Major marketers urge Jonathan to commence deregulation
On November 4, 2011 · In News
Tweet

By Oscarline Onwuemenyi
ABUJA – Major marketers and operators in the oil and gas industry, yesterday, expressed their support for Federal government’s plan to remove fuel subsidy, even as they urged the government to quickly deregulate the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry in order to save the national economy from ruin.

The Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olaowere, who spoke in a briefing at the background of the 5th OTL Africa Downstream Conference taking place in Abuja, stressed that the subsidy culture had engendered corruption in the system to the detriment of competition and economic expansion.

He noted that the argument by those that oppose deregulation that the poor would suffer when subsidy is removed is baseless since many poor people hardly enjoy the subsidy in the first place.

He pointed out that the government, however, should engage different agencies and operators to properly enlighten the public on the benefits of deregulation to the economy.

According to him, “The time to deregulate the downstream sector was yesterday; we are already wasting so much time. The states are going broke and soon will have no money to carry out normal everyday business of governance. We submit that if there is a legal way to deregulate by the Executive it should go ahead and do so for the sake of the economy and future of the country.

We shouldn’t deceive ourselves any longer. Deregulation is the only way to save our economy. Some of us will continue to say it whether it is emotionally or sentimentally palatable or not. The fact is we brought ourselves to this mess and we should work now to get ourselves out of it.

He added that, “Government should not have introduced regulation when it did in the late 70s. Now, to go back has become a problem. The fact remains that until you deregulate, no investor will go and put his money into building any refinery when someone else will dictate to them how much to sell their products.”

Olaowore admitted that initially there might be a small rise in the prices of petroleum products, but noted that competition will eventually crash these prices. “We are talking about full and total deregulation of the sector and not the partial deregulation the nation witnessed in the first six months of early years of democracy.

“If you recall, the small or partial deregulation we had in the early 2000’s brought about substantial investment in the downstream sector, and gave opportunities for many of the operators in the industry today. You can only imagine what the impact of full deregulation will bring to the industry as many investors will come in and build the refineries that we badly need to get our industry out of the doldrums it currently finds itself.

“For now, we will be deceiving ourselves to say we are licensing refineries; those 18 licenses will continue to be licenses. Until we deregulate, you cannot give an investor any assurance that he will recover his cost not to talk of making reasonable profit.”

He argued that deregulation will bring back memories of old times when customers who drive into a filling station have the option of buying premium or regular, and the consumer is free to drive to any station of his choice if he thinks the price is cheaper.

He added that instead of worrying about the import of deregulation or otherwise, Nigerians should rather expend energy on finding ways to ensure that government judiciously applies the savings from the subsidy to improve the lives of citizens.

“For us, the question is not whether deregulation is desirable or not but whether the government uses the savings from removal of subsidy for the development of our decadent infrastructure. That is what we all should come together and hold the government accountable. They should tell us what they will do with the savings, and then we must monitor closely to see that those things are done.”

He added that, “Nigerians at all levels should mobilize and form committees to hold government to account. The Nigerian Labour Congress and other groups who are talking about revolution should hold their peace for now, and should unleash revolution when the government fails to do what it promises to do with yields from the subsidy removal. That will be the time to shut down the country, not now.

“We are concerned because this is about the future of this country; it is about the future of our children. We all mustn’t wait for the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to dole out money monthly to states before they can pay teachers and carry put basic programmes.”

Olaowore further stressed that, “The only way to run a proper federation is to free up funds for states to do what they must to lift their people out of poverty, while private business is allowed to flourish. Deregulation of the oil and gas industry remains the only answer to the present state of stagnation; any other issue that comes up after that, we can sit round a table as intelligent people do and resolve it.

Meanwhile, operators in the oil and gas industry have said that they are already primed to take advantage of a post-deregulated economy, pointing out that they have already started acquiring more farm tanks, haulage trucks and filling stations to cope with the expected expansion within the downstream sector.

Organizers of the conference explained that it is targeted at increasing value across the energy chain as well as to provide an opportunity for different operators to share linkages, network and knowledge for the development of the downstream sector of the nation’s oil and gas industry.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/major-marketers-urge-jonathan-to-commence-deregulation/

The CARTEL has spoken.