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The House of Representatives passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (“PIGB”) on Wednesday 17th of January, 2018. This is following the passage of the PIGB by the Senate in May 2017. Continue reading “House passes the PIGB”
The Nigerian Senate passed the Petroleum Industry Administration Bill, Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill and the Petroleum Host Community Bill at the second reading today, the 27th of July, 2017. The Bills have been referred to the Committees on Petroleum Upstream, Downstream and Gas to report to the full Senate in four weeks. This is another milestone in the petroleum industry reforms. We expect that the next four weeks will be spent engaging with key stakeholders on the various reform bills. Petroleumindustrybill.com will continue to keep you updated on these developments.
The Nation reports that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“NEITI”) has revealed that the Senate has made a fundamental error in the PIGB by failing to “enshrine NEITI principles in the governance process”. Continue reading “NEITI reveals “fundamental error” in PIGB”
Thisdayonline reports that the House of Representatives seeks to pursue another strategy in the passage of petroleum industry reforms. The Chairman of the House Committee, Petroleum Upstream, Hon. Victor Nwokolo (Delta-PDP) indicated in a press conference yesterday that the House bill will include the Petroleum Host Community Fund as well as Fiscal reform matters. This runs against the reports that the PIGB passed by the Senate would be given accelerated hearing by the House.
Given the legislative and political timetables, this recent development will pose a challenge to the adoption of the PIGB or indeed any part of the petroleum industry reforms into law in the near future. It is our opinion that the two houses of the National Assembly should work together in the national interest to avoid further delays to much-needed reforms.
The newspapers continue to cover the fallout from the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB). A few of yesterday’s reports are highlighted below.
YNaija.com publish a scathing opinion piece by Saatah Nubari titled “THE TRASH THAT IS THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY BILL (PIB)“. Nubari criticised the decision of the Senate not to address the Petroleum Host Community Fund first as in his opinion this is the most critical piece of the raft of legislation to be passed.
The Premium Times provides us with an infograph detailing the decade long journey in the passage of the Petroleum reform bill.
Thisday considers the passage of the bill a small but significant step in the right direction.
Proshareng.com provides a detailed analysis of the contents of the bill, which is worth reading.
A copy of the PIGB 2017 may be found here. The Bill is in a report format and shows the changes made to the Bill after the Joint Committee’s review.
This post has been updated with a link to the final version of the Bill.
The PIGB 2017 passed by the Senate on May 25, 2017, has the following objectives:
The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill was passed at its third reading at the Nigerian Senate today (May 25th, 2017). In the long history of pursuing Petroleum Industry legislative reform in Nigeria, this is the first time that a bill will be passed at the Nigerian Senate.
We shall update you on the changes made to the Bill and the next steps.
There are indications that the passage of the PIB may be nowhere is sight as information gathered from ThisDay suggests that the delay in the passage of the Bill is actually due to internal wrangling between the National Assembly and the Executive, a power play centered around which arm of government is responsible for the passage of the Bill. This is in addition to the unresolved issue of the inclusion or otherwise of the host community fund in the Bill. The report decried this debacle calling it a major embarrassment for Nigeria in view of the landmark passage of a similar Bill by Ghana’s parliament last week.
The paper went on to report that the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru has promised to continue with the reform initiatives started by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and further grow the fortunes of NNPC by focusing on a 12-point agenda, which includes security of oil installations, the new business models, joint venture cash calls, production and reserve growth, growth of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), gas development, oil and gas infrastructure, and refinery upgrade and expansion.