PENGASSAN tells government to deregulate oil sector

As the clamour for the removal of petroleum subsidy heightens, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has thrown its weight behind the clamour as it has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the focus of deregulation policy was based on local production rather than importation.
The union argued that if local refining was not increased to meet local demand for petroleum products, especially the premium motor spirit (petrol), removing subsidy on petroleum products would bring more hardship on Nigeria.

In a statement signed by Emmanuel Ojugbana, PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, the association said that removing subsidy while the country depended on importation of refined products would make prices of refined petroleum products to be out of the reach of the masses and causes inflation.

Restating the position of the trade union, Ojugbana said that importation of refined petroleum products was a major drain on the nation’s revenue, adding that it created jobs for the refining nations in spite of the high unemployment rate confronting Nigeria.

“Importation of refined petroleum products is also putting the Naira under undue pressure and creating social problems for the economy. This is unacceptable to PENGASSAN.

“Abrupt removal of fuel subsidy will create chaos that may ground the economy. PENGASSAN calls for well-coordinated measures with timeline to achieve self-sufficiency in local refining as a means of proffering acceptable steps to end fuel subsidy.

“This should be combined with such other measures for effective optimization of gas especially for domestic, industrial, electricity and automotive energy. Such will create other affordable and friendly sources for energy Abuja.”

He therefore, called on the government to declare a state of emergency in the downstream oil and gas sector and convene an all-stakeholders forum to come up with concrete and sustainable steps with reliable timeline for achieving demand-supply equilibrium through local refining. The strategy must be to guarantee a total stoppage of both petroleum products importation and fuel subsidy.

He noted that Nigerians expect that relying on the resources that the nation was endowed with; the country should be able to provide refined products at reasonable and affordable prices to the populace, adding that this could have been possible if local refining capacities were enhanced.

Ojugbana explained that both the government and industry operators had always yearned to promote competition and efficiency but failed to assure on how to enhance local refining capacity to contain local demand.