FG Remains Committed To Oil Sector Deregulation – Alison-Madueke

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By Juliet Alohan

— March 19, 2014

Despite strong resistance against plans to deregulate the downstream oil and gas sector, minister of petroleum resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said the federal government’s commitment to deregulating the sector “remains unwavering.”
She made the declaration yesterday in Abuja  during her ministerial address on the topic “State of the Industry: Achievements and Steps to the Next Level,” at the on-going 2014 Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference and Exhibition.This is  even as the director, department of petroleum resources, George Osahon, also disclosed that the country’s crude oil reserves and production were drastically dropping, a situation he said calls for great concern given the country’s dependence on oil revenue.
The minister in her presentation said: “In terms of downstream deregulation, now that the power sector reforms are well underway, the Nigerian  government’s commitment to restructuring the oil and gas sector remains unwavering.
“In this regard, downstream deregulation remains an important part of the reform framework going forward, that seeks to restore financial sustainability and investor confidence in this sector of the national economy now and into the future.
“We are aware that government had sought to deregulate the sector, and continued regulation we are aware as well have several negative effects.
It is physically unsustainable, it discourages investment and principally it benefits the rich not the masses in the society that we intend to reach in the first place.”
She emphasised that deregulation remains the only way in which capital investment can be encouraged and new employment opportunities created for both foreign and local operators adding that in a democratic polity there has to be a balance amongst different policies of government and the needs and desires of the people of Nigeria.
The minister further stressed that as the country moves towards liberalising the sector and encouraging private investors, new regulations and guidelines along with strong regulators are obviously needed.