Joseph Bakare/Hyacinth Chinweuba
The absence of Petroleum Legislation has caused the country about $200 billion in investment, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has claimed.
PENGASSAN said this in a position paper sent to the Chairman and members of the Senate Joint Committee in the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill in Abuja.
The union came out with the position paper signed in Lagos at the end of a seven-man committee meeting headed by Chika Onuegbu.
According to the paper, the country loses 15 billion dollars annually in investments withheld or diverted by investors.
”We will not have also lost 100 billion dollars potential earnings in five years from 2010 to 2015 had the PIB been passed into law in 2009,” the union said in the paper.
PENGSSAN, in the paper, said that it looked forward to the passage of the entire bill because it dealt with important aspects of the petroleum industry reform in Nigeria.
“PENGASSAN’s position on the oil and gas reform remained the same whether the bill remains as a single document or broken into parts since the Minister of State for Petroleum has said that PIB will be divided into six,” it said.
The paper said that the objective of the reform of the sector for national interest was secured in transparent and accountability.
It said that the broad policy thrust on institutional framework was aimed at ensuring that Nigeria applied global best practice for the administration of the oil and gas industry.
The paper advised the senators not to harken to the concerns of stakeholders and workers and ensure that the Bill was passed.