The Senate on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate the process of computerising the nation’s oil sector.
This, according to the red chamber, will address the challenges associated with the oil and gas production, transportation, and sales business in the country.
It also mandated its joint committee on petroleum upstream, downstream and gas resources to convene a public hearing to ascertain the quantity of oil and gas produced daily and the quality control mechanism engaged by the NNPC.
Other task for the committee is to determine the amount of waste of petroleum products through pilfering, pipeline vandalisation and leakage.
The joint panel is also expected to fashion out international best practices of computerising oil and gas business management, including pipeline protection and quantity and quality control.
The resolutions were reached after the Senate adopted a motion sponsored by Senator George Sekibo on the “Need to install computerised oil facilities management gadgets for Nigerian crude oil businesses.”
Sekibo said it was of concern that while other countries in the same business venture had gone digital for the past 50 years, Nigeria was still using analogue technology in doing its petroleum technology.
He said, ”We still use human beings (four persons) to monitor a kilometre of pipeline, giving undue opportunities to oil thieves, giving rise to unnecessary pipeline explosion, causing deaths and unquantifiable loss of products and other human valuables,” he said.
He regretted that Nigeria with over 61 years in oil business could not give account of total amount of products produced, sold, wasted and lost through pilfering or pipeline vandalism.
Also on the Senate on Thursday mandated its Committee on Housing to urgently work out modalities with the various stakeholders in the National Housing Development sector to ensure the implementation of affordable housing for the poorest Nigerians.
The resolution was reached after consideration of a motion on the “Urgent need to reform the Housing Policy and Mortgage Financing in Nigeria to meet the escalating housing demand in the country.”
Sponsor of the motion, Albert Bassey Akpan, said low and middle-class income earners constituted the largest active population in Nigeria.
