Legislators Finally Pass Petroleum Industry Governance Bill

Thu, Jan 18, 2018 | By publisher


Oil & Gas

 

AFTER 13 years, Legislators at the House of Representatives finally on Wednesday passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, PIGB. The bill, which provides the governance and institutional framework for the petroleum industry and for other related matters, was passed after third reading.

The 191-page bill (a segment of the entire Bill), seeks to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. It provides for the establishment of Federal Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated, Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Petroleum Assets Management Company and National Petroleum Company and Petroleum Equalisation Fund.

Victor Nwokolo, deputy chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bills, who led the debate on the report, explained that the regulatory bill would bulkanise NNPC and create National Petroleum Commission which will take over the functions of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR.

According to him, some subsidiaries of the NNPC had also been merged into an entity to be known as the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

He said the House Committee adopted the Senate’s version of the PIGB. When the bill was announced for consideration at the committee level only 30 members of the House of Representatives considered and passed the PIGB within 23 minutes, Vanguard reports.

Copies of the 191-page PIGB report which was laid on resumption from Christmas/New Year recess on Tuesday, was slated for consideration barely 24 hours.

The regulatory Bill, which is removed from the entire Petroleum Industry Bill, provides that “Upon the recommendations of the new commission, the minister of petroleum resources can grant, amend, renew, extend or revoke any licence or lease required for petroleum or production, pursuant to the provisions of the Act or any other enactment.”

The power for issuing and revoking licenses was also domiciled in the commission, as well as allocating petroleum production quotas in a non-discriminatory manner. The commission is also empowered to advise the minister on fiscal and other issues pertaining to the petroleum industry, establish framework for the validation and certification of national hydrocarbon reserves, undertake evaluation of national reserves and reservoir management studies as well as conduct regular audits of the activities of operators engaged in petroleum operations and oil service companies in order to ensure compliance with Nigerian laws and requirements for petroleum operations.

 

 

 

–  Jan.  18, 2018 @ 14:59 GMT /

 

 

 

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