Dangote, Oil Workers Dispute: NUPRC Urges Dialogue To Avoid Disruption

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has urged a peaceful solution to ongoing disputes betwixt Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the petroleum workers’ unions, emphasising the request for dialog to debar disruptions successful the country’s vigor supply.

Speaking successful an interrogation connected Arise Television connected Saturday, the main enforcement of NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, called for communal knowing betwixt Dangote Refinery, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

Although the issues were confined to the midstream and downstream lipid sectors, Komolafe stressed the value of maintaining calm and uncovering an amicable solution for the nation’s benefit. “Regardless of the information that the issues progressive are purely mid and downstream affairs, our instrumentality is that parties should refrain from what volition origin disruption successful vigor proviso successful the country. We judge that the issues progressive are issues that parties tin really beryllium down, discuss, and scope an amicable solution for the bully of the country,” helium stated.

In the aforesaid interview, Komolafe highlighted important achievements successful tackling crude lipid losses, attributing advancement to strategical interventions initiated by the NUPRC nether the directive of President Bola Tinubu.

Since the Commission’s constitution successful 2021, lipid losses person reportedly decreased by astir 90 per cent, driven by a operation of kinetic and non-kinetic measures targeting lipid theft.

Komolafe elaborated connected the non-kinetic strategies, peculiarly innovative regulations introduced for the archetypal clip successful Nigeria’s 70-year lipid and state exploration history. These see the Upstream Measurement Regulation and the Advanced Cargo Declaration Regulation, some aimed astatine ensuring afloat transparency and accountability astatine each signifier of crude lipid movement.

“These regulations are pioneering initiatives that let Nigeria to way each molecule of crude lipid loaded from its terminals to the discharge point,” Komolafe explained.

The implementation has been phased: the archetypal phase, which has received Federal Executive Council approval, involves an Engineering Metering Audit to measure the integrity of metering systems that person operated for decades.

According to Komolafe, this audit covered astir 700 metering points, marking a important measurement toward independently verifying crude quantity data, which traditionally relied connected reports from planetary lipid companies.

The Advanced Cargo Declaration Regulation facilitates integer and real-time tracking of crude barrels loaded onto tankers, enabling instant flagging of discrepancies. Komolafe noted, “If a tanker loads 1 cardinal barrels of crude and discharges 1.2 cardinal barrels, the strategy volition instantly emblem this anomaly.”

Komolafe emphasised that sustaining the integrity of Nigeria’s lipid and state assemblage was important not lone to trim losses but besides to sphere capitalist assurance by countering antagonistic perceptions that could deter investment.