ALCOHOLIC PETROL SCANDAL: OANDO’S BLAME OR DPR’S SHAME?

 The Tuesday 4th March 2008 declaration of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) at the wake of the alcoholic petrol scandal that Oando Plc would be sanctioned for importing contaminated fuel into the country could best be described as the chanting of a failed parastatal or at worst, an outburst of a disabled regulator.

 The case: Oando imported a cargo of 33, 000 metric tons of gasoline (petrol), from Gunvor International B.V. Amsterdam on the 9th of January 2008. The petrol was an E20 grade- 20 per cent ethanol (raw alcohol) and 15 percent far above the acceptable 5 percent blend ratio for Europe and America. It should be pointed out clearly that the five percent (E5) blend ratio is not for Nigeria. The Nigerian standard used to be zero percent ethanol before our refineries were crippled by people in or near Government.

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On the other hand, the DPR certified the product fit for introduction into the domestic market after ‘tight’ quality assurance and control screenings as alleged.

 Agreed that Oando by outright mischief brought into the country substandard and dangerous fuel, what does DPR exist for? Who inspected and certified the product batch before it was introduced into the domestic market? And if Lagos motorists and the Consumers Protection Council (CPC) did not move to query the NNPC and maybe Oando, would DPR have been bothered that common ‘ogo- goro’ was on sale in some filling stations in the name of imported petrol? This is a big shame.

 In what could best be described as a face saving measure at the outbreak of the sham, the DPR boss was very quick to blame Oando for neglecting to enquire from the supplier the exact mix of the batch of fuel knowing fully well it was a blended product.

 And in its swift trial and sentence session, the DPR boss ruled as follow: “For all the people that suffered damages as a result of this fuel, we are going to commit Oando to make preparation for all of them. On top of that, government is going to impose a fine that will ensure that none of the operators of the downstream sector will do this type of thing again and the fine that we are considering will be equivalent to the value of the product that was imported to serve as a strong deterrent to others.”

 The above sentence nakedly gave out the mindset of the DPR. The government   agency solely charged with the responsibility of regulating and policing the oil industry-upstream and downstream, only saw the entire blunder as a fast money-spinning opportunity. It was only an avenue to collect quick money from Oando.

 Can the DPR claim to have quality control laboratories? If yes, where are they located? Does DPR have technically qualified and fully dedicated quality control staff?

 This case of Oando’s importation, clearance and subsequent introduction to the Nigerian market of off-spec fuel again goes to show how ill equipped our regulatory agencies are for the discharge of their duties. Truth be told, the DPR has zero capacity in-house to perform comprehensive quality control/assurance checks on fuel products. It has been said several times that the DPR has been a lame duck regulator. This handicap had helped friends of government to bring into the country whatever they lay their hands on as petroleum products.

 The bulk of the fuels imported into this country since the Obasanjo administration introduced the very near total dependence on imported fuels, had been terribly off specifications. Most, if not all, are unleaded with funny colours and above all, funny odours very different from widely-known industry stench standards.

 In the words of the DPR boss: “I am going to take a couple of key measures to ensure that this does not pass through the net again. It will help us to revamp the process. And like I said, it will help me also to strengthen the processes of DPR because I do understand a lot more what goes on in the downstream sector.” So the fake petrol even entered the DPR net at all? Interestingly, it took the scandal for the agency to realise that a lot has been going on in the downstream. The DPR boss should equally know, if he has not, that more serious things are still going on in both the downstream and upstream.

 Rather than hide under the pretence of crucifying Oando as example to other petroleum importing and marketing companies for such mischief, the DPR should be ashamed that an off-spec fuel brought into the country, passed through all the its supposed checks before getting to innocent motorists and it took a protest from the Lagos Consumers Protection Council to wake up agency to an already happening serious damage. This is a big shame.

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 It is very true that the responsibility for bringing this off-spec petrol into the country lies squarely on Oando. It is even truer that the blame of passing this terribly off-spec batch of petrol to innocent motorists/homes lies solely on the DPR. And Nigerians should hold the agency to pay for whatever damage done to lives and property. It is left for the DPR to search for whom to hold- Oando or Gunvor International BV, Amsterdam.

 Truth be told, Oando is not the only marketer involved in bringing in sub-standard products from anywhere they can find components of anything that has hydrocarbon structure mixed together as fuels. A thorough check would obviously confirm that almost all, if not all, the importers are guilty of the same Oando sin. It is likely that few officials of DPR/NNPC-NAPIMS must have disagreed on existing ‘joint venture relationship’ for the Oando sin to be made public.

 The Oando saga was just a very tiny speck in the terrible things that are happening in the nation’s oil and gas sector. Concerned professionals have severally warned that in actual sense, nobody really monitors the nation’s oil industry. This carelessness is worse in upstream business especially at the nation’s crude oil export facilities. The DPR/NAPIMS staff that are supposed to monitor the foreign oil and gas operators only go out to the field to enjoy the comfort provided by the operators.

 The blame of course should not go to the middle level staff of the two agencies. What do you expect when DPR staff that were supposed to police and regulate the industry rely 100 percent at the mercy of the foreign operators to even have access to any of the oil and gas facilities? The Oando case was yet another exposition of the exploits of unpatriotic and selfish economic saboteurs that have deliberately crippled the nation’s refineries in order to reap huge profits from total dependence on importation.

 As for Oando, it is very difficult to believe that the company was not cutting corners at the detriment of the Nigerian consumers because it was totally out of industry practice to pick petroleum products from anywhere without establishing the quality integrity especially the flash point.  In actual sense, this was a very clear case of ‘everyday for the thief but one day for the owner of the house.’ I rest my case.

By IFEANYI IZEZE, ABUJA

iizeze@yahoo.com