The Federal Government has been told to clarify its recent stance and policies on the Nigerian downstream petroleum industry, if it intends to attract increased private sector participation and address the challenges facing the industry.
The Federal Government had recently slashed the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol; while it said nothing about deregulation of the downstream sector, but went ahead to add that it would hands off the management of the country’s refineries, as well as discontinue fuel subsidy payments.
Speaking at a virtual workshop for journalists on the oil sector reforms, yesterday, a downstream petroleum industry expert, Ms. Ronke Onadeko, noted that the stakeholders in the Nigerian petroleum industry and potential investors were yet to understand the policy behind the Federal Government’s recent fuel price reduction and the claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that fuel subsidy is gone forever.
Onadeko, who has over 27 years in the downstream petroleum industry, and who is Principal Consultant, Delt-R Company Limited, further called on the NNPC to immediately begin sensitizing Nigerians on the reasons behind for its decision to hands off the management and operations of the country’s refineries.
She stated that the NNPC should provide clarity, especially in the area of the model it plans to adopt as it concerns the refineries, the utilization of the domestic crude allocated to the refineries going forward, as well as other legal and regulatory issues.
Onadeko insisted that until the government clarified its stance on whether it has deregulated or planned to deregulate the downstream sector at a set date, uncertainty would continue to prevail among participants and potential investors in the industry.