New Telegraph

17,483 PPPRA, PEF staff fret over sack, redeployment

END OF ROAD

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has declared end to PPPRA, PEF existence

 

Over 17,483 staff and contractors at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) are jittery over imminent mass redeployment and sack as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, declared an end to the existence of the two agencies. The two agencies, Sylva said, and some others would be affected by the full deregulation of the country’s oil industry.

 

Sylva made the disclosure while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, administrative capital of Nigeria. The minister specifically mentioned PPPRA and PEF as agencies that will no longer be in existence.

 

The two agencies do not, according to checks, operate a transparent system where the number and identities of their staff are made readily available  on their websites. However, an industry source, in an interview, gave conservative number of staff and contractors at the PPPRA and PEF as over 17,483. All these staff will be affected by the gale of sack or redeployment blowing across the industry.

 

The minister particularly noted that it would be an aberration for the two agencies to continue to exist in their present form in a fully deregulated downstream sector.

 

PEF was established to administer uniform prices of Petroleum products throughout the country by reimbursing a marketer’s transportation differentials for petroleum products movement from depots to their sales outlets.

 

The PPPRA was equally established in 2003 to, among other responsibilities, monitor and regulate the supply and distribution, and determine the prices of petroleum products in the country. The Minister of Petroleum maintained that the two regulatory agencies would be subsumed under a new agency with different nomenclature.

 

He said: ”PEF will no longer exist after the Petroleum Industry Bill even PPPRA will no longer exist. They will be subsumed under what is going to be a new authority. “But, I do not want to go into the PIB now.

 

They will reincarnate in a different form but not exactly in this form but of course, I do not want to preempt the passage of the PIB. It is for the National Assembly. So, there is going to be a role for them. They are not going to be obliterated. But they will be subsumed.”

 

Sylva assured Nigerians that plans were in the offing to revive the existing refineries to produce at their respective installed refining capacities. He further expressed confidence that the deregulation of fuel prices at retail outlets would encourage investors to the industry as he insisted that the old order of pricefixing was a big disincentive to investment in local refineries.

 

“Talking about refineries, what we have done is to sequence the rehabilitation of the refineries. We are going to start first with Port Harcourt refinery. In Port Harcourt, we have two refineries; the old refinery and new refinery. The old refinery of 60,000 barrels and the new refinery which is a total capacity of 250,000 refining capacity.

 

“Now, there is going to be the third refinery with Port Harcourt refinery which is going to be private refinery.

 

“Discussion is ongoing in the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna as well. And I want to assure you that with deregulation, it would not be difficult for us to fix these refineries because this will be commercially viable ventures now and properly managed.

 

“Government is not going to continuously manage them. We want to put the operate and manage contract so that the professionals’ managers of refineries will take over the management of these refineries. Before now, because of subsidy, no professional will take over the management of a refinery when he is going to be producing at a loss.

 

But now, every professional manager of the refinery is interested in managing these refineries.

Read Previous

Ikpeazu summons ASUP, others’ leadership over polytechnics’ 30-month unpaid salary

Read Next

Ariella: On a Mission to Teach People to Fire their Bosses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *