‘PENGASSAN Not Opposed To Deregulation Policy’

The Petroleum and Natu
ral Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has declared that it is not opposed to the government deregulation policy of the oil and gas sector.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos last Wednesday, the National President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Francis Johnson said the unions in the oil and gas sector are not opposed or against the deregulation policy in any way.
Johnson said the unions want deliberate steps to be taken to address the challenges faced by the sector, especially the issues of employment, sectoral development, corruption, inefficiency and profitability for the government.
He said the labour movement in the country has been in the forefront of restructuring of the downstream sector through the various participations in interventionist committees set up by successive governments to draw up effective templates of addressing  the problems and challenges in the sect or.
The union’s boss said the unions had previously proposed phased deregulation of the downstream sector as a panacea for the government to fix the ailing refineries, grant license.  Private refineries in the country, stimulate investment drive, improve human capital capacity, institute legal and regulatory framework to engender sectoral development within the oil and gas sector.
He said the country is not ready for full deregulation yet until those concerns expressed by the unions are addressed.
Johnson further explained that deregulation and subsidy are two different regimes as the nation either deregulates or susbsidise, stressing that it can only be one of the two and not both at the same time.
He urged for a systematic review of all aspects of the supply and distribution of products including regular turn-around maintenance of the nation four refineries for full sufficiency of local fuel production