CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION:
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Prior to the discovery of oil in Nigeria in 1956 by shell B.P, coal was the primary source of energy. Oil exploration in Nigeria stated as far back as (1908) although the discovery of minerals was reported the earlier in 1903.
According to Ofurhie (2000;6) the petroleum industry in Nigeria dates back to 1956 when shall D, Archy now shell petroleum development company of Nigeria discovered oil commercial quantities of Oloibiri the present Bayelsa state in 1958.
However, Nigeria national petroleum corporation (NNPC) (1990;2-3) reported that over 12 million barrels of oil was produced in Nigeria all from the Nigeria Basin are, production was increased from a mere 5.000 barrels per day in 1966; The report stated that the increase was through slowed down by the civil war by 1970 daily production level of 2 million barrels per day had been achieved.
In 1965 when Nigeria first petroleum refinery was established in Port Harcourt by shell and the British petroleum (BP) petroleum products used in the country was imported. The supply of the imported petroleum products all over the country was through multination also like shell ESSO, B P among others before the commissioning of the old Port Harcourt refinery in1966. The old port Harcourt refinery was damaged during civil war and the marketers and consumers of petroleum products in Nigeria in depended on external sources without experiencing serious shortages (pipelined products marketing company PPMC 1993 a = 1 )
Recently the marketing companies are supplied most of the products by the Nigeria national petroleum corporation (NNPC) subsiding company pipeline and products marketing company limited (PPMC) that is responsible for the primary distribution of petroleum products in Nigeria.
The importance of petroleum products in Nigeria can be fully appreciated when viewed against the dominant role of the use of the products especially in the manufacturing section and revenues generating from the marketing of the products play in the economy.
Ose (2000;) suggested that apart from contributing the revenues of over 90%of the aggregate of the nations export earnings the productive and social activities in the domestic and industrial sectors of the Nigeria economy many grind to a halt, without revenues and benefits accruing to the nation from sales and energy supply from petroleum products usage.
Since oil revenues and domestic energy consumption took center stage in the nation’s economy government interest in the up stream and down stream sectors of the oil industry have increased tremendously over the years.
The erstwhile department of petroleum resources in the ministry of mines and power in 1970 handles government’s interest in the oil industry. The them Nigeria nation oil corporation (NND) which transformed into Nigerian national petroleum corporation (NNPC) was formed in 1971 primarily to market crude oil and supervise all oil operations in the country.
According to PPMC Aronimic (1994)28) it was in 1988 in major reorganization of NNPC that the government established the pipelines and products marketing company (PPMC) as one of it’s eleven subsidiaries. It was charged with the sole responsibility of ensuring efficient distribution and timely availability of reformed products across the country.
Despite the establishment of PPMC and the high volume of oil production in Nigeria there have been intermittent scar city of petroleum products and its attendant adverse effects on the economy especially in the industrial sector where large volumes of these products are consumed.
PPMC Aronimic (1995: 45) reported that a total of 100, 656, 381barrelsof crude oil to be was received in 1994 from local consumption out of a planned 109,500.00 barrels expected to be consumed leading to a short fall of 8,843, 6519 barrels. Also out of the 19583, 869 metric barrels (tones) of refined product expected from the refineries only 7,853, 304 metric tones reforesting 41% were products out of the targeted local consumption output. To achieve this the refineries processed 7,998,428 metric tones of crude oil 1.e (60,388,131) barrels representing (55.5%) in order to augment the shortfall in the refineries output, the company (PPMC) spent the sum of USD 543.5 million to import 2, 850, 800 metric tones of various petroleum products.