The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has highlighted the need for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill before the end of the current administration.

The President, PENGASSAN, Mr Francis Olabode, while speaking at the National Executive Council meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, noted that the PIB had suffered delays over the years.

Olabode said the bill, which started as the Oil and Gas Sector Reform Implementation Committee report, has been on for eighteen years since April 2000 and has gone through various stages with the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill at the forefront now.

He expressed concern over casualisation, contract staffing and outsourcing in the nation’s oil and gas industry, saying, they will continue to engage various stakeholders in ensuring that this menace
is adequately resolved in the larger interest of their members.

Olabode noted that in order to cut cost, most companies, especially the indigenous ones, had resorted to underhand tactics in the practice of labour-management relations.

He said the association commended the efforts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in ensuring an adequate supply of the Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) this year.