The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the Federal Government to ensure that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) increases its stake in Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals from the current 7% to at least 45%.
It stated that this will ensure further energy assurance and security for the citizens. It also urged the Federal Government to create strategic petroleum product reserves, advising the government to partner with players in the private sector to maintain the already available petroleum product storage in the six geopolitical zones in the country. According to it, when operational, petroleum products will be stored there and only made available when there is a shortage in supply. It opined that 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.
The President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Festus Osifo, stated these during a media briefing in Lagos on Tuesday. The briefing was on the presentation of the association’s communique and recommendations from the 3rd edition of PENGASSAN’s Energy and Labour Summit (PEARLS 2024). “The communique was jointly signed by Osifo and Secretary-General, PENGASSAN, Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa. Osifo called for the Intensification of local production of petroleum products. He also argued that the floating of the naira which led to the devaluation of the naira contributed substantially to the high cost of fuel pump price because of the dollar to the naira conversion and not necessarily the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023.
He also argued that it caused a high amount of revenue to the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee and high revenue generation by government agencies and parastatals. He said: “Ramping up efforts to make the nation’s four refineries work; once operational, the government should divest majority shareholdings and own at most 49% of the shareholding in the four refineries. Core investors will be brought in to take the 51% 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 pressure put on our roads by trucks carrying these products.”
He also called for more provision of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) infrastructures across the country.
