PENGASSAN warns Tinubu’s Executive Order threatens 4,000 oil jobs

PENGASSAN has urged President Bola Tinubu to withdraw a new Executive Order directing direct remittance of oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account, warning it could jeopardise about 4,000 jobs and destabilise the sector.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on President Bola Tinubu to rescind a recent Executive Order mandating the direct transfer of oil and gas revenues into the Federation Account. The union warned that the directive could threaten about 4,000 jobs and unsettle the industry, arguing that it undermines provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) enacted in 2021 to reform and stabilise the sector.

Addressing journalists in Lagos, PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, questioned the implications of the order for investor confidence and Nigeria’s global standing. “What are we telling the investors? What are we telling the international community? That just with an executive order, you can set aside the law of the land? This is an aberration. This should never have happened. The actual percentage that gets there eventually is somewhere below two percent and the 30 percent Frontier Exploration Fund does not go directly to NNPC Limited but into a designated Frontier Exploration Account. Some provisions in the EO did not tell the entire truth.”

Osifo further clarified that statutory royalties are paid into government coffers rather than to regulators personally, stressing that the industry’s financial structure is being misrepresented. He warned of looming job losses if the directive remains in force. “If this is allowed to sit through the way it is today, in the next few months, our members are in danger of being declared redundant because the company may not be able to meet their obligations,” he said.

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