…Make Oil Sector Export-Driven’

The immediate past
spokesman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Mr Oluwaseyi Gambo, has urged the president-elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari to redirect the Nigerian oil sector from import-driven to export-driven.
Gambo, who made the appeal recently while speaking with newsmen in Abuja said importation of petroleum products is a huge cost on the nation’s foreign reserves and a fertile ground for untold fraud and corruption.
“More than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue is gotten from this sector, so we cannot ignore its importance,” he said.
The ex-PENGASSAN chief advised the president-elect to consider privatisation of the country’s refineries and to ensure that all stakeholders’ interest were taken care of.
He explained that privatisation would allow government to concentrate on policy formulation and engender more competition in the downstream subsector.
He urged Buhari to tap from his expertise in oil and gas sector to make it more competitive remarking that the president-elect knows the dynamics of the sector both locally and internationally.
“I expect him to make the industry more competitive because when he was minister of the sector, Nigeria was the bridge of many nations because of our crude oil reserve and quality,” he said.
He noted, however, that today, things have greately changed such that many countries in the Gulf of Guinea axis have crude oil in commercial quantity.
“USA, which used to be the largest importer of our oil has found a better alternative in the Shale oil, so we need to be more competitive again to be relevant,” he said.