Government should encourage public on gas usage – PENGASSAN

Chairman Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Port Harcourt zone,
Comrade Azubike Azubike has said the decline in gas supply is as a result of government’s inability to put infrastructure that will encourage the public on gas usage.

Speaking with theportcitynews correspondent, Tina Stephen, Comrade Azubike said that non-availability of gas also led to
drop in electricity supply.

He noted that Nigeria has the highest gas deposit in Africa and statistics also shows that utilization of gas in the country is below 25%, stressing that development of gas infrastructure will help in utilizing the abundant gas.

“We need gas to fire power plants, we need gas for domestic use, gas is more environmental friendly than charcoal and DKP products. Unfortunately, we are not doing that. If there is a shortage of gas, the implication is there is no much gas supplied because the infrastructure is not in place.

“Pipe breakages can stop transferring of gas product to its end use. Why do we even flare gas, polluting the environment which is the cause of black soot and a health challenge in Port Harcourt today and people are dying silently? We should be able to utilize the gas to fire our gas plants and also expand the gas plant escravous to Lagos”

He further stressed that the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) should intervene in refinery revamp which is a step in the right direction, especially in the oil and gas sector.

“If petroleum trust fund says they want to intervene in the issues of refining, no time is late. Nigerians will be happy, everybody is looking for a solution on solving mirage of issues we are having as a nation. However, it will be good if they stay to their mission so they don’t give people hope and at last that hope is not realised.

Petroleum trust fund is purely to develop manpower in the oil and gas industry and our refinery major problem is not manpower in terms of refining the product”