THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has described the reduction of the price of premium motor spirit by N2 as ridiculous.
PENGASSAN Chairman, Port Harcourt Zone, Mr. Azubuike M. Azubuike, said it was shocking that some people were jubilating over a reduction in the price of petrol by a meagre N2.
Azubuike, who made this remark through a telephone interview on Wednesday, argued that rather than make such insignificant reduction, government should pass the Petroleum Industry Bill to law.
He reasoned that with the passage of the PIB into law, there would be a lot of investment in the oil and gas industry.
Azubuike said, “If there is any word like ridiculous, yes, the reduction of the price of petrol by N2 is ridiculous. How much is crude oil in the international market? Why is it that people are jubilating over the removal of N2 from the pump price of petrol?
“There are a lot of things that government can do that will make people to be happy. For an instance, there is no investment in oil and gas due to the non-passage of PIB into law. If government should pass the PIB into law, there would a lot of investments in the oil and gas industry and people can get jobs directly and indirectly.
“That is what we want government to do. Nothing can be more ridiculous than removing N2 from the price of petrol and people are jubilating. It is not worth it and how many filling stations are selling at that new price? Reduction by N2 is insignificant and has no economic importance as far as I am concerned.”
The PENGASSAN zonal chairman also expressed the need for the nation’s refineries to be put in order while the plan to construct modular refineries should be implemented.
“Putting the refineries in order and make the proposed modular refineries work so that we can be able to produce more PMS and other petroleum products will help us to flood the West African market with more petroleum products and improve our revenue. Again, it will help the country to reduce the rate of unemployment,” he added.
Describing Nigerians as one of the greatest and most understanding set of people to govern, Azubuike lamented that their leaders did not have their (Nigerians) development at heart.
