Johannes
>From the BBC website at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1220000/1220037.stm
Wednesday, 14 March, 2001, 12:55 GMT Nigeria fuel crackdown
The Nigerian Government has announced measures to tighten the flow of oil reaching the black market as it seeks to end its worst fuel crisis in more than a decade. Petrol stations have run dry across the country, although fuel is readily available at much higher prices on the black market.
Information Minister Jerry Gana said in a special national television broadcast that those diverting supplies to the black market or abroad were sabotaging the economy.
"This is no longer a question of supplies... It's a question of diversion. It's a question of sabotage," he said.
Nigeria suffers persistent shortages despite being the world's fourth largest oil producer.
Many Nigerians are involved in smuggling the subsidised fuel across borders or selling it on the streets where they can get a much higher price, but Mr Gana has now ordered the closure of any petrol station or fuel outlet found to have been diverting fuel.
"If within three days the fuel lifted from depots does not arrive at the station it is meant for, the Department of Petroleum Resources is mandated to close such a station," he said.
Subsidies
Fuel shortages are also blamed on pipeline thefts, corruption and the poor maintanence of domestic refineries.
But the government believes that removing subsidies on petroleum products as part of reforms of the energy sector will help to resolve the country's pressing fuel problem.
However, reforms are not popular either. Ordinary people consider cheap fuel as one of the few benefits they have and are reluctant to give it up..
The Nigerian Labour Congress has organised a series of mass rallies to begin next week.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the present fuel subsidy makes no sense as it fails to benefit the majority of Nigerians and he would instead subsidise education, health and water services.
The deregulation plans would see oil refineries in Nigeria pay international market prices for crude oil.