Ijeoma Agudosi
Oil and Gas Service Providers Association of Nigeria, OGSPAN has endorsed the transformation programmes of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director, GMD, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
OGSPAN was the first NGO in Nigeria to advocate for the removal of fuel subsidy and the corruption inherent in it.
The Association is urging the newly appointed GMD of NNPC to work on the production and refining of different petroleum products in order to meet domestic demand of industries and other consumers.
OGSPAN indicated that increased refining will also culminate in a significant reduction in imports as well as generate additional foreign exchange through export of refined petroleum products to other countries.
It maintained that there are hardly any industries that have no need for an oil and gas products or by-products for their operations.
The association indicated that the industry is important; especially it is indispensable, to the social and economic transformation and industrialisation of our country.
In a statement, the OGSPAN National President, Mazi Colman Obasi, maintained that some of the nation’s refineries can refine as many as 32 different types of petroleum products.
OGSPAN indicated that the rehabilitation and increased capacities of the refineries would assist to create more employment opportunities, attract new investments, spread of domestic technologies and capacity building young graduates in particular and youths in general.
The association maintained that the Niger Delta is the home for upstream oil and gas operations where Nigeria gets most of its crude oil and gas and ipsofacto the revenue the government uses to run the country.
It indicated that exploration and production facilities, oil tankers, a network of pipelines, rigs, terminals and others dot the landscape of the region.
“What are critically lacking in Nigeria are the vast oil and gas manufacturing plants (downstream services) that would usually use the resources of the industry to locally produce oil and gas equipment and use the by-products of crude oil and gas to process them into industrial and domestic uses as done in other oil producing countries.”
“The absence of these vast resources/services and the technology to achieve it is largely responsible for the underdevelopment of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and transformation of the Niger Delta and the rest of the Nigerian economy. If the new GMD and President Buhari administration can achieve these, they would have set Nigeria on the part of industrialisation.”
“On marketing and distribution of petroleum products, we urge the new GMD to be more proactive in ensuring regular availability of petroleum products throughout the country and that marketers do not make payment without availability of petroleum products. It affects the working capital of marketers/ investors and also deprives them of obtaining loan facilities from banks,” it noted.
It maintained that more efforts should be made to restore sanity in the distribution of petroleum products at the refineries and depots by ensuring that un-authorised and unscrupulous persons or agents vacate the premises.
OGSPAN called for the construction of modern facilities, including effective depots business in the nation.
The association maintained that it has the professional acumen to assist the GMD to achieve the organisational goals of NNPC.
“With his pedigree, and the policy of change of the President Muhammadu Buhari, we are certain that Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu will prove his mettle in handing over to Nigeria a new business oriented NNPC and oil and gas in Nigeria,” it added