PENGASSAN urges FG to boost stake in Dangote refinery to 45%
25 September 2024 |
6:19 am
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the Federal Government to increase its stake in Dangote’s Refinery from seven per cent to at least 45 per cent to enable assurance and energy security.
Naira devaluation, not subsidy, affecting petrol price, says Osifo
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the Federal Government to increase its stake in Dangote’s Refinery from seven per cent to at least 45 per cent to enable assurance and energy security.
PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, during a briefing for the presentation of its communiqué from the third edition of PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit (PEALS) 2024 in Lagos, also said it was the devaluation of the naira that affected fuel price, not subsidy removal.
Osifo noted energy security as cardinal for the survival of any nation; hence, the citizens’ demand for energy affordability, accessibility and availability.
He urged the government to partner 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 a 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,” he said.
Osifo emphasised on the expansion of pipelines that could be used in the delivery of refined petroleum products across the length and breadth of the country to reduce the pressure on roads by trucks carrying these products.
To achieve energy security, he pointed out, energy must be affordable; hence, in ensuring affordability, the government must do all it can to stabilise the exchange rate, as the continuous slide of the naira will greatly hamper the affordability of energy in Nigeria.
In ensuring local production of petroleum products, he urged the Federal Government to ramp up efforts to make the nation’s four refineries work.
He stressed that once operational, the government should divest majority shareholdings and own at most 49 per cent of the shareholding in the four refineries, noting that core investors would be brought in to take the 51 per cent as applicable in Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Also Osifo said the devaluation of the naira is the major reason PMS became unaffordable for Nigerians, noting that no government floats its currency above 100 per cent.
“If, for example, our exchange rate was at N450 to a dollar, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) would be selling for around N320 or N350 per litre. So, the main issue wasn’t the removal of subsidy; it was devaluation.
“We are still pushing that the government cannot float its currency 100 per cent. No government in the world does that. Maybe the United States, because they are standard references. But in every other country, go and check the history of China, Japan and Russia; they manage their currency one way or another. It is also difficult in totality to float a currency where you don’t control the supply, per se,” he stated.
The association called on the government to develop and strengthen the country’s oil and gas value chain to ensure a more efficient and reliable distribution system downstream.
For PENGASSAN, without such a system, the country would continue to face recurring fuel shortages as its reliance on a truck-based distribution system is deficient and inadequate to meet the demands of Nigerians, given its vulnerability and disruptions due to bad roads, flooding and ad-hoc logistics arrangements.
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