The controversial issue of deregulation of price of gasoline got a positive endorsement as Nigeria’s lawmakers gave their approval for total deregulation of prices of petroleum products in the country, noting it is the way to go.
The legislators gave their approval for immediate deregulation of petroleum products prices when the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) paid an inspection visit to the 650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Plant at Lekki Free Zone in Lagos.
Speaking after the tour of the $15 billion facility, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream and Petroleum Industry Bill, Senator Sabo Mohammed, said: “Refineries are part of the downstream operations in the petroleum industry and with the new PIB coming up, we intend to visit all the other refineries, not only Dangote Refinery. We were in Kaduna yesterday. We are going to Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries, so that we know what the industry entails and what needs to be done to be captured in the Bill, so there will be ease of operations.
“I’m totally overwhelmed with what I saw. Deregulation is definitely inevitable. It will have to happen, either way. Either the country does it immediately or it will take a natural course. There is no two ways about it.
“Looking at this investment, it is unbelievable that a single individual can confront this kind of project at this time of our economic life. But it’s good to say and I’m happy to say that this kind of edifice and with the potentials, apart from job creation, I’m sure that by the time this industry comes on stream, even the local currency (the naira) is going to be strengthened because we spend millions of dollars importing finished petroleum products and here, we are, a single entity can satisfy the whole country’s requirements for finished petroleum products.
“That’s a good omen for the economy, and we, as members of the National Assembly, are going to make sure that we give him all the necessary support because it’s like a matter of life and death. If you don’t help this industry, and this refinery to come on stream, it means the Nigerian economy is going to be doomed. There are no two ways about it.
“That’s why this PIB, we are going to do everything within our power to see that we lay it on the floor of the Senate in the next one and half month. So, at most, we are looking at two months to pass the PIB. It could be less. But we are working day and night and definitely, we are going to see it through.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Upstream, Senator Albert Bassey, noted that there would be no challenges in passing the PIB. He said both the executive and the legislature and the stakeholders are on the same platform this time around. So, nothing can stop it. This is the only way to go for our country.
Asked if the concerns of members of the Oil Producers Trade Section, which includes the oil majors, on some contentious provisions in the Bill would not pose a stumbling block to the passage, Bassey said: “We are engaging them and at the end of the day everybody will come to terms with the fact that we have a good law. It’s the only way to go because we want to make our industry very competitive and I believe that what you have seen here is local content 100 per cent, and for the first time, we can tell the whole world that Nigerians can do it even much better.”
On appropriate pricing for fuel and gas especially as natural gas is taking the centrestage in the energy mix, Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator James Manager, said: “The PIB will take care of all that, that is why we are here and you know gas is the wealth for the future. So, we are taking everything together holistically. The PIB is a comprehensive document that will bring all the oil industry bills, all the laws together in one document. So, gas is adequately taken care of in the Bill, including the host communities, everything put together.”
