There are strong indications that the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB) will be assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari when the harmonised version is presented to him by the end of the month.
A source in the technical committee reviewing the bill on behalf of government confirmed to BusinessDay that the president will not withhold assent on the bill when it reaches him later this month.
Omotayo Alasoadura, chairman of the senate committee on upstream has said the PIGB will be harmonised and presented for presidential assent before the end of March in an address at the maiden edition of the Energies Platform Lecture Series in Lagos on Friday.
Alasoadura said the conference which comprises members from both houses who worked on the bill to harmonise its various provisions are currently working on it and would deliver a harmonised bill ready for assent at the end of the month.
While the Senate passed its version in May last year the House of Representatives passed its version with minor adjustments in January and both committees of the two legislative chambers are working to harmonise the bill.
The presidency is at moment trying to thaw a frosty relationship with the lawmakers and it does not look like likely it would be willing to ruffle feathers much, by withholding assent on the bill following a bruising battle to stop lawmakers vetoing his refusal to assent the electoral amendment act.
BusinessDay sought the view of the presidency and the ministry of Petroleum Resources over the bill, but did not get confirmation as at the time of publication of this story.
Analysts are counting on the PIGB to make the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) play the role of national oil companies like Statoil and Saudi Aramco and help to rejig the decrepit refineries spurring the downstream sector.
“There are people working in these refineries that are being paid and promoted for not doing anything but yet receiving hefty salaries, so the refineries are loss centred and not profit oriented compared to other oil producing countries which is shame, this many other problems we hope the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) will help address all of these lapses,” Adeola Adenikiju, gas policy analyst for the World Bank and professor of Economics at University of Ibadan said.
Emeka Okwuosa, Chairman and CEO of Oilserv Limited, in an earlier comment said, “So far as we have not passed the PIB, there will still be deferred investment and Nigeria will continue to lose value because some of the tax regimes, especially for offshore production is no more representative.”
A key highlight of the bill is that it prohibits the exercise of discretion in the award of oil acreages by the petroleum minister and the president and subsumes the functions of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), into NPRC which also acts as the sector regulator.
After being stuck in the national assembly for a decade, the senate broke down the bill into four sections and introduced it as a private member bill.
Other aspects yet to be passed deals with the fiscal and licensing regime for oil and gas players, and host community fund, which are going to be addressed in subsequent legislations
The PIGB splits the NNPC into three entities: the Nigerian Petroleum Assets Management Company (NPAMC) and the National Petroleum Company (NPC), which will be vested with certain liabilities and assets of the NNPC. There is also the regulator, the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NRPC).
The NPAMC shall be responsible for the management of the NNPC’s oil and gas investment in assets where government is not obligated to provide any upfront funding (essentially the production sharing contracts), whilst the NPC shall be an integrated oil and gas company operating as a fully commercial entity across the energy value chain.
Participants at the conference panel which included Chikwe Onyejekwe (group MD, AITEO), Johnson Chukwu, managing director, Cowrey assets Ltd, Pat Maseli, deputy director, Petroleum Resources, and Segun Olujobi, the CEO of Vertex Energy Ltd discussed other issues in the sector including the vexing issue of subsidies, cash call arrears, and proper regulation of the oil and gas sector.
The Energie Platform Lecture Series, with the theme ‘The Role of the PIGB in sustaining the Joint Venture Cash Call Exit Arrangement.’ Ronke Onadeko, a private consultant in the Oil and Gas industry said that in many states, citizens buy fuel for more than N200/litre and then asks how the petrol subsidy is helping Nigerians.
Segun Olujobi and Olabintan Famutimi, National President of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce said the refineries are not optimally harnessed by the Federal Government and called for the Nigerian refineries to be managed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
