By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

The Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, has charged the Federal government to push for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, as well as initiate measures to increase daily crude oil production towards meeting its development targets.

The President of the NSE, Engr. Olumuyiwa Alade Ajibola, who stated this in Abuja on Friday during a press briefing also noted that efforts made by the government with regards the power sector reform was a mere ‘quick fix’, adding that the reform could be made more sustainable by becoming an Act of legislation.

He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to be “steadfast in putting in place measures that will enable Nigeria maintain her aspiration to increase daily crude oil production capacity from the current level to four million barrels per day towards achieving the nations’ vision of being one of the 20 largest economies of the world by 2020.”

In aid of this, he said, the President has to expedite the review and passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and soon after usher a new generation, forward looking state_of_the –industry Petroleum Act.

“It is recalled that in the past, Nigeria was a petroleum products exporter. The President should not relent on generating policies that would speed up realization of major oil companies and national oil company having to refine their production locally and exporting surplus petroleum products, and providing enabling atmosphere and incentives for new licensees to begin production,” Ajibola stated.

He pointed out that reports from some of the ongoing thermal power station projects indicate that gas availability and supply remain major issues, adding that, “Engineers believe that the execution of Government’s Gas Master Plan should be given a high priority in order to ameliorate the above situation, as well as provide cheaper energy source for industries.”

On the state of the electric power sector reform, the NSE President said there is the need to note the difference between reform and development.

According to him, “Reform is not a business, but a functional area support service to a business. Normal government business and core mission is about development. If economic development is pursued, reform can find space, but if reform is pursued as the core mission of government, development might elude such a people.”