Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) weekend declared support for the redeployment of some personnel of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The CSOs said redeployment is in the interest of the country, as it will create room for accountability, productivity and save cost.
Briefing the press in Lagos, the spokesperson of the CSOs, Shina Loremikan stated that the mandate of NUPRC is ensuring compliance with petroleum laws, regulations and guidelines, monitoring of operations at drilling sites, producing wells, production platforms and flow stations, crude oil export terminals, and all pipelines carrying crude oil and natural gas, supervising operations being carried out under licenses and leases.
Loremikan noted that the agency performs numerous role in the petroleum sector and the redeployment was to allow it perform optimally.
He added that part of its duty is to maintain records on upstream petroleum operations, particularly on matters relating to petroleum reserves and production.
He said part of its duty is processing public policies while processing upstream petroleum-related applications for leases, licenses and permits as well as ensure timely and accurate payments of rents, royalties and other revenues due to the government from upstream petroleum operations while administering the National Data Repository (NDR).
Loremikan said rather than appreciate the move taken by the organisation to redeploy some of its staff in order to enhance efficiency, people who are conversant with its role have decided to politicise the redeployment of some of its personnel.
Consequently, some persons, including politicians and analysts, who are aware of its various roles, have come to perceive the actions of NUPRC more from the realm of politics than economics.
