were seeking con- the strike mentioned above, which had a greater
cessions from Arabian Gulf Oil Co. (AGOCO), impact on the Zawiya and Mellitah terminals,
an affiliate of NOC that operates sites that yield but because of a round of harsh weather that hit
Mesla and Sarir grade crude. As of press time, on January 8, forcing most of Libya’s coastal oil
AGOCO had not responded publicly to these export facilities off line. ™
demands.
A shutdown at Marsa el-Hariga would have
a significant impact on Libya’s oil industry. The
terminal handled 196,000 barrels per day (bpd)
of crude on average in 2021 and 194,000 bpd
in January 2022, close to 20% of the country’s
current output of around 1mn bpd. In the event
of a work stoppage, export capacity would drop
swiftly, since NOC has very limited storage
capacity.
Libya has already experienced one major
infrastructure shutdown as a result of labour
unrest this year. At the start of 2022, it was
already in the midst of a three-week work The Marsa el-Hariga oil export terminal is in Tobruk (Photo: AGOCO)

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 16•February•2022