NEITI laud Senate on the passage of PIGB, urges Reps to give assent

Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have commended the Senate for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) just as they called on the House of Representatives to toe the same line so as to bring to a halt, the unending years of uncertainty and inactive legislation in the sector.

A statement signed by its Director of Communications, Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, NEITI expressed its excitement over the passage of PIGB by the Senate.

“The decision of the Senate to consider the bill as priority resulting in its passage is not only legendary, but historic given the challenges the bill has passed through in its legislative journey for almost two decades.

“NEITI therefore calls on the House of Representatives to find similar courage to give the bill an accelerated consideration on its merit in overriding public interest.

“We are delighted that to avoid the controversies that killed the last PIB, the current Senate, carefully assembled experts who carefully broke the Bill into various segments beginning with the governance aspect of the proposed law.

The PIGB now passed by the Senate is a product of this creative initiative” NEITI stated.

Recall that the House of Representative in the 7th Assembly passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) but it could not get the necessary assent in the Senate, hence the bill could not see the light of the day.

In one of its publications, NEITI explained that the absence of PIB had robbed the country of quality investment in the sector resulting in a current negative indicators in the economy.

“In that publication shared with members of the National Assembly, NEITI alerted the nation that Nigeria had so far lost over $200 billion as a result of absence of the Law.

These lost revenues were as a result of investments withheld or diverted by investors to other (more predictable) jurisdictions.

The hedging by investors stems from the expectation that the old rules would no longer apply, but not knowing when the new ones would materialize.”

The Agency hopes that if the new law gets the assent of the President, the huge revenue were lost by the nation as a result of governance lapses.

Addressing the Senate after the passage of the Bill, The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki said that with the passage of the bill, corrupt practices in the oil and gas sector would be reduced, adding that inefficiency currently associated with the sector, would also be done away with.

“The bill will stimulate the oil and gas industry. It will reduce the area of corruption and inefficiency in the oil and gas sector,” Saraki said.

The PIGB as passed by the Senate seeks to open up the sector to more and better business opportunities and make the sector more transparent.

The bill will create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations, enhance exploitation and exploration of petroleum resources, optimize domestic gas supplies, encourage more investment, establish profit-driven oil entities, deregulate and liberalize the downstream, create efficiency and promote the development of Nigerian local content in the oil industry.