Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the Senate to urgently pass Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) because the bill will curb the excesses of Oil thieves.
National president of the association, Mr. Francis Johnson said this during a training programme organised for executive members of the labour union on “Managing New Skills in Labour Relations” in Benin City.
He said in light of President Muhammadu Buhari to reform the Oil Sector, PIB will further ease the implementation of these reforms.
Johnson said “Let the government come out with a strong legal framework that can stabilise the industry. Look at GSM; it was not like this when it started.
“So, you can look at giving Nigerians more licences; let Nigerians build refineries because they can also create jobs. When you have a legal framework for oil and gas, the issue of pipeline vandalism, state of our refineries will be taken care of.”
He also lamented that Oil companies are using the excuse of falling crude oil prices to make PENGASSAN members redundant.
He said “Oil companies, oil majors, (International Oil Companies) IOCs should not be taking advantage of the fallen crude oil prices. You cannot say that because there is a fall in crude oil price, which is something that is temporary and fluctuating, you want to make our members redundant and you are employing new people.”
PIB was passed by the House of Representatives in June.
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