The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas Resources, Senator Bassey Albert has called on the Federal Government to immediately engage all the relevant stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to proffer a strategic plan towards reforming the sector. Senator Albert made this call in a chat with the press yesterday when the joint Senate Committees on Downstream, Upstream and Gas met with the Minster of State for Petroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu over negative reactions occasioned by the re-organization of NNPC. Senator Albert observed that such reactions arose because major stakeholders including the National Assembly were not carried along considering the legislative and legal challenges needed to be tackled in the restructuring process. While briefing the joint committee yesterday, the minister had told members of the committee that attempts at restructuring NNPC had been on for 15 years, and that the restructuring was embarked upon to put the corporation and its subsidiaries on the path of profitability and to reduce losses. He said the gas sector needed to be revamped to provide an alternative source of national income and thanked the Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Albert for leading his committee to engage stakeholders in the gas sector to reposition it.
