• PENGASSAN wants workers’ salaries in dollar equivalent
• ‘N’Assembly will defend Nigerians’ interests’

Twenty-five licenses given to companies for establishment of refineries in the last 10 years remain dormant.

Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, at a summit organised by Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

“As of today, close to 25 licenses issued to companies to establish refineries are dormant. As long as we do not have certainty around pricing, no one will put in his money. And as long as we have arbitrage, things will be difficult,” Kyari said.

Speaking on allegations of corruption in the oil sector, he explained that once the price differential between one location and another is substantial, fraud is not unlikely.

“People will do everything possible to move products between locations; whatever it is, whether it is drugs or petroleum. This will happen, and people will cut corners as long as the market does not determine prices,” he said.

“Should the market always determine the price of commodities? Yes. But should it be managed? I agree. And that is what a framework of managing pricing can do for a country,” Kyari noted.

He added that every country has one form of subsidy or the other, and there is no reason the Nigerian government should not implement one.

PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, who lamented the impact of subsidy removal and floating of naira-dollar exchange rates on workers, said both policy decisions only benefitted the government and oil and gas companies in Nigeria.

He urged the Federal Government to follow the steps of Angola, which is paying its workers’ salaries in dollar equivalent to prevent erosion of income by inflation.

He described the theme of the summit, ‘Petroleum Downstream Deregulation and Gas Utilisation for a Sustainable Energy Future in Nigeria’, as apt, given multifaceted challenges and opportunities inherent in the nation’s energy sector, vis-a-vis global energy demand.

Also, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who was represented by Agom Jerigbe, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, said introduction of subsidy on petrol was meant to give Nigerians a better life. It, however, turned sour as a result of massive corruption and inefficiency.

He promised: “Nigerians should watch out for this Assembly in the middle of our national life and the front lines of action in defense of our people.”