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Compromised Petroleum Industry Bill Finally Submitted to President Jonathan

By on June 30, 2012

The Minister of Petroleum Resources has confirmed that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been submitted to Mr. President. This move may signal an end to the years of waiting all stakeholders including the Nigerian people have had to endure whilst a watered down legislation prepared mainly to serve the interest of the major Oil and Gas companies was agreed upon by the ruling elite.

According to foreign consultants and experts who advised government on the PIB, the present version of the bill would be more beneficial to oil companies than to Nigerians.

Pedro van Meurs, an oil and gas consultant who advised government on the PIB told Reuters, “I expect the petroleum industry to be happy. I expect many Nigerians to be upset.”

He added, “Transparency provisions related to corporate income tax, hydrocarbon tax and production sharing were deleted. This should be a source of concern.”

The Bill does not require disclosure of oil sales, of other taxes like income and hydrocarbon tax, nor of payments to the government, including signature bonuses. Exactly the type of loopholes that allowed the current N 155 billion oil block scam rocking the Presidency to go through unchecked.

The oil minister stated that it wold be at the President’s discretion when asked when the bill would be transmitted to the National Assembly.

She said, “We will go forward now as directed and prepare for the presentation to the Federal Executive Council, my assumption therefore is that within the next 10 to 14 days, it will be in their hands. But, again, that will be at the pleasure of Mr. President. Ours is to present it and review it with government stakeholders as it is done for every bill that is done for the government to present.

“It has taken a long time. It went through the entire gamut of the sixth session of the National Assembly and it did not get promulgated into law. In agreement with the seventh assembly, we took it back and completely reviewed it again. This is not a small bill, it is a critical bill for this country and for our oil and gas sector, therefore at this point, government will do the final review and put it in front of the FEC for approval; part of that process is that it will go through the Attorney-General’s office.

“Nigerians should understand that we have been in a hurry for a long time to put this bill out but we will try to ensure that by the time it enters the National Assembly, we are very comfortable with it and we are putting forward a bill that we believe the oil and gas sector can stand on and can grow on for many years to come in this country.”

The minister added, “A lot of details have gone into it; we have looked at the fiscal regime, we have looked at the reconfiguration of the NNPC to ensure that going forward, it becomes the commercial entity it should have been all along. We have also looked at other administrative roles within the gamut of the sector as well. I think that the teams have done a very good job; we are very pleased.”