Nigeria’s House of Representatives has finally passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), after missing at least 20 deadlines since conception in September 2008.
On Thursday, the bill passed the third reading after Mohammed Monguno, chairman of the ad hoc committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), presented a report and the lawmakers voted on 319 clauses of the bill.
Before the clauses of the bill were considered, Monguno said bypassing the bill, the ninth house would have succeeded in enacting important legislation.
He said the bill seeks to bring governance issues in the oil and gas sector in tandem with the international best practices.
Monguno said the bill would make the oil and gas industry more transparent and competitive.
After the lawmakers approved the bill clauses, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House commended his colleagues for their commitment to passing the bill.
Read also: 20 times the PIB missed proposed deadlines
The last attempt to pass the piece of legislation was halted when President Muhammadu Buhari refused to give assent to the harmonised version, the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB) passed by the house of representatives.
A reason for the rejection of the bill was that there were some sections that sought to whittle down the powers of the Minister of Petroleum Resources and vest the same in some technocrats.
The PIB, which is expected to redefine Nigeria’s economic relationships with its foreign oil partners and alter everything from fiscal terms to the structure of the state-oil firm
A BusinessDay analysis showed the PIB expected to rewrite Nigeria’s decades-old relationship with its foreign oil partners and alter everything from fiscal terms to the structure of the state-oil firm, has missed at least 20 deadlines since conception in September 2008.
