Nigeria Newspapers Online

LAGOS – The Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Associa­tion (PENGASSAN), has called on the Fed­eral Government, to develop a model to strengthen the coun­try’s oil and gas value chain to ensure a sustainable cost reduc­tions and near- and long-term profitability as well as more efficient and reliable distribu­tion system in the downstream sector.

The Oil and gas workers as­sociation also called on oil and gas companies to ensure cost cutting, vertical integration, new revenue models, consol­idation, and new equipment and service models, adding that without such a system, the country would continue to face recurring fuel shortages as its reliance on truck-based distribution system is deficient and inadequate to meet the de­mands of Nigerians due to bad roads, flooding and-logistic ar­rangements.

Comrade Festus Osifo, Presi­dent of PENGASSAN, made the declarations at a world press con­ference from the presentation of the Association’s communiqué and recommendations from the 3rd edition of PENGASSAN’s Energy and Labour Summit (PEARLS 2024) communiqué jointly signed by Osifo and Secre­tary-General, Comrade Lumum­ba Okugbawa held recently at Transcorp Hotel, Abuja

Osifo, who emphasised that operators in the oil and gas industry are now rediscover­ing the spirit of efficiency as a result of previous recommen­dations from PENGASSAN’s Energy and Labour Summit, restated the need for the Feder­al Government to provide CNG infrastructure across the coun­try, noting that “Compressed Natural Gas,CNG, has been ad­judged to be the most affordable and cleaner form of energy that is required, to propel a car in the country today.

”Sadly, the infrastructure for this product is sparsely dis­tributed across the country. The government through its part­ners, should deepen the reach of these infrastructure across every city in Nigeria”

The PENGASSAN’s Presi­dent, while urging the Feder­al Government to increase its shareholding stake in Dangote Refinery from the current 7per cent to 45 per cent, noted that the trust will ensure further energy assurance and security for citizens.

Advertisement

He also urged the Federal Government to create strategic petroleum products reserves, stressing also that government should partner with players in the private sector to maintain the already available petro­leum product storage in the six geo-political zones in the country.

“When operational, petro­leum products will be stored there and only made available when there is shortage in sup­ply. This will help in eliminat­ing the bad roads and severe erosion-imposed perennial shortages that often lead to queues at petrol stations across the country”

On the floating of the naira leading to its devaluation, the PENGASSAN President noted that it also contributed sub­stantially to high cost of fuel pump price because of the dol­lar to naira conversion and not the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023.

He also noted that the dollar to naira conversion caused high amount of revenue to the Fed­eration Allocations Accounts Committee and high revenue generations by government agencies and parastatals.

“ Ramping up efforts to make the nation’s four refineries work: once operational, the gov­ernment should divest majority shareholdings and own at least 49 percent shareholding in the four refineries. Core investors will be brought in to take the 51 per cent as applicable in NLNG.

“Expansion of pipelines that could be used in the delivery of refined petroleum products across the length and breadth of the country as this will re­duce the pressures put on our roads by trucks carrying these products”, he said.