PENGASSAN Urges Govt To Increase Stake In Dangote Refinery
By Abimbola Abdullah
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on the Federal Government to increase its stake in Dangote refinery to 45 percent in order to foster product availability to meet local demands.
The petroleum workers, in communique of the 2024 PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit, said the Federal Government should increase its shareholding stake in Dangote’s Refinery from the current 7% to at least 45%, adding that this would ensure further energy assurance and security for the citizens.
President, PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, while officially presenting the communique to the media in Lagos, also called on the Federal Government to urgently fix the four national refineries and divest the majority share to the private sector.
He said the refineries should be modeled after the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) model, which appears to have been successful.
“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”.
Bemoaning a situation whereby the inter land petroleum depots in six geopolitical zones of the country are dilapidated, Osifo stressed the need for the government to get the depots fixed in collaboration with the private sector so as to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products and enhance the national strategic reserve.
PENGASSAN also called for the expansion of pipelines that could be used in the delivery of refined petroleum products across the length and breadth of the country as this would reduce the pressure put on the roads by trucks carrying the products.
The group also recommended digital intervention to curtail crude oil theft; re-engineer security architecture; and ensure ease of doing business, by reducing bureaucracies or complex regulations that make the gas investment unattractive to investors, among others.
Osifo said those caught for crude oil theft should be punished severely by competent courts of jurisdiction to serve as a deterrent to others.
Urging the government to implement the provision for host communities in the Petroleum Industry Act. He said the summit was worried that three years after the passage of the PIA the section of the act had not been implemented at all.
The act stipulated that 3% of the operational revenue of the oil companies should be contributed to the host community fund.
He enjoined the government to also create a business friendly environment by creating incentives for more investors to tap into the nation’s abundant gas resources.
In the upstream, it suggested an amendment of the PIA to include the divestment framework, noting that the previous divestments are not yielding results as the companies lack financial capacity to sustain and expand the divested oil wells.
The group also enjoined the Nigerian energy sector to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancement to improve productivity and sustainability, tackle oil theft and smuggling.
