We won’t accept PIB if it’s against workers’ interest – PENGASSAN President

Comrade Francis Johnson is the National President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). In this exclusive interview with the Comrade Johnson says while the association is averse to the privatisation of refineri

this time last year, crude oil price was about $112 per barrel. If we had been saving and also encouraging investors to build modular refineries, we’ll not be where we are today.

Virtually everybody was guilty of the lapses of the past. I believe that when government issued about 18 licences to investors to build refineries, what they were thinking was that once they get the licence, government would just give them crude free to sell, earn money and start building. There were times that when some filling stations were given products to sell, they were given a three, fourmonth credit grace and it was after they had sold that they would pay. But some of them would abuse the grace, they would earn profits but would start living ostentatiously. Everybody believed that it is in the oil and gas sector that quick money can be made. It is good that the sales policy is cash-and-carry now.

With government’s pronouncement it would no longer pay subsidy on fuel, would investors still be interested in building private refineries?

I cannot speak for private individuals. But what I believe many investors would want to do now is not put their own money in building their own refineries. They would rather exploit an opportunity to buy government refineries at give-away prices.

We must commend Alhaji Dangote for daring to build his own big refinery. He has assured Nigerians that, hopefully, his refinery will start functioning in 2017, 2018.

What can the government do to permanently control fuel scarcity?

There are what we call distribution and regulation lapses in most of these things. Conveying products from Lagos to Sokoto, for example, will have its negative impact. What Nigerians want is that petroleum products must be affordable, without any excuse. To ensure we get that right, we must build our infrastructure - our railway lines, especially.

Now that the refineries are being reactivated, how can the federal government keep replenishing their stock of crude oil to keep them running considering incessant pipeline vandalism?

The most important thing is that the pipelines must be well-secured. That will be government’s headache. Although government cannot be everywhere, it still must find ways of ensuring the pipelines are always in shape to enable the refineries get their crude stock. So long as the pipelines are being punctured, the refineries will have difficulties operating smoothly and there will be dislocations in fuel supply across the country.

There is the belief that staffers of these refineries and those of other government oil agencies, who are incidentally your members, are involved in this sabotage as technically, a layman may not possess the skill to burst pipelines. What is your take on this?

We don’t condone indiscipline. We always sanction our members to serve as deterrent to others. So, if X, Y and Z have been used as examples and sanctioned and others can see the consequences, it will deter others.

What politics is currently delaying the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)?

The PIB is an executive bill and when a bill is an executive one, that means it is the government that has sponsored it, and it believes in it. It also means the sponsor will more easily enjoy the support of majority at the National Assembly.

It beats us that a bill that is an executive bill could not be passed at the 7th assembly. The advantage of the PIB is the legal framework on how the industry will operate pertaining to the Joint Venture cash call, host community agitations, security of pipelines, local content, diversification, divestment and crude oil production. Now, in working to ensure the PIB is passed, we have to be careful we don’t shoot ourselves in the feet. For our workers, we have to be sure their jobs are safe. But I believe that the PIB, when passed and is being implemented, will bring work expansion and there will be more jobs, not people losing jobs. Of course, we won’t accept it if it is counter-productive.

Are you comfortable with the planned unbundling of the NNPC?

I am comfortable with anything that will make it (NNPC) effective in terms of efficiency, performance, growth and job creation.