President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Mr. Igwe Achese, has reiterated the need for government to build more refineries to meet the demand of Nigerians for petroleum products.

The NUPENG chief said that it would be counter-productive for the economy if the Federal Government deregulated the sector without refurbishing existing refineries and building new ones.

Achese, who spoke at an interactive forum with oil workers and journalists in Lagos on recently, said that government should provide the necessary infrastructure before it deregulates the oil industry.

“We have always said it, we are not against deregulation, but we insist that refineries must function optimally, there must be constant electricity, effective rail system and good roads. It is only when the infrastructure is in place will deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry be economically reasonable,” he said.

The unionist said it was unpleasant to continue to operate an oil-import driven economy when the country was blessed with abundance of it. He said if the government totally deregulated the economy without putting certain infrastructure in place, the people and the nation would suffer.

On the casualisation of workers, Achese said the problem was still very prevalent in the oil and gas sector. “Nigeria’s labour law is clear about the place of casual workers in any sector of its economy. The law says that if the job of a staff is more than six months, the person should be made a permanent staff. Unfortunately, this does not obtain in many oil companies,” he said.

Achese said that the trend in some of the oil companies was to renew the contract of casual workers every six months so that they remain permanently in that category.

He said NUPENG was poised to tackle the problem and work towards getting permanent staff status for its members.