Don’t create uncertainty in oil sector, NUPENG warns politicians

The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has warned politicians against creating uncertainty in the highly sensitive oil sector. NUPENG President Comrade Igwe Achese gave the warning in Abuja on Wednesday at a news conference. He said that doing so was capable of scaring away investors from the sector and the country. The union boss said that utterances of some people concerning the recent explosion at the Port Harcourt Refinery was capable of heating up the political atmosphere. Achese said that contrary to the position of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta ( MEND) that it blew up the pipeline, the explosion was caused by vandals who attempted to scoop oil. “Today you are aware that most of the investors in the oil and gas sector are trying to pull out because of insecurity issues. “Contrary to the MEND claim, the explosion that rocked the Port Harcourt
Refinery in Alesa-Eleme and the nearby Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) Evacuation/Reception Jetty in Okrika Rivers State on Sunday, was caused by the unscrupulous activities of oil thieves. ” It is not issue of somebody telling here-say or somebody claiming what he doesn’t know. “We should stop this issue of faceless organisation or faceless individuals who want to be claiming MEND or using the political environment to claim to be MEND. “It is not issue of MEND and we should tell our brothers and sisters out there in Nigeria that there is nothing like that. “We cannot continue to create unnecessary tension in our environment; we must continue to ensure that the economy grows. “The inferno was caused by criminals who were trying to scoop products from a line that was connected from the NNPC close to the water shores in the mangrove area.”