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NNPC calls for speedy passage of PIB

By on September 25, 2013

Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Tuesday urged the National Assembly to ensure speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to transform the nation’s oil and gas sector.

The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr Andrew Yakubu, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the 3rd Upstream and Downstream Oil and Gas Conference.

Speaking on a paper entitled “PIB and Investment Opportunities-Characteristics of the Document’’, Yakubu said passage of the PIB would attract Foreign Direct Investment into the oil and gas sector.

According to him, the PIB, when passed into law, will go a long way in complementing government’s reforms in the sector.

“The PIB, currently before the National Assembly, offers an opportunity to increase investments in the entire value chain of the petroleum industry with attendant positive impacts on the economy,’’ he said.

Yakubu noted that the PIB was painstakingly drawn up with inputs from all stakeholders in the oil and gas sector with a view to replacing about 16 obsolete laws.

He enumerated the benefits inherent in the bill to include the creation of a commercially viable National Oil Company, establishment of an effective fiscal framework, promotion of Nigerian content and enhancement of exploration activities.

Other benefits of the bill, he said, included deregulation of petroleum product prices, promotion of health safety and environment and creation of a robust economic environment to attract investments.

He said the PIB would go a long way in unleashing and developing the gas reserves in the country, which he said is currently grossly underutilised and wasted through flaring.

“One of the very important resources for Nigeria’s future is natural gas.

“Nigeria holds huge gas resources with a proven reserve of 187 trillion cubic feet of Gas with unproven Gas potential of about 600TCF.

“The scorecard for gas has been low in terms of both development and local consumption, more so, large volumes of gas are still being flared.

“The bill, therefore, incorporates the earlier measures taken by government with respect to the domestic supply obligation in order to underpin the gas master plan,’’ he said.

Yakubu, who was represented by Mr Victor Briggs, Managing Director, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, expressed optimism about a bright future for the oil and gas sector, “anchored on a robust PIB’’.

Earlier, Mrs NKechi Nwaogu, Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, gave the assured that the National Assembly was committed to the speedy passage of the PIB.

She, however, decried the alarming rate of gas flaring in the country, which is put as the second highest in the world and urged stakeholders to join government in addressing the negative trend.

International Oil Companies, National Assembly members, officials from NNPC, PTDF and Nigeria Export Processing Zone are attending the three-day event, ending on Thursday. (NAN)