♛elotiTV♛ FG Emphasises Need To Deregulate Downstream Sector: FG Emphasises Need To Deregulate Downstream Sector NAN — March 18, 2014 The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Tuesday said that Nigeria could no longer sustain payment of subsidy to oil marketers. She said that there was the need to deregulate the downstream oil sector to attract investors. Alison-Madueke made the observation at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja. She said that in considering the deregulation of the downstream sector, government must strike a balance in implementing some of its policies to meet the needs of Nigerians. According to her, subsidy payable to marketers on imported refined petroleum products cannot be sustained. “Now that reforms in power sector are underway, the next focus should be reforms in the downstream sub-sector. “The continued regulation of the downstream sector has its positive and negative impact on the economy, but the negative effect is more than the positive. “The subsidy policy cannot be sustained any longer. “This is because the subsidy payment did not benefit the poor it was targeting, but rather it is benefiting the rich. “The industry needs to move to next level by increasing revenue and curb oil theft and pipeline vandalism,’’ she said. Alison-Madueke, said that the nation had been faced with fuel scarcity in the last two months and there seemed to be no end sight in spite of assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, She blamed the current fuel scarcity on sabotage, diversion, hoarding, panic buying and rumours of imminent pump price increase. The minister also outlined challenges confronting the government to include perennial oil theft, pipeline vandalism and non passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). “The PIB is still with the National Assembly and we hope that it will be passed very soon. “However, we have been confronted with the menace of pipeline vandalism for decades and it has become much more prevalent in the last few years. “In 2013 alone, all the major crude oil pipelines were severely damaged and vandalised at different points in time, the Bonny–Escravos line from the refinery was not spared either. “ Needless to say pipeline vandalism and sabotage created significant losses for the country; this includes direct and indirect costs for the provision of security, crude oil and petroleum products losses. “Also production and environmental degradation and associated remediation cost to that and resulting escalation of project implementation cost that go along with it,” she said. She said that in spite of these challenges, the country still maintained a stable 2.3 million barrels per day production of crude oil achieved in 2013. The minister said that the country had the capacity to boost production to three million barrels per day. She said that gas production had also increased from 6.3 trillion standard cubic feet per day to 8.1 trillion standard cubic feet per day in 2013. (NAN) « Previous Article Confab: Falana, Sagay Say Jonathan Reserves Right To Convene Confab Original link Read More elotitv/easyblog/entry/fg-emphasises-need-to-deregulate-downstream-sector (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:29:29 +0000
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