By Victor Ahiuma-Young

PETROLEUM  and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on  the Federal Government to give priority to  indigenous investors in the allocation of marginal field acreages in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

The association argued that government should begin to reduce the foreign hold and domination of the sector and empower Nigeria investors in the upstream oil and gas , which business scope in Nigeria is limited to exploration and production principally for exports and foreign exchange earnings.

PENGASSAN pointed out that the upstream oil and gas activities as currently positioned in Nigeria do not help to maximise the inherent benefits from the nation’s hydrocarbon endowments.

The President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Babatunde Ogun said, “We therefore strongly canvass that utmost and urgent priority is required by Nigerian Content Development policy to enable it raise commitment and genuine indigenous downstream investors, which programme consideration shall be tied to their (investor’s) satisfactory and approved midstream and downstream plans.

“It is vital that Nigeria should begin to keep to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreement and protocols that member countries, particularly Nigeria should now move beyond being a rent seeking oil and gas producing country to effectively taking charge of their oil and economy through backward linkages and empowerment.

As a matter of government policy, the association , urged that if the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or any other multinational oil and gas company plans to divest from its marginal oil and gas acreage, indigenous investors should be given the first right of consideration and refusal for such transaction.