There appear to be a silver lining in the sky for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria as President Goodluck Jonathan assured Nigerians during the just concluded Presidential debate organised by the Nigeria Election Debate Group that the issue of oil theft will be tackled through the use of technology.
President Jonathan disclosed that the government was developing a technology to fight it to a standstill, while calling for private sector participation to make the oil sector truly profitable to the point of exporting petroleum products.
In the President words: “The issue of stealing our common assets, we are developing a technology now. Contracts have been awarded and we must stop it.
“The issue of downstream is a combination of government and private sector. It has to do with refining, production of fertilizers, petrochemicals. The privatised companies of government, especially the Eleme Petrochemicals is working very well. That is a big success story as the Eleme Petrochemicals was abandoned but now it is one of the biggest in the World. They are planning to expand and bring in fertiliser production into it.”
He disclosed that the government planned to liberalise the downstream sector for more private sector participation in the exportation of petroleum products.
The NNPC and the entire sector, he said will have to be unbundled even without the Petroleum Industry Bill, (PIB).
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