Again, oil industry workers recommend NLNG model for local refineries

Mallam Mele Kyari, NNPC GMD

Sam Ikeotuonye

Lagos — Oil industry workers in the country have again recommended the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, business model for the operation of the nation’s perennially troubled refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.

They had severally recommended the model, whereby the international oil companies, IOCs, would be made to own stakes in the refineries, to the Federal Government during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office when Dr. Ibe Kachikwu was the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Mr. Ndukaku Ohaeri, again brought up the recommendation during a recent visit to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, at the NNPC Towers in Abuja.

Ohaeri urged the management of the corporation to take a look at the possibility of adopting the NLNG business model for the refineries in order to ensure that they operate profitably on a sustainable basis.

According to him, the option could bring new life to the plants, which had for over 20 years been operating far below their capacities.

The PENGASSAN president commended the NNPC leadership for supporting the union in capacity building which had paid off in the quality of engagement and sustenance of industrial harmony.

Also during the visit, the President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Mr. William Akporeha, commended the management of NNPC for its timely intervention in the disputes between the union and the IOCs.

This, he said, had helped a great deal in averting crisis in the industry. He called on the NNPC group managing director to equally wade into the persisting casualisation of Nigerians by the foreign oil companies.