Oil Workers Protest Exclusion from PIB Public Hearing

Members of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have protested their exclusion from the National Assembly’s public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

They alleged that critical stakeholders in the oil and gas industry were denied the opportunity of making their presentations at the hearing.

The group alleged that the action of the National Assembly Joint Committee was deliberate and not in the interest of the nation. They said the committee ended the hearing, without allowing the invited stakeholders to make their presentations.

According to the PENGASSAN’s President, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, 14 out of the 54 memoranda given to the National Assembly was presented during the hearing.

Ogun listed the memoranda to include expunging the provision granting the President Powers to use his discretion to award petroleum licenses and leases from PIB; ensuring that the bill provides transparency on the award of contracts and licenses, and other accompanying processes.

Others are ensuring that the bill builds on the efforts of National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) by erasing the ’black hole’ perception of the oil and gas industry; mandatory publication of all licences, tenders, and contracts; voiding confidentiality clauses for oil revenue and payment information; publication of statistical figures of oil operations that include but not limited to production export and import on quarterly basis; annual reports and audits of operations and commercial and associated institutions created by the PIB, National Petroleum Assets Management Corporation/ Company.

Ogun stressed the need for critical examination of proposed changes in the fiscal regime to ensure that Nigeria does not discourage investments in oil and gas.

He said: “It is our considered view that the PIB should allow for the optimization of returns to Nigeria from its oil and gas resources without stifling investments and growth of the industry. The government will, therefore, have to strike a balance between taking a significantly higher stake from industry operations and ensuring the sustainable growth of the industry. To this end, we suggest that the National Assembly should arrange a meeting between the government represented by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) to reconcile the disagreements on the fiscal regimes.”

The unions called for the curtailing of the power of the Minister under the PIB to avoid the bureaucracy that characterizes the management of the sector; fixing the tenure of the board, chief executive officer and other management staff of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and National Oil Company (NOC) to prevent undue interference of the board and ensuring that workers meet the targets set for them.

Ogun said the Petroleum Host CommunityFund (PHCF) should cover communities hosting oil and gas resources and assets, including downstream infrastructure, adding that independent and effective regulators should be provided to ensure the bill’s success.

“The Joint Venture (JV) has, however, been bedevilled by inadequate funding, as the government has not being able to meet its cash call obligations. The Petroleum Minister only recently pointed out that inadequate JV funding was negatively impacting on exploration and with it, reserves addition. The proposal under the PIB for the JV assets to be under a government-owned corporation does not seem to solve this cash call problem even with the proposed seed capital. There is no doubt that government’s finances are constrained, what will therefore, be more practical is for government to divest some of its holdings in the NPAMC while members of the public hold the rest. This way, the JV will be better funded,” he added.