PENGASSAN tasks incoming govt on rehabilitation of refineries

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the incoming government to ensure the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation of the nation’s petroleum refineries. President of PENGASSAN, Mr. Festus Osifo said this at the 7th Triennial National Delegates Conference of the association in Abuja. The theme of the conference is: ‘Equity and Social Justice; Advocacy for Equal Opportunities for all Workers”. Osifor said that completion of the ongoing rehabilitation of refineries and associated pipelines would be in the interest of the Nigeria’s economy. He said the union will also continue to advocate for the adoption of the NLNG model in the running of the Nation’s four Refineries when fully revamped. The union also called for the creation of an enabling environment for the establishment and operation of modular and private Refineries. “We are happy that the current NNPC management is favourably disposed to such. With the Dangote refinery, there will be a significant impact on the fuel supply dynamics. “This will also ease pressure on the economy, especially when combined with the ongoing revamping of the three refineries in the country. “The incoming government must do all within its reach to see to the conclusion of the current rehabilitation effort and initiatives that are currently in place so that our nation’s refinery will come up in no time,” he said. He charged the incoming administration of the President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu to ensure that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was comprehensively implemented. He added that, as the new government comes in, the union urged it to fast track the implementation of different sections of the act to the benefit of Nigerians. “The provision of the act that will further deepen the development of the midstream sector of the Nigeria oil and gas industry should be aggressively implemented. “This will lead to the provision of gas infrastructure that will in turn aid gas development and help in harnessing the vast gas reserves in the country. “We warn that the implementation of the PIA must not be made to pass through arm-twisting tactical bureaucratic monsters that bedeviled the PIB. The Host Community Development fund and trust should be immediately constituted,” he said. Also speaking, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Joe Ajaero called for greater solidarity and collaboration between PENGASSAN and other unions under in the Trade Union Congress (TUC). He said that this would enable the NLC and TUC to forge a stronger front in fighting for workers’ rights and welfare in the country. Also, the Chairperson of the event and an Executive Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mrs. Zainab Gobir called on everyone not to project Nigeria in a bad light. ”This will de-market our country. It is therefore important for us not to wash our dirty linens in public. Gobir said that people should find better ways to raise issues with the government, with a view to addressing them.

Oil production falls below benchmark to 998.6bpd in April

Nigeria’s oil production in April 2023 fell below the one million mark – the lowest in seven months – as the production figure fell to 998,602 barrels per day (bpd). This is a 21.26 per cent decline compared to March, when output was 1,268,202 bpd. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) disclosed this in its latest crude oil and condensate production data for April 2023. The volume of production is at its lowest point in the last seven months. In the previous year, oil production fell below one million bpd in August and September owing to several issues, including oil theft. According to the NUPRC report, oil production decreased from 1.517 million bpd in March 2023 to 1.245 million bpd in April 2023, with the addition of condensate. Condensate is a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons, similar to a light (high API) crude oil. It is usually separated from a natural gas stream at the point of production (field separation) when the temperature and pressure of the gas are dropped to atmospheric conditions. Speaking about the current oil output on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, said that oil production is currently about one million bpd below “its technically allowable capacity”. Komolafe, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner for Economy, Regulatory, And Strategic Planning, NUPRC, Kelechi Ofoegbu, at a host communities sensitisation workshop, attributed the low oil production to a number of issues, including the energy transition’s impact on hydrocarbon funding, a lack of investments, and insecurity. “While the commission is prioritising efforts towards increasing oil and gas production and ensuring maximum federation revenue through the optimisation of the oil and gas value chain, the efforts have been constrained by a myriad of challenges. “These challenges range from insecurity, low investment, and de-prioritisation of funding of hydrocarbon development arising from the energy transition. “Currently, Nigeria has the technical allowable capacity to produce about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. However, arising from the highlighted challenges, our current production hovers around 1.5 million barrels of oil and condensate per day,” he said.