PENGASSAN president is dead

Francis Johnson, president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), is dead.

A source disclosed this to TheCable but did not go into details. The source said Johnson died in the early hours of the day.

Okugbawa Lukman, general secretary of the union, was unavailable for comment as of the time this report was filed.

Lukman neither answered calls nor responded to the text message sent to him.

Johnson was first elected president of the association in June 2014 and reelected for another term in 2017.

One of his last official assignments was a workshop which held in Asaba, Delta state, earlier in the week.

He had urged the federal government not to grant approval to any new gas project that does not abide by the zero gas flare policy.

Johnson said the framework known as the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), initiated by the federal government will monetise the volume of gas flared in Nigeria’s oil fields and ensure that wasteful practice ceases to exist in the country from when it becomes operational.

“Besides its expected environmental impacts on the oil-bearing communities in the country, it will also add about N306 billion burnt yearly, representing a total of 282.05 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) translating to $846 million using the average 2018 price of natural gas of $3per 1000SCF lost through flaring into the nation’s economy,” Johnson had said.