Nigerian oil workers, under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, on Wednesday applauded the federal government for the renewed effort to reorganize the productive and extractive industries.

Acting General Secretary of PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa, on Wednesday commended the government’s recent decision to review and redraft the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for re-submission to the National Assembly for passage.

The PIB, which would provide the legal and institutional framework for the country’s oil and gas sector, has been pending before the National Assembly for approval since 2012.

Mr. Okugbawa said the PIB, when eventually passed into law by the National Assembly, would redefine the regulatory and control apparatus of the oil and gas industry and ensure that the petroleum industry operated in line with acceptable global standards.

Lamenting the long delay in passing the draft documents into law, Mr. Okugbawa said the absence of established laws guiding aspects of the industry operations has cost the country huge losses, in terms of fresh investments.

“The senior staff association calls on the National Assembly to expedite action on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, as well as reconsider global best practices in maintaining two regulatory agencies to superintend over the upstream and downstream sectors,” the PENGASSAN scribe said.

On the government’s decision to sack the Chief Executives for the regulatory agencies in the petroleum industry on Tuesday, Mr. Okugbawa called for a “diligent search for suitable replacements” to sustain the momentum of progress in the industry reform process.

The Federal Government had on Tuesday sacked the Chief Executives of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF); Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB); Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.