Nigeria: Kerosene Will Not be Affected by Subsidy Removal
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Wednesday, 19 October 2011 |
Desiani Allison-Maduaeke, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, has told the Senate Committee on Gas that kerosene prices will not be affected by the Government’s planned removal of subsidies scheduled for January 2012. Mrs Allison-Maduaeke told the Senate panel that the price of kerosene would not be deregulated until an adequate alternative had been found.
The minister said that LPG has been targeted as a suitable replacement fuel, adding that the necessary infrastructure for piping the fuel throughout the country will be in place in 30 months. She added that $4m would be required to deliver this infrastructure, and that several problems existed in the sector. According to Allison-Maduaeke, these issues included sub –commercial gas pricing in the domestic market, weak contractual frameworks, poor gas infrastructure, and what she described as an “oligopolistic” structure in the sector.
The Government has come under pressure in recent month from organised labour and northern politicians to reverse course from its planned deregulation of fuel prices. Labour leaders have called for the policy to be delayed until a range of social programmes, to soften the blow of increased prices on the population, are in place.
PetrolWorld 19102011
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