Taiwo Hassan 
Following the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s thumbs up to President Bola Tinubu for saving the country’s oil and gas industry, members of Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PROOAN) have said there is still need for the Federal Government to deeply review the performance, challenges and all that transpired within the first six months of the nairafor-crude swap deals.
This is to learn correctly from the mistakes and others in the next phase Specifically, there was a conflict between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and the Dangote Refinery over the modalities to adopt for the extension in the first six months of naira for crude oil swap deal, under the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari.
However, insinuations from some quarters hinted that the misunderstanding over the naira for crude oil swap might have been the reason the former NNPCL GMD lost his job.
Speaking in an interview on the call for extension of the naira for crude oil swap deal, National President of (PROOAN), Dr. Billy Harry, said that the position of his group was not unhealthy, calling for a probe of the deals done in the first six months of the naira for crude oil swap, rather a review of the activities that transpired to appropriately guide all stakeholders in the downstream sector of the nation’s oil and gas sector.
Harry further said: “Well, you know you are all media people and you employ defensive kind of words in describing what we ordinary business people understand or talk about.
“I have to tell you the same thing. What we have said is that there should be a review on the content of what has been done in the last six months so that gives clarity to how the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum and NNPCL and all the refineries that are involved in all this naira for crude discussion in oil and gas sector performed.
We do not have a deep review of what has happened from the decisions, performance and how we have faired, it will be difficult for us to understand how the next one year, for instance, would look like.
So PROOAN didn’t say it should be probed it’s just only to be reviewed so that we can have understanding of everything. And I hope this clears that. Thank you.” On the challenges faced by the group, the national president stated: “Thanks a lot.
This is a very interesting and very positive important conversation for Nigeria and Nigerians. “We advocate for availability of refined products and the energy security is guaranteed.
We also advocate for affordability so Nigerians could buy from the the retail outlets without any stress. “In doing all that there should be a balance. Yes I do agree that no company should be a monopoly of any sort.
But we also need to stand up for the test by ensuring that we provide products all times to all the citizens. That is why we think that the naira for crude should be reviewed.
“Because at the end of the day, Nigerians are the ones that should benefit from any policy and this first phase should be in terms of availability of products. I don’t think that the naira for crude was only meant for only one refinery.
It is for all the refineries including the NNPCL refineries.” He added: “We need to reduce the size of influence or political decisions by looking at the commercial values and be able to view and access every refinery to be able to approve the same number not in a situation some refinery will be ahead of others.
But let everybody breathe and let the value chain work. “Let refiners refine. Let importers import. Let storage facility owners continue to take their storages in their tank farms effectively.
And let the logistics companies that are into marine and land transportation focus on theirs. “Let marketers market the products efficiently.
Let all the retailers and the depot owners who are the last line of the value chain do our best and our businesses in delivering petroleum products to Nigerians. This is our government and we hope to keep it as much as we can.”
