Apart from the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources promised the executive arm of government would send to the National Assembly before the end of the year, there are also five more pieces of legislations ready to for the legislature.
These are contained in one of the three books; The Petroleum Industry Bill authored by the minister which were presented to the public on Monday in Abuja.
Kachikwu had already indicated to BusinessDay that the petroleum sector issues could not be solely captured in one bill. He said issues such as the host community and derivation amongst others needed separate pieces of legislations to tackle.
Speaking at the presentation of the books; Compendium of Oil and Gas Cases in Nigeria, Legal Issues in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and The Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo said the author had delivered in his works the most significant contributions to understanding of major issues and nuances of the Nigerian petroleum industry.
“From my assessment of one of the books, Legal issues in the Nigerian petroleum industry, which I had the pleasure to peruse, he (Kachikwu) did not disappoint, he took on the difficult issues that are the defining items in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
“I will not be surprised if one of the books, The Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes, attracts considerable attention. The industry has awaited this all important bill for so long and many will hope that at least they can get a sense for how the minister’s mind is working, the Vice President stated.
Assuring that government was not relenting in resolving the challenges facing the oil sector, the Vice President said, “The Federal government has had to deal frontally with critical issues bedeviling the sector; the deregulation of the downstream sector and its continuing challenges; vandalisation of pipelines and export facilities and the critical drop in production, gas to power issues, the urgent imperative of local refining, cash call problems and the planned exit that regime and empowering indigenous operators”.
Speaking on the efforts to diversify from oil revenues which he said the world was looking away from, he said, “As we move to diversifying our economy, we are particularly aware that we need oil to get out of oil, yet our window of opportunity to benefit maximally from the petroleum industry is narrowing.
“The development of shale oil which is the author spent considerable time on, the increasing breakthroughs in renewable energy use, the incredible use of the expansion of the use of electric vehicles; Japan has now more electric charging stations than gas stations, all point in to the fact that the party might be over sooner than we expected”.
Gbenga Oyebode, reviewer of the Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes, stressed the need for a petroleum law noting that four different versions of the PIB have as core, good governance, transparency in the way business is done in the sector as well as sustainable development and commended the efforts of all who have put the various drafts in place.
He specifically lauded the initiative of the author and the executive for splitting the bill adding that one of the criticisms that had trailed the PIB is that it was too large a document.
In his remark, Kachikwu hinted that the books were not the last to deal with but expressed hope that it generates some excitement that will lead to more researches done in the industry to arrive at solutions to challenges bothering the sector.
He said Nigeria was going through difficult times where thinking outside the box has become key for her to succeed as a nation.
