By Clara Nwachukwu

Indigenous companies have begun to lay off workers and cut salaries as a way of coping with the challenges of the crude price crash at the international market. Those who cannot cope with the downturn in the industry have also had to close shop, pending when the fortunes of the petroleum industry improves. Dropping the hint in an exclusive chart with Vanguard, the Chairman, Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, Mr. Emeka Ene, argued that indigenous companies are the most affected in the current crises facing the industry.

According to him, “The situation is beginning to take a toll on the industry as a number of our members who cannot cope with the situation are now laying off staff, others are slashing salaries, no new employments are generated because there are no new jobs to execute.” He decried that rather than calling for collective measures to tackle the challenges, he said the Federal Government had heaped the responsibility on operators and even ordered them to prune costs by 30 per cent if they wanted to remain in business.

He said, What I expected to have happened is that everybody should have been brought to a round table to discuss the issues and the challenges and threats they pose, and collaborate on the way forward “But it has been very tough and it has been so because what the government did was to pass the baton and heap the sole responsibility on Nigerian companies and the operators. They told companies to cut costs by 30percent in order to remain competitive.

“But the service companies can’t afford to cut such costs, because of their peculiar circumstances so they will suffer and eventually die off.” In view of the negative impact these would have on the economy, Ene urged the incoming government to be led by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to come up with proactive policies that will salvage the industry and the economy at large.

“Our expectation is for the new government to continue to sustain the growth of the industry through favorable policies because the industry right now is undergoing some challenges. We are facing oil prices of about 50 percent of what they were last year and this is impacting on investments.

“If the situation is not properly handled, all the gains that have been realised over the past years would be lost. As a result, we expect that long term investments will be sustained, let the PIB be passed, let the Nigerian Content Act be strengthened to such an extent that we grow the industry capacity beyond mere services to developing skills, establishing manufacturing plants.”

To achieve this, the PETAN chair argued that this required wide ranging collaboration between the industry and the government, saying, “We all need to work together to get through this very difficult path. We need to collaborate more; we need to communicate more; we need more engagements if we must face these challenges. Above all, we need to make more sacrifices and act in a manner that will uphold our national interests the more.”  (Full interview in Sweetcrude, next Tuesday).