THE oil industry will continue to be vulnerable to manipulations as long as the country imports petroleum products, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) President, Williams Akporeha, has said.
His statement follows speculations that the Federal Government may have yielded to pressures by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to remove oil subsidy.
In an interview on phone, he said rumours would not have arisen had the country fixed its refineries and stopped importation.
Akporeha said: “Our over-dependence on imported petroleum products has, unfortunately, made us to be very vulnerable to antics and manipulations of local and foreign manipulators. As a stakeholder in the oil and gas industry, we are not aware of such plan. Sadly, this unhealthy speculation led to panic buying and created slight hitches in the country’s downstream sector.
He said the planned rehabilitation of the refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by 2025 and the intention to meet the local demands for fuel would help in growing the sub-sector and economic activities.
According to him, the country has the fuel that is enough to meet the needs of the country’s over 170 million population and also export petroleum products to other countries, urging stakeholders to set up refineries.
“State governments in the Niger Delta region should try and invest in refineries especially the modular refineries in order to ensure the country gets enough fuel for use. Such refineries can produce fuel of between 10,000 to 50,000 litres, depending on their capacity.This would go a long way in boosting supply of fuel. When they invest in refineries, the country would be able to meet the domestic, commercial and industrial demands for fuel,” he added.
On workers, he said, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) violate the rights of contract workers’ in their employment. He said the gross violation of workers right reached an unfortunate head when Shell contractors brazenly refused to implement an agreement they willingly entered into with the workers since November 2018,he said.
He expressed regret over the refusal of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) and its contractors to recognise the union.
Nigeria is expecting Dangote Petrochemical and Refinery to come on stream soon. The refinery has the capacity to produce 650,000barrels per day, a development, which stakeholders, including the Federal Government is harping on to end the importation of fuel into the country. Also, Integrated Oil Service and other private firms have been approved by the government to set up refineries.
Source: The Nation
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