By Victor Ahiuma-Young

PORT HARCOURT— The NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, called on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to commence the reform of the oil and gas sector with the immediate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

At its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting, the Joe Ajaero’s faction of the union insisted that PIB was expected to bring into the sector the much anticipated reforms that would make the oil industry more accountable, transparent and yield the maximum returns to the country and generate further investments in the oil and gas sector.

A communique released at the end of the meeting read: “NEC in session observed that the intractable problem of petroleum supply and pricing cannot be simplistically solved by ‘removal’ of Petroleum Subsidy on supply that is largely dependent on importation of refined petroleum products that are subjected to fluctuating international pricing and benchmarked on Dollar-Naira exchange rate.

‘’The problem is much deeper and interconnected but it is important, that we address the benefit of local production and refining of crude oil to meet local consumption needs in the short term and position for export of refined petroleum products in the long term.”