By Ifeanyi Nwoko
Find view and download link at the bottom of the story.
The Senate on Thursday passed the first part of the much anticipated Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) after 17 year of consideration.
The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) has been passed to take care of the governance aspect of the PIB.
The Bill which has gone through 5 sessions of the National Assembly beginning from the 4th Assembly which was inaugurated in 1999 under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The bill seeks to open up the sector to more and better business opportunities, make the sector more transparent and ensure better accountability of revenue derived from oil.
If the bill scales through assent by the President, it would restructure the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation, Department for Petroleum Resources and also create new agencies with more responsibilities.
Below are key benefits of the PIGB:
1. It will create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations
2. Enhance exploitation and exploration of petroleum resources in Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians
3. Optimize domestic gas supplies, especially for power generation and industrial development
4. Encourage investment in Nigerian petroleum industry
5. Optimize government revenue
6. Establish profit-driven oil entities
7. Deregulate and liberalize the downstream petroleum sector
8. Create efficient and effective regulatory agencies
9. Promote the development of Nigerian content in the oil industry
10. Protect health, safety and the environment in petroleum operations.
11. PIB will lead to the establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Investment Pact Scheme will ensure that components of industry equipment can be manufactured locally
View or Download the PIGB 2017 here
