Claims receipt of N5.35bCONTRARY to reports that one of the listed beneficiaries of fuel import subsidy, Obat Oil and Petroleum Limited received N85 billion subsidy, the Managing Director of the firm, Prince Akinfemiwa Akinrutan, has declared that only N5.35 billion was paid to the company.While dwelling extensively on the presentation he made to the House of Representative committee raised to probe subsidy regime in the oil sector, the managing director said he was baffled how those who raised the bogus figure got it.According to him, it was only in the fourth quarter of 2010 that the company started to benefit from the Petroleum Subsidy Fund (PSF).He said: 'We joined the PSF Scheme in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the total allocation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) received up to date is 75,000 metric tonnes, out of which we brought in only 65,000MT into Nigeria before the expiration of our import permit by DPR (Directorate of Petroleum Resources) in December 2011.'Akinrutan said N979, 313,551.29 was received by the company on January 18, 2011, while on June 20, 2011, Obat Oil got N1, 550,263, 750.27.According to him, on August 19, 2011, the company received N1, 269, 482, 463.26, while on September 9, 2011, it got N541, 454, 152.54 and on October 6, 2011, it received N542, 660, 080.20.He said the final payment was on October 20, 2011 in the sum of N67, 247, 910.10, all totaling N5, 350, 421, 927.57.The managing director said further that he has documents to show for the highlighted figures.He said: 'On subsidy claims for PMS, Obat Oil and Petroleum Limited wishes to correct the rather misleading impression and information making the rounds in print and electronic media, that at no time did we collect N85 billion oil subsidy. Kindly take note that the total subsidy claimed and received by Obat Oil and Petroleum Limited as far as December 31, 2011 is N5,350,421, 927.57 only for which we have supporting document as hereby highlighted.'Akinrutan stated that unlike some licensees without jetty or even retail outlets, the company, which started in 1981, currently has over 50 petrol service stations spread across the country with each retail outlet having underground storage capacity of 90,000 litres each.'Also, we have well over 100 trucks of 33,000 litres capacity each for efficient distribution of petroleum products to our outlets across Nigeria. In addition, we supply over 5,000 registered independent petroleum marketers with over 7,000 petrol service stations, oil servicing companies, private and corporate organisations as well as fishing trawlers. Furthermore, our inspiration informed the building of our ultramodern petroleum storage facility situated at Ibafon and Apapa, Lagos State. Our depot has a storage capacity of 21.6 million litres each with nine tanks for PMS, DPK, and AGO, making a total storage capacity of 64.8 million litres of products at full capacity.'Our privately licenced jetty with a length of 145 meters and a draft of 6.5 metres can accommodate the berth of vessels in the range of 5,000 to 20,000 metric tonnes. Also, the gantry has 10 loading arms through which products are dispensed via our ultramodern accuload 111 systems, which enables us to load out about four million to five million litres of products daily at full capacity. We operate a privately owned laboratory within the depot for quality control.'We have invested over N500 billion into oil and gas projects all over the nation and we are still investing more, particularly into our refinery project, which was approved for construction in May, 2005,' he said.
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