PETROLEUM INDUSTRY BILL (PIB) AND THE PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS

In his nation-wide broadcast on the 2012 Democracy Day, which was celebrated last Tuesday, May 29^th, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan announced that the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be re-presented to the National Assembly by next month. The President, said that the bill is being re-drafted to ensure that it meets the aspiration of all stakeholders, as well as to ensure enduring transparency and accountability in the industry given the current realities in the oil and gas sector. The President also disclosed that special task forces dealing with governance and control, petroleum revenue and national refineries were finalizing their work, recommendations of which would be sufficiently reflected in the bill to ensure probity in the sector, as well as ensure self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products. He therefore assured Nigerians that work on the bill would be concluded next month, June and formally submitted to the National Assembly immediately for subsequent consideration and passage.

A draft of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which would serve as a comprehensive legal framework guiding all activities and operations in the Oil and Gas sector, has become necessary in order to address current unfortunate realities in the sector.  The need for the bill became more apparent and pressing with the release of the report of House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc committee that probed the Fuel Subsidy regime, which contained a lot of alarming revelations regarding widespread corruption and the shocking impropriety and impurity surrounding activities in the Oil sector.  According to the report, the Country has lost over a trillion Naira in the last two years as a result of flagrant corruption and senseless embezzlement of the subsidy funds by a few individuals and groups in the industry.  In additional to that, the nation loses hundreds of billions of naira annually due to ruthless acts of Oil bunkering and vandalisation of pipelines by some unscrupulous elements.

This is why top on the recommendations of the subsidy probe report was the urgent need for the unbundling of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), an overhaul of the sector and more importantly the urgent review of the Petroleum Industry Bill and its speedy passage in order to check the excesses and infidelities that have continued to characterize the sector.

Oil or Petroleum resources, which Nigeria was blessed with in abundance are the nation’s largest source of revenue. Nigeria is also the world’s sixth largest exporter of petroleum products. The country extracts millions of barrels from its crude oil reserve on a daily basis, which is more than enough to serve its domestic needs as well as for export to earn sufficient foreign exchange than can be used for the rapid development of the country. However, due to the widespread corruption in the sector, dysfunctional state of the nation’s refineries and the highly condemnable acts of bunkering and vandalism, largely as a result of the absence of comprehensive and effective legal framework, which the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is expected to serve, the nation is continuously losing trillions that could be used to provide the citizens with basic infrastructure and social amenities and ultimately revamp the nation’s economy.

It is therefore, expected that the President and his team would exhibit high sense of responsibility,  commitment  and competence in re-drafting  an all encompassing Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), that would adequately address the current realities in the sector. The National Assembly is also expected to thoroughly scrutinize the bill, which the President said would be submitted to it in a couple of weeks, and make sure that all the issues raised by the Subsidy Probe Report are sufficiently addressed among other realities that the bill should address.

The proposed Petroleum Industry Bill is therefore expected to check the excesses and widespread corruption in the oil and gas sector, support the local content initiative, ensure the revival of the nation’s refineries, increase the availability and affordability of the products, check the problem of bunkering and vandalism, and entrench probity, transparency and accountability in the sector, so that Nigerians would begin to reap maximum benefits from the abundant Petroleum resources that nature has blessed the country with.