28 May 2012, Sweetcrude, LAGOS – Nigeria’s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has suspended an indigenous oil marketing company, First Deepwater Limited, from engaging in fuel importation.
The move is part of efforts by the agency to ensure transparency in the fuel import scheme and general administration of fuel subsidy regime.
Mr Reginald Stanley, PPPRA’s executive secretary, said First Deepwater was suspended, pending the completion of an ongoing investigation on irregular documentation the company presented to the agency.
“The scrutiny of the load outs of the company was aimed at ensuring total transparency and probity, in line with the policy trust of the new management of the PPPRA,” he said.
Stanley also said the scrutiny of the fuel supply claims of some foreign companies was also on and that this is aimed at removing graft and entrenching probity in the system.
PPPRA, he said, has also ordered international oil trading companies – Mercuria Energy Trading NV, Netherlands Antilles and Arcadia Energy of Switzerland – to submit their mother-vessel load out documentations for scrutiny.
About three weeks ago, the agency had sanctioned a Swiss oil trading firm, NIMEX, for alleged infraction.
