Reps urge NNPC to resume floating stations in Niger Delta

The House‎ of Representatives on Wednesday urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to resume the supply of petroleum products to the floating stations in the coastal communities of the Niger Delta Region.

The House also urged the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to regulate the supply and distribution of products to the floating stations.

Mandate was also given to the committees on Petroleum Resources (Downstream and Upstream) to ensure implementation and report back in three weeks time for further legislative action.

The House resolution followed a motion sponsored by Honourable Julius Pondi, ‎noted that, petroleum products floating stations established by the NNPC in the riverine coastal communities of the Niger Delta was the only source of petroleum products supplies to those communities up till mid-2015.

According to him, “For reasons that were not explained to the affected communities, the product floating stations have since stopped functioning, thus making the operators of marine transport services to go in search of fuel in distant places in the hinterlands which consequently result in the cost of marine transportation with its attendant ripe effect of escalation of the prices of goods and services.”

He stressed that, even when the floating petroleum stations were operational, there was never a time when petrol, diesel or kerosene did not sell at much higher price than the official rates.

According to him, “The sudden discontinuation ‎of supplies of petroleum products to the floating stations about two years ago is inflicting hardship and impoverishing the inhabitants of the coastal towns and villages from where the very petroleum products that have seized to be delivered by the NNPC to the floating stations are drilled from.”

The motion scaled through‎ when it was put to voice vote by Honourable Yakubu Dogara who presided over the plenary.