The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has said there is nothing to worry about over the five per cent levy on petrol as stipulated in the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill that was recently passed by the National Assembly.

According to PENGASSAN, workers in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has yet to find an aspect of the bill that is counterproductive to the industry, adding that the association participated in the various engagements that led to the establishment of the PIGB.

The Senate in plenary, on Wednesday, passed the harmonised version of the PIGB, which seeks to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and merge its subsidiaries such as the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency into one entity, among other provisions.

The National Public Relations Officer, PENGASSAN, Fortune Obi, said the association found nothing to worry about in the contents of the bill.

He said, “I just came back from one of the PIB review sessions and we had an extensive deliberation on the element of the bill where most of the issues were identified. One important thing is that the association was fully engaged during the period of putting the bill together and so there is nothing to worry about.

“The good news is that there is a legal framework now that establishes the components of the elements of the bill, unlike when the PPPRA would at times tell you that it can’t give you the actual price of the commodity at a given instance. This framework also establishes the foundation for a new oil company for the nation. So, as an organisation, we’ve not seen it as an issue yet.”

Obi said if PENGASSAN found any aspect of the bills that did not favour oil workers or Nigerians, the association would counter it.
punchng.com

Well,it's a good thing they were carried along in the formulation of the bill,if not,it's going to be a serious issue which might cause "strikes" in the sector. . Good thing that it has not come to that!!