The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Wednesday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to split the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into two.
Mr Tokunbo Korodo, the South-West Chairman of the union, said in Lagos that the plan would enhance the performance of the nation’s petroleum industry.
He said that the government plans should form one of the key steps of the new administration’s reform agenda of the country’s oil and gas sector.
The chairman said that the corporation, contary to other opinions, had not performed optimally in serving the nation.
According to him, if splitting NNPC into two or more bodies will make it effective and efficient, the government should go ahead with the plan.
Korodo lamented that all the NNPC depots in the country were not in good condition, adding that tanker drivers had resulted to patronising private depots in Lagos to lift petroleum products.
The chairman said that the over dependant of his members on private depots had resulted in the increase in the official pump price of petroleum products.
He said that private depots usually sell products, especially premium motor spirit (petrol), at N90 per litre.
Korodo said that members would have occommodated the 87 pump price of petrol only if NNPC was using all its depots to distribute the products to oil marketers across the nation.
He also said the current process of acquiring products by oil marketers had made it impossible for them to sell at filling stations at N87 per litre.
Buhari had, during his visit to the U.S., said government was considering the option of splitting the nation’s oil company into two as part of its reform programme of the sector.
