Oil Workers Vow to Resist Sale of Refineries

Oil Workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has vowed to resist plans by the Government to sell the nations refineries without considering available options and rational rule for such lucrative business deal.

The oil workers alleged that the government advertently underfunded the refineries and deliberately refused to carry out Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) and supply crude to the refineries so as to have reasons for selling it to their cronies.

In a statement made available to the Nation, the union said instead of opting for the outright sale of the refineries, the government should adopt a modified model tailored towards the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) Model with the National Oil Company (NOC) as owners of the four refineries holding a substantial minority share, while core investors/local participation hold the working majority with the staff, trade unions, and the host communities hold minority shares.

Speaking against the backdrop of the plan by the Federal Government to privatise the four refineries by 2014, the PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, said that the workers will resist the privatisation of the four state-owned refineries because it is against the national interest.

He alleged that government should deal with the problem of vandalisation of pipelines that hamper supply crude oil to the refineries as well as carry out TAM and see whether the refineries will work or not.”

He noted that the issue of the privatisation of the refineries has been on the front burner since President Olusegun Obasanjo regime, when the government through the Bureau for Public Enterprises hastily sold the refineries, adding that this step was reversed by the late President Umar Yar’Adua.

Comrade Ogun said, “The proposed sale of the refineries is against the overall national interest and in the interest of the few, who are lurking around the corridor of power to milk the country dry. How can a country be selling all its national assets all in the name of privatisation? For whose benefit are such sales?

“If you recall, Late President Yar’Adua reversed the privatisation of the refineries done by former President Obasanjo, with a promised to carry out Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) on them to ensure that they are sold not as scrap. On assumption to office, President Goodluck Jonathan also promised to carry out TAM on the...