The Petroleum and Pure Gasoline Senior Employees Affiliation of Nigeria has urged the Federal Authorities to extend its shares within the Dangote Petroleum Refinery from the present seven per cent to a minimum of 45 per cent to allow assurance and vitality safety.
It mentioned it will guarantee additional vitality assurance and safety for the residents.
PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, made the decision in Lagos on Tuesday through the presentation of its communique and proposals from the latest version of the affiliation’s Power and Labour Summit.
He defined that the excessive stake within the refinery would improve vitality safety, noting that vitality safety is cardinal for the survival of any nation and Nigeria isn’t an exception, therefore the residents demand vitality affordability, accessibility, and availability.
Osifo additional talked about that the federal government ought to companion with gamers within the personal sector to keep up the already obtainable petroleum product storage within the six geopolitical zones within the nation.
“When operational, petroleum merchandise might be saved there and solely made obtainable when there’s a scarcity in provide. This may assist in eliminating the dangerous roads and extreme erosion-imposed perennial shortages that always result in queues at petrol stations throughout the nation,” he mentioned.
Osifo emphasised the enlargement of pipelines that may very well be used within the supply of refined petroleum merchandise throughout the size and breadth of the nation to scale back the strain on roads by vehicles carrying these merchandise.
He identified that to realize vitality safety, vitality should be reasonably priced, therefore in guaranteeing affordability, the Authorities should do all it may well to stabilise the change price as the continual slide of the Naira will vastly hamper the affordability of vitality in Nigeria.
In guaranteeing native manufacturing of petroleum merchandise, he urged the federal authorities to ramp up efforts to make the Nation’s 4 refineries work.
He burdened that when operational, the federal government ought to divest majority shareholdings and personal at most 49 per cent of the shareholding within the 4 refineries, noting that core traders might be introduced in to take the 51 per cent stake.
He regretted that the NNPC may solely purchase a 7.2 per cent stake within the $20bn refinery.
“Dangote is open to conversations on promoting the stake. He was able to promote 20 per cent earlier and we have been additionally pushing for the federal government via NNPC to get the 20 per cent, however sadly they may solely afford seven per cent, “ he mentioned.
Osifo mentioned the devaluation of the naira is the most important cause why PMS has turn out to be unaffordable for Nigerians, noting no authorities floats its foreign money above 100 per cent.
“If, for instance, our change price was at N450 to a greenback, PMS can be promoting for round N320 or N350 per litre. So, the principle situation wasn’t the removing of subsidies. The primary situation was that devaluation. The actual drawback is devaluation,” he said.
The affiliation known as on the federal government to develop and strengthen the nation’s oil and gasoline worth chain to make sure a extra environment friendly and dependable distribution system downstream.
PENGASSAN burdened that with out such a system, the nation would proceed to face recurring gasoline shortages as its reliance on a truck-based distribution system is poor and insufficient to fulfill the calls for of Nigerians given its vulnerability and disruptions resulting from dangerous roads, flooding and ad-hoc logistics preparations.
The affiliation talked about that the latest development of divestment by the Worldwide Oil Corporations necessitated a strategic shift to accommodate native empowerment, innovation and harnessing potential and latent abilities, including that the divestment development was pushed by the mixture of world vitality transition targets, monetary prudence, portfolio rationalization and evolving regulatory atmosphere.
PENGASSAN cautioned that divestments current each dangers and alternatives for Nigeria, together with a discount in international direct funding, technical experience and a possible dip in manufacturing stage.
“A complete divestment framework underneath the Petroleum Business Act (PIA) to information asset divestment by Licensees and Lessees within the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Sector must be strictly adhered to and applied. Pending when the Petroleum Business Act is amended to incorporate the divestment framework, the present framework promulgated by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Fee should be gazetted for full implementation.
“A job safety system must be developed by the federal government to make sure that Nigerians don’t lose their jobs publish divestment. An MOU should be signed between the divesting corporations and the commerce unions to guard members’ jobs and improve their welfare,” he mentioned.