PENGASSAN Urge FG to Compel Oil Majors to Build Refineries

Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has asked the federal government to make a provision in the  current Petroleum Industry Bill to compel oil producing company in the country to build refinery locally.

Rising from a three-day workshop held by its Lagos zone in Ibadan, Oyo state, PENGASSAN said that the refinery could either be built jointly or individually and ensure that 30 percent of production is refined in the country.

Reverend Folorunso Oginni and Comrade.O.F Osuagwu, chairman and secretary respectively in a communiqué said the development would go a long way in addressing some of the ills of the petroleum sector.

“This will help address the issue of insecurity occasioned by unemployment, subsidy and also set a competitive environment in petroleum product marketing and distribution in Nigeria,” the union said.

The oil workers demanded that issues of multiple taxations in the current Petroleum Industry Bill at the National Assembly should be addressed.

They also recommended that an arbitration process  be established to entertain complaints from aggrieved individuals and host communities.

The oil workers called for grey areas in the Nigerian Content Development Act to be addressed in the Petroleum Industry Bill.

They want PENGASSAN and NUPENG included in the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board to provide first-hand information about the true situation of local content in the industry.

The oil workers also urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the bill in view of the growing revenue loss to the nation as a result of the delay in its passage into law.

They further called for full implementation of recommendations of investigations and probe panels on fuel subsidy, pension funds and the NNPC.