Please share
President Muhammadu Buhari,said
the need to build a competitive and resilient petroleum industry that will attract investment, improve our revenue base, create jobs and support the nation’s economic diversification agenda propelled him to sign the Petroleum Industry Bill into law.
His action was also informed by the need to end gas flaring in line with the attainment of Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement through a funding mechanism to support host communities and lack of political will by previous administrations to pass the Bill.
He noted that in the past ten years, Nigeria has lost an estimated US$50billion worth of investments due to uncertainty created by the non-passage of the PIB.
Buhari has inaugurated a presidential steering committee headed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipreye Sylva
Other members of the committee includes;l Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director, NNPC, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Representative of the Ministry of Justice, Representative of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Natural Resources, Barrister Olufemi Lijadu as External Legal Adviser, while the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, will serve as Head of the Coordinating Secretariat and the Implementation Working Group.
The primary responsibility of the steering committee shall be to guide the effective and timely implementation of the PIA in the course of transition to the petroleum industry envisaged in the reform program, and ensure that the new institutions created have the full capability to deliver on their mandate under the new legislation.
The committee has 12 months duration for the assignment, and periodic updates will be given to Mr President.
Meanwhile,Governors of the All Progressives Congress Congress (APC) under the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF),have insisted that resources that accrue to the oil Producing regions whether through the 3% Host Communities Development Trust or the 13% derivation alloted to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) must be judiciously used for the benefit of of oil bearing communities.
The governors in a statement signed by Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi State governor and chairman of the Forum, PGF,said the Act has put to rest over two decades of agitations and debates, finally settling parameters for the restructure the operation and management of the petroleum industry the country.
The Act provided six months transition for the emergence of new institutional framework for the operations of oil and gas industry in the country, unbundling the NNPC into three new structures – Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The Act enables a “stronger accountability structures, each with a Board drawing representation from stakeholders in the oil and gas industry ” ,the governors noted .
“With the new Act, the task of regulation is vested in the two regulatory bodies created by the law. While extraction and sales of crude will now be undertaken by both the new Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and other private companies in both the upstream, midstream and downstream, in line with regulatory standards respectively provided by the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority created by the Act.
“In addition, the Act also created a Host Communities Development Trust to be managed by Board of Trustees. As provided by the Act, 3% of profit from the operations of oil and gas businesses will be used for the development of the host communities. It is noteworthy that this is in addition to the existing 13% derivation to oil producing states and funds allocated to Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which Mr. President has continuously emphasised that all the resources must be put to judicious use for the benefits of the people in the oil producing areas.
Please share