Komolafe seeks dialogue in Dangote, PENGASSAN dispute
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mr Gbenga Komolafe has called for dialogue between Dangote Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
Komolafe made the call in a statement on Sunday, adding that the step was necessary to to resolve ongoing dispute.
He also urged the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and parties involved to find common ground to resolve their differences without disrupting energy supply nationwide.
The unions have been locked in labour disputes with Dangote Refinery over its recent sacking of workers and alleged labour rights violations.
“Regardless of the fact that the issues involved are purely midstream and downstream affairs, our take is that parties should refrain from what will cause disruption in energy supply in the country.
“We believe that parties can actually sit down, discuss and reach an amicable solution for the good of the country,” he said.
Komolafe also highlighted the significant reduction in the monetary value of oil losses, attributing the improvement to new strategies implemented by the NUPRC.
On the successes recorded in combating crude oil losses, Komolafe said the express directive of President Bola Tinubu to eliminate oil losses and curb theft using both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches had yielded positive results.
He emphasised the importance of protecting the integrity of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, noting that negative narratives could deter potential investors.
The NUPRC boss said that President Tinubu’s directives to security agencies and the commission had reduced crude oil losses by about 90 per cent between 2021 – when the commission was established – and 2025.
For the non-kinetic method, he said that the commission had introduced two regulations designed to complement the efforts of the general security, namely – the upstream measurement regulation and the advanced cargo declaration regulation.
He described the regulations as pioneering initiatives in Nigeria’s over 70 years of exploration and development.
“For the first time, Nigeria now has regulations that track crude oil loaded from its terminals to the discharge point.
“The commission has intuitively put these two regulations in place, and the regulations are designed in a way to be implemented in two phases.
“We have implemented the first phase and that is what we are trying to speak to, as it relates to the Federal Executive Council approval in respect of the Engineering Metering Audit,” he said.
Komolafe further said that it was long overdue to carry out an engineering integrity assessment of all the metering facilities that had been operating for decades.
According to him, in the past, international oil companies were the ones informing Nigerians of the quantities of oil exported.
“We want to change that trajectory. In fact, our objective is to ensure that we get that done on a real-time basis. This is where we are going to against the production report.
“The first phase, which is the establishment of a statutory regulatory framework, has been achieved in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“The first phase is to look at carrying out the integrity of the metering devices. That exercise was conducted in almost 700 points in the upstream,” he said.
On the Advanced Cargo Declaration regulation, the NUPRC boss said that the objective was to ensure that every molecule of crude loaded from Nigeria’s terminals was tracked digitally.
“We want to track every barrel of crude loaded in a tanker.
“If a tanker loads one million barrels of crude, and ends up discharging 1.2mb, the system will instantly flag that the tanker is discharging above the permitted volume,” he said.
