Senate passes first part of Petroleum Industry Bill

 

 

THE upper chamber of National Assembly, the Senate has passed the first part of Petroleum Industry Governance Bill.
Speaking at the chamber in Abuja, the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki said the PIB is passed almost a decade after it was first proposed to lawmakers.
“This is a bill that has been delayed for many years,” Saraki said during Thursday’s proceedings in the capital, Abuja. Its provisions “will ensure transparency and accountability and create an enabling environment for the petroleum sector that will be necessary to stimulate growth.”
The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, the first of three bills that replaced previous proposals, is aimed at reforming the way Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is regulated and funded. Delays in the passage of the bill, first sent to parliament nine years ago, have created a climate of uncertainty that has cost the country as much as $15 billion a year in lost investment, according to the Petroleum Ministry.
The bill will have to be approved by the House of Representatives as well before the president can sign it into law.
Lawmakers seeking to hasten the passage of the the bill, which was stalled by political wrangling and objections from oil companies, moved ahead with a private-member legislative proposal as President Muhammadu Buhari’s government delayed presenting a new draft. A second part of the proposed oil laws will address the tax regime and provide incentives for new investments while the final part will seek to assuage grievances of communities in oil-producing areas, Saraki said in November.