By BEN AGANDE, Abuja
The Special Task Force on governance and control of the petroleum sector yesterday recommended that  the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should be broken into several companies in order to ensure greater efficiency and transparency.

In its stead, the committee which presented its report to President Goodluck Jonathan recommended the National Petroleum Inspectorate (NPI) to serve as the sole industry regulator, Petroleum Asset Management Company (PAMCO)  to manage the country’s interests in hydrocarbon exploration and the National Oil Company (NOC) which will function like the NNPC but with 49 percent private stakes .

The committee also recommended that  the Nigeria Content and Capacity Development Agency and the National Frontier Exploration Unit be formed to promote the country’s active participation in its petroleum sector.

Chairman of the task force, Dotun Suleiman who submitted the report emphasised that in order to ensure effective management of the oil sector, government must establish the firms which he said should be run as private sector concerns.

The committee also recommended that the minister of petroleum should not be on the board of any of the companies other than the NOC which takes charge of the technical aspect of the industry.

In another report  presented by Special Task Force on refineries, the committee recommended the  immediate construction of three additional refineries to be sited in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi states in order  to boost fuel supply.

Alternate chairman of the panel, Yusuf Ali who presented the report on behalf of the Chairman, Kalu Idika Kalu said “we have developed a plan for self sufficiency in petroleum products in Nigeria within the shortest possible time.

Existing refineries should be privatised within eighteen months. We need full deregulation of prices but before then, there should be palliatives.”

He said government must also encourage energy conservation by patronising CMG vehicles.
The committee also recommended the deregulation of the Petroleum sector while recommending that palliative measures be put in place to cushion the effect on the people.

In his remarks,
President Goodluck Jonathan regreted that  the country has continued the   importation of petroleum products several years after it started oil production.

” We discovered crude oil in 1956 and we have been exporting since 1958 but we are still importing finished products. We must give ourselves time frame to end importation, we wanted to do it but we were waiting for this report”.

”It is disgraceful that we still import petroleum products, if in the next 10 years we are still importing petroleum products, those of us that have had opportunity to lead should be all be held responsible because it means we did not lead well.”
Jonathan promised to soon give a definite date on when the country will stop the importation of Petroleum products.