Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that six draft regulations have been finalized and ready for gazetting in order to ensure that industry operators can align their operations with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) provisions as quickly as possible.
He disclosed this on Monday in his opening remarks at the second phase of consultation with stakeholders on draft regulations held in Abuja.
He also noted that already the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Community Development Trust regulations has been gazetted.
He added that the six draft regulations were among the ones presented for discussion during the 1st phase of consultations with stakeholders in April including Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Communities Development Regulations; Royalty Regulations; Domestic Gas Delivery Obligation Regulations; Nigeria Conversion Renewal {Licence and Lease} Regulations; Petroleum Licensing Round Regulations; andUpstream Petroleum Fees and Rents Regulations.
He said:”The inputs of the Stakeholders from the engagement were incorporated, where necessary, in the draft regulations. Thereafter, the regulations were forwarded to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice for vetting, legislative standardization, and approval. I am happy to inform you that One of the regulations, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Community Development Trust regulations has been gazetted while the remaining five have been finalized and ready for gazetting” he said.
He stated that the stakeholder consultation which is compliance with Section 216(4)(g) of the PIA 2021, is prior to finalizing other draft regulations including Acreage Management (Drilling & Production) Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Environmental Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Environmental Remediation Fund Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Safety Regulations; Unitization Regulations; Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning and Abandonment Regulations and Frontier Exploration Fund Regulations.
He said:”Permit me to reiterate that the process of formulating the above regulations has been a rigorous and strenuous exercise. They are products of critical thinking and evaluation, and hard work by the Commission’s Regulation development Team and the Presidential Implementation Committee on PIA. Despite this however, the process is not complete until the Stakeholders’ critical inputs are obtained, discussed, and incorporated, where necessary, in the regulations.
“To this end, | am of the firm view that with the level of turn out today, we will have healthy, robust, and intellectual discussion on the Regulations during the syndicate sessions to come out with robust regulations with best international best standard”
