NUPENG decries 42% drop in oil revenue

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers,
NUPENG, has expressed deep concern over about 42
percent drop in the Nigeria's oil revenue, warning
that, the drop is astronomical and portends danger
for the numerous socio-economic challenges
presently bedeviling the country. NUPENG in a
statement by its President, Igwe Achese, called for a
change of tactics into addressing the challenges of oil
theft, pipeline vandalism among others to avoid a
collapse of the nation's economy.
According to the statement "NUPENG warns that the
drop is astronomical and portends danger for the
numerous socio-economic challenges presently
bedeviling the country. We state with dismay that it
is a sad commentary that the federal government
gross revenue dropped by 42 percent month-on-
month to N497.978 billion, because of disruption to
oil production caused by thieves bursting pipelines. It
is NUPENG's opinion that if nothing drastic is done, it
will further plummet and affect resources meant for
development and upgrading of infrastructure."
"NUPENG stresses that its membership is dwindling
daily as a result of downsizing by oil companies who
are saddled with overhead arising from low oil
production occasioned by oil thieves. NUPENG states
that there was need for the government to take the
political will to address the incessant vandalism of
pipelines traversing the nation.
The illegal bunkering has defied all solutions, even
with the massive deployment of troops to the Niger-
Delta, it states. We call for a change of tactics in
order to address these challenges or else these
vandals will collapse the nation's economy, as oil
accounts for more than 90 percent of our earnings. It
is a high time that the government installed modern
day sophisticated equipment fixed with alarm that
can trigger off during any vandalism."
"NUPENG states that the law enforcement agencies
geared with monitoring the pipelines, like the Police,
Army, Civil Defence Corps, Navy and recently Air
Force must be properly coordinated to bring the
activities of these vandals to a stop or else it will be
concluded that they are in collision. We want a
thorough surveillance of the nation's pipelines
through the deployment of helicopter gun-ships, to
monitor the pipelines, especially in the coastlines.
The federal government should collaborate with the
advanced countries on the best technological method
to stem the tide and buy into it, so that the economy
does not go comatose."