Experts at a roundtable on the petroleum industry reforms have recommended among others things that the president and petroleum minister must not be given arbitrary power in any legislature, particularly, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is still awaiting passage.
The communique from the roundtable, which has been presented to the All Progressives Congress (APC) transition committee, recommended that the functions of the minister be limited to policy development and administration while operation and regulation be left to professionals subject to strict oversight.
The event which had in attendance experts like the former presidential adviser on petroleum and energy, Dr Emmanuel Egbogah, former executive secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Reginald Stanley, as well as an energy consultant who convened the forum, Habib Hamza, also called for a thorough review of the PIB with a view to expunging areas of conflict.
The roundtable also submitted that all agencies in the sector be managed by professionals with verifiable pedigree and must run like wholly commercial entities with production targets set for them. It noted also that other factors together with the huge debt burden on the country makes the continuation of the subsidy regime on petroleum products unsustainable.
“The president should use his enormous goodwill and trust earned as a result of his reputation of integrity, together with the present situation of products supply, to speak factually to the nation and explain why subsidies must go,” the communique stated.
It added that the government must proceed to recover all illicitly gained monies from people who benefited from them, adding that “90 per cent of all private jets bought in the country in 2013 can be directly traced to proceeds from transactions in the oil industry.”
The forum, which also had the presidents of oil sector workers unions in attendance, further called for the need to enhance refining capacity.
“It was agreed that existing refineries should be valued and sold to interested buyers within six months of the administration’s life,” the communique stated.
It added that immediate licensing of modular refineries and topping plants should commence with upward graduation of the ratio of locally refined products to imported products tied to strictly monitored timelines.
While noting that funding Joint Venture operations has proven unsustainable and called for the development of structured finance instruments, the communique added that the management of the proposed host community fund in the PIB should depend on the streamlining of the functions and activities of the ministry of Niger Delta, Niger Delta development Commission and the Amnesty Programme.
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