Efforts to block leakages in the oil and gas sector got a boost at the weekend as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) sought effective collaboration with members of the African Union of Transportation and Logistics Organization to check rising incidents of products diversion.
The Corporation said smuggling of petroleum products remained a blight on the nation’s fuel supply and distribution matrix that must be dealt with.
NNPC Group Managing Director Dr Maikanti Baru disclosed this while receiving a delegation of the group led by its president, Mr Mustapha Chaeun, at the NNPC Towers.
According to him, the collaboration would not only help to stop the menace but would help rid the West African corridor of other vices that are associated with the illicit fuel smuggling business.
The NNPC GMD also charged the regional transportation union to ensure that its members comply with extant laws and regulations on speed limits, axial weight of haulage tankers and other sundry regulations necessary to ensure safety of high ways across the African terrain.
He said the NNPC was open to new areas of mutual collaboration with the organization while calling on transportation union members to take full advantage of NNPC’s vast business portfolio and strategic position in the West African sub-region and beyond to expand business interest and areas of cooperation.
Responding, Mr Chaeun, while thanking the NNPC GMD for the warm reception accorded his team, pledged the readiness of members to comply with extant laws and regulations in countries where they operate.
He said that the composition of the union members which encompasses groups from West, Central, East and North Africa, made it imperative for the union to work with key continental institutions like the NNPC to maximise its strategic role in the region.
‘’We expect collaboration on many levels: first at the level of development of our sector, the transport sector, and to enhance human resources management. On another level, there is the need for training our professional drivers that work in transport sector,’’ he noted.