Pengassan lists corruption, political intervention among the Nigerian refinery problems

The President of the Nigerian Senior Oil and Gas Staff Association (Pengassan), Festus Osifo, has identified the reasons why the country’s refineries failed optimally despite investment by sequential government.

Osifo, who spoke at the ongoing Pengassan Summit and the ongoing Labor (Peals 2025) in Abuja, said the refineries did not fail because the Nigerians had no skills, but because of political interference, which denied tools, resources, and the environment that made it possible to provide effectively.

He also identified widespread and wrong corruption as a reason for the failure of the refinery.

Osifo, who is also the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said that the future of Nigeria’s energy requires more than just a skilled workforce but a tool, policy stability, and supporting reforms to encourage growth in this sector.

He remembered that during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Nigerian workers managed to operate the offshore platform after expatriates left the country.

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He said development had proven that the country had skilled workforce that was able to maintain global standard energy production without interruption.

The Head of Pengassan also often condemned changes in petroleum law and warned that they prevent important investment in the oil and gas industry.

He added that predictability in a fiscal regime is the key to attracting petrodollars to the Nigerian economy and long -term infrastructure development.

“We must have an industry that can be predicted by investors in five or ten years. Changed policies will only expel investors and postpone sectoral growth,” Osifo said.