PENGASSAN opposes sale of refineries

The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Osifo Festus, has expressed its opposition to the call for the federal government to sell the four refineries in the country after it has been rehabilitated and put in good shape.

Festus, who spoke during the National Executive Council of PENGASSAN Tuesday in Abuja, said the government should instead be a minority shareholder in the refineries while allowing the private sector to lead their operation.

“We have been very clear, government should fix the refinery, we do not support the sale of any refinery and we will fight it with every arsenal at our disposal. Once it is fixed, the government can now transit and become a minority shareholder like the case of NLNG. We can replicate the NLNG model because it has worked in the past and it is working today, so we can bring that to ensure the refineries are working in the future.”

“Our position has been that there are some basic things the government can do, our push has led to the rehabilitation going on, especially in Port Harcourt, this is a departure from what was done in the past where turnaround maintenance is only done on the pages of newspapers. Today I can confirm that the level of work done in port Harcourt is greatly unprecedented.”

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He said the reason it is agitating for the government to fix the refineries is the creation of more jobs for youth

On whether the price of the price of fuel would increase to N750 if subsidy is removed, he said it is false, saying, “today, the sole importer of PMS into Nigeria is the NNPC and it is using an exchange rate of CBN which gives about 400 or 450 depending the day or window, so if you compute that into the model today, PMS should be selling at the region of N300 or 3N50”

He said the government should identify the sector to channel the money used for petroleum subsidy before it is removed, stating that infrastructure should be a consideration has it could be monitored by citizens.