BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Politics
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Yakubu Dogara, speaker of House of Representatives in Nigeria, says the 8th National Assembly will expeditiously pass the Petroleum Industry Bill which has lingered in the country since 2008
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Mar 21, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE National Assembly in Nigeria is committed to the expeditious passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, to ensure restructuring of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, especially the deregulation of the downstream sector. Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives, at the recent 2016 Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, said the lawmakers would consider and expedite the passage of PIB to allow for competition, including open access to the pipeline as well as providing a robust tariff mechanism for all players in the sector.
The PIB will ensure a strong local refining and petrochemical industry which will be a catalyst to the growth and sustainable development of country’s oil and gas sector by diversifying its revenue stream. According to Dogara, Nigeria aspires to maintain its current growth forecast and sustain the year 2012 GDP growth rate of 6.48 percent.
Citing the Morgan Stanley prediction that Nigeria is expected to become an economic power overtaking South Africa by 2025 in its terms of GDP, the speaker noted that in June of 2014, the Brent Crude Oil Price hit $115 per barrel and many oil market insiders predicted higher prices based on an article by Steve Austin but that other analyst called a peak, and their predictions proved to be correct. “The fall in oil prices have been predicted since the middle of 2013 giving the emerging geopolitics,” he said.
Dogara said the impact of this sharp decline in oil price and its attendant impact on Nigeria realising its economic projection needed further examination, describing the topic of this year’s lecture as timely given that the role of a strong local refining in maximising benefits for economic growth in a declining oil prices environment and linkages to the manufacturing industry as well as the agricultural sector; which creates growth in the real sector of the economy.
Accordingly, he said this will enable the country to achieve its desired growth aspiration. “It is aligned with the change agenda of the federal government for the oil and gas sector which commenced with the appointment Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Rehabilitation of the Refineries, reinvigorated draft Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, to be submitted to the National Assembly for passage,” Dogara said.
The speaker noted that SPE over the years became the foremost platform in Nigeria that provides the oil and gas sector through its Oloibiri Lecture Series, the policy focus on technical and financial framework required to address the challenges of the industry. “This year’s partnership demonstrates the hallmark of the cooperation between the executive and legislature on non partisan professional body the opportunity to address and proffer common solution geared towards growing in country capacity to meet the challenge posed by the ongoing reforms and divestments in the upstream sector and petroleum industry at large.”
It is on record that the PIB has the unenviable record of being the Bill that has undergone the longest process of legislation in the current democratic dispensation. Despite the fact that it has been in the National Assembly for eight years, with 350 amendments, the Bill has not gone past second reading because of politics, intrigues and outright struggle for the protection of group, sectional and generally selfish interests.
But the proposed law would encourage greater participation of the private sector in the oil sector, with the concomitant benefit of speeding up the gross domestic product and, in turn, enhancing the standard of living of Nigerians. It would encourage greater participation of oil communities in the developmental projects that affect them, and also enhance the technological capabilities of Nigerians through emphasis on local content in all the components that make up the industry.
The PIB was first forwarded to the National Assembly by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2008 but was withdrawn by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, revised and re-transmitted back to the legislature in July 2012. The PIB, when passed, is expected to reform the administrative, governance and fiscal regimes in the oil industry, give Nigerians greater say and open up massive investment and employment opportunities, especially in the downstream sector.
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