- calls for full operational Refineries
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has expressed concern over the power crisis, citing persistent Grid collapses and other systemic failures as worrisome.
It noted that in 2024 alone, the country recorded 12 grid collapses, along recurring tripping of transmission lines and the inability to generate adequate electricity, with output consistently hovering between 3000 and 4000 megawatts.
The President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Festus Osifo, who made this known at the Association’s National Executive Meeting in Lagos, however commended the Federal government for decentralising the power sector.
“We hereby call on the president to ensure that our electricity infrastructure are well protected, to get our first eleven to man that ministry, so that at the end of the day, we will have the best of it.”, he said.
The Pengassan President, who also confirmed partial operations of the Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries, emphasised that full operational Refineries would not only generate employment opportunities but also enhance the nation’s capacity to earn foreign exchange.
Cue in: Beyond being energy secured, it is going to provide a lot of primary and secondary jobs. It will also give us opportunity to earn foreign exchange when the refineries are fully operational, because the value chain of a Refinery are enormous”, Osifo said.
Comrade Osifo identified high exchange rate as the primary factor responsible for the high cost of petrol in the country, adding that if the naira is strenghtened to less than N1000 per dollar, petrol could be sold for less than 600 naira pet liter.
