Oil workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have called on the in-coming Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the oil and gas sector of the economy to address the plethora of challenges currently plaguing the sector.
Some of the challenges, according to the workers, are pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, state of the refineries, persistent scarcity of petroleum products, subsidy payment controversies, divestment, illegal transfer or allocation of oil blocks, irregular Joint Venture (JV) funding with emphasis on delay in cash call payment, inadequate funding of government agencies in the oil and gas sector and undue interference in the management of government agencies.
Francis Johnson, the president of the union, who made the call, said that many issues in the sector required urgent attention from the government to reposition the industry for efficient and effective delivery of its benefits to Nigerians.
He noted that one major first step to take by the government would be the convening of an all-inclusive stakeholders’ forum to critically examine and
proffer workable and enduring solutions to all the problems in the interest of the economy.
“All the subsectors of the oil and gas industry have one challenge or the other and all these challenges are affecting the deliveries of the benefits of our God-given hydrocarbon resources to the country and the entire people of Nigeria.
“These challenges are results of past neglects, wrong policies and policy summersault in some areas of the sub-sectors. All these are inflicting pains on Nigerians who ought to be enjoying the benefits of the natural resources that God bequeathed to the country.”
The union leader said that the stakeholders’ forum will chart ways of attending to the critical challenges affecting the industry and evolve a framework that will facilitate its stability, adding that machineries should be set in motion for periodic meetings to evaluate and review the success and workability of the framework.
