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Again, National Assembly pledges speedy passage of PIB

By on March 9, 2016

The National Assembly has restated its commitment to the expeditious passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to ensure the restructuring and deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

Speaking at the recent 2016 Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, which had as its theme, “Technological Advances In Hydrocarbon Exploration And Exploitation: Solutions To Global Oil Price Stability,” the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon, Yakubu Dogara said the law makers would consider and expedite the passage of legislation of PIB to allow for competition in all segments, including open access to the pipeline as well as providing a robust tariff mechanism for all players.

He said a strong local refining and petrochemical industry would provide the catalyst to ensure the country’s growth and sustainable development through diversifying the country’s revenue stream and growth in other sectors.

Dogara stated that as the country aspires to maintain its current growth forecast and sustain the year 2012 GDP growth rate of 6.48 per cent, Morgan Stanley has predicted that Nigeria is expected to become an economic power overtaking South Africa by 2025 in its terms of GDP.

“In June of 2014, the Brent Crude Oil Price hit $115 per barrel and many oil market insiders were predicting higher prices based on an article by Steve Austin. Other analyst however, called a peak, and their predictions proved to be correct. The fall in oil prices have been predicted since the middle of 2013 giving the emerging Geopolitics,” he said.

Dogara said the impact of this sharp decline in oil price and its attendant impact on Nigeria realising its economic projection needed further examination.

According to him, the topic of the topic of this year’s lecture is “timely given that the role of a strong local refining in maximising benefits for economic growth in a declining oil prices environment and linkages to the manufacturing industry as well as the agricultural Sector; which creates growth in the real sector of the economy.”

According to him, this will enable the country to achieve its desired growth aspiration.

“It is aligned with the Change agenda of the Federal Government for the Oil and Gas Sector which commenced with the appointment Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Rehabilitation of the Refineries, reinvigorated draft Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to be submitted to the National Assembly for passage,” Dogara added.

The speaker noted that SPE over the years has become the foremost platform in Nigeria that provides the oil and gas sector through its Oloibiri Lecture Series, the policy focus on technical and financial framework required to address the challenges of the industry.

“This year’s partnership demonstrates the hallmark of the cooperation between the Executive and Legislature on non partisan professional body the opportunity to address and proffer common solution geared towards growing in country capacity to meet the challenge posed by the ongoing reforms and divestments in the upstream sector and Petroleum Industry at large,” Dogara explained.

 

[ThisDay]