The negotiations came after fuel queues appeared in some parts of the country. The queues returned following a strike embarked upon by oil workers’ unions in solidarity with some petroleum marketing companies that had not been paid fuel subsidy.
The talks, which commenced in Abuja on Thursday and presided over by the
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was attended by representatives of Oando Plc,
Sahara Energy, Folawiyo Petroleum and NIPCO Plc.
The minister explained that government was willing to listen to all marketers with genuine claims and attend to them to forestall any crisis that might be caused by some indicted marketers.
Okonjo-Iweala said that some of the marketers had embarked on blackmail of government in the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry.
“We are talking about the fact that they have outstanding claims, which have not been paid and that is the basis of the dialogue and as I have said to you earlier, yes they have outstanding claims, we also have claims outstanding against them and that is what the dialogue is all about.
“So, we will dialogue with each other on these claims and hopefully at the end of this we will be able to come to some agreement about the net claims that will be paid and then we will be able to move on. We are very willing to listen if there are genuine people that want to talk with government.”
The minister explained that government was willing to listen to all marketers with genuine claims and attend to them to forestall any crisis that might be caused by some indicted marketers.
Okonjo-Iweala said that some of the marketers had embarked on blackmail of government in the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry.
“We are talking about the fact that they have outstanding claims, which have not been paid and that is the basis of the dialogue and as I have said to you earlier, yes they have outstanding claims, we also have claims outstanding against them and that is what the dialogue is all about.
“So, we will dialogue with each other on these claims and hopefully at the end of this we will be able to come to some agreement about the net claims that will be paid and then we will be able to move on. We are very willing to listen if there are genuine people that want to talk with government.”
