OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Petroleum & Natural Gas Association Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN has urged the federal government to speed up work to further develop the gas sector.
The call was made in an address presented by the president of the association, Comrade Festus Osifo at its National Executive Council, NEC meeting held in Imo state during the week.
According to him, the gas sector has the potential to create thousands of jobs, solve domestic gas needs while increasing revenue for improvement of our economy.
“Nigeria’s gas reserves currently estimated at 182 TCF (trillion cubic feet) with a projected growth rate of over 70% by 2025 have the potential of being a key player in the emerging global natural gas market in the world. Sadly, even with this huge gas reserve, not much has been achieved in areas of effective exploitation and utilization for both commercial and domestic purposes. With electric power generation at its lowest ebb, army of unemployed youths, climate change caused by greenhouse emissions from flare-out, it becomes imperative that we must exploit the gas reserves now and use it to tackle some of the listed challenges. While we commend the Government in its efforts in boosting gas utilization through various gas initiatives and projects, it is pertinent that we hasten the pace of work as the sector has the huge potential to create thousands of jobs, solve our domestic gas needs while increasing revenue for improvement of our economy.”
Regarding the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, the Association in partnership with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG canvassed for a Bill that will attract more investments to the oil and gas sector and lay more emphasis on local content which will in-turn create more job opportunities for its members and Nigerians.
On the refineries, PENGASSAN reiterates its advocacy on the need to fix the Nation’s refineries and its inclusion in the steering committee as set up by Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
“NNPC places a moral burden on us to continue the agitation for the rehabilitation of the four refineries. This will not only increase our revenue base but will also provide more job opportunities to our youths. We can confirm that some significant milestones have been achieved in this regard. Our commitment is to ensure that agreed specifications are adhered to by the contractors and we shall live up to expectation in this regard while working with other relevant stakeholders”.
The Association said it is constructively engage companies who are involved in anti-labour practices such as casualisation to desist from such.
“To be on a high moral standard, we as an Association have converted the remaining secretariat staff who were hitherto not on full employment to full-time employees thereby ensuring that we practice what we preach. Though issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic may be a stumbling block in our quest to stamp out modern day slavery in the industry but we shall mount the pressure, collaborate and negotiate where necessary to ensure that we achieve good traction in this regard”, it said.
