Strident denials by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that the Federal Government has no plans yet to sell the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) or the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) were spurned yesterday by leaders of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). They insisted on embarking on an industrial action should the federal government not come out practically to assuage their fears.

At a joint press conference held in Abuja by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the BPE, the oil workers led by PENGASSAN's president Comrade Babatunde Ogun and NUPENG's deputy president, Pious Ikechi, said they were not going back on their threat to embark on strike action. They said their action was justifiable based on past experiences in dealing with the federal government.

Comrade Ogun said, "What the DG of BPE has said has not changed our position. This is not the first time. Historical facts are there to justify our position. We stand by what we said because we know they will never speak the truth. All the government enterprises that have been privatised, where are they today? Are we talking about the steel industry? Is it NITEL? We cannot be cowed two times.

The refineries we are talking about today would have been gone for life because some people believed differently. We sat down not with BPE alone but at the instance of the ministers and ministry of labour and we agreed on certain things but they did some things otherwise. So who are we going to believe? Is it this press briefing or communiqué signed by government and they went ahead to do different things?"

He added, "The oil is for all of us and the situation we find ourselves today, government has gone out and borrowed colossal amount of money and wasted on these investments and they are now selling them out, giving them out as gifts.

This agency reports to somebody in government. The president himself needs to make a clear statement to Nigerians. Send our words to Mr President that we are not convinced and our ultimatum stands."

Earlier, NNPC's Group Managing Director Engr. Abubakar Lawal Yar'adua and BPE's Director General Mrs. Irene Chigbue said the government had no plans to sell any company in the oil and gas sector.

The NNPC boss, who said he was speaking on behalf of President Umaru Yar'Adua said, "I can assure you there is no such plan. What we are doing is to make NNPC more dynamic and be able to compete with its peers like Petrobas.

In fact, some times when we go for international conferences, when we see what they have achieved, you feel bad for yourself. The only reason why we are not in their status is that we are clamped by government interference in all affairs. The issue is, let NNPC be free to have enough assets that they can guarantee any fund to run their business."

Engineer Yar'adua also said, "The cash call is too minimal. The government can only give a minimum of N4.97 billion. The business need for NNPC is N8.8 billion, therefore, if you don't have the chance to go to the capital market, your programme can only be limited to what that N4.97bn can give you.

The total oil and gas programme is around N12bn to N15bn. That means the aspiration to have 48 billion barrels reserve will not be achieved and the 4 million barrels per day production will never be achieved.

That is the reason why your refinery is not working because there are no enough funds to procure spare parts. The Kaduna turnaround was last done in 1997, 11 years ago, whereas the refinery is supposed to be shut down every two to three years for a turn around.

"If that refinery is run privately--so many refineries are run privately in the world. The installation is enough as collateral when you go to bank. You get the money to buy spare parts and pay your tax to government. Why are we so attached to government? This is the reason why this reform is taking place."

Mrs Irene Chigbue on her part said, "We are surprised about the persistent misunderstanding of this issue by labour in spite of series of attempts to explain the position of government with regards to privatisation in the energy sector. Let me however reiterate that there is no immediate plan by the NCP/BPE to sell off enterprises in the oil and gas sector."

BPE had said in a statement on its timetable on September 23 that, "A key transaction in the plan is the privatization of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) which will go through privatization process from October 2008 to October 2009. So too will the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) go through privatization process from September 2008 to June 2009."

On October 8, unionists issued a 14-day ultimatum to reverse the plan. They told newsmen that in case government failed to suspend the sale, "the joint councils (of PENGASSAN and NUPENG) shall be compelled to take necessary industrial action".

However, in two successive statements, on October 7 and 10, BPE denied such plans saying "what was released after the last meeting of NCP was a draft work plan for all outstanding privatization, commercialization and restructuring of public enterprises listed in the Public Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Act.

The work plan for over 105 public enterprises was for the next three years. The work plan does not contain any immediate or short term plan for the divestment of FGN's interest in public enterprises in the Oil and Gas sector. There is nothing in the work plan for further divestment of shares of EPCL other than to workers and the host community."

The ultimatum expires on Wednesday 21st of October.