THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY BILL

It’s a fact that we now have stable supply of petroleum products in Nigeria. The story is the same all over the country.
To get to the present level of nationwide availability of petroleum products, government had toyed with various solutions to the myriad of problems that are confronting the all-strategic oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy.
At a point, it canvassed full deregulation of the downstream sector and this entails removal of subsidy on petroleum products.

It’s a fact that we now have stable supply of petroleum products in Nigeria. The story is the same all over the country.
To get to the present level of nationwide availability of petroleum products, government had toyed with various solutions to the myriad of problems that are confronting the all-strategic oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy.
At a point, it canvassed full deregulation of the downstream sector and this entails removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
For the obvious reason of epileptic power supply which will entail spending more money by families, businesses and homes to fuel vehicles, generators and providing alternative power supply, Nigerians had once fought to oppose removal of subsidy on petrol. Neither government nor the people won, because, the pump price was not returned to its pre-January 1, 2012 figure of N65 per litre, but it was pegged at N97 naira per litre.
At a point in this country and in response to the perennial problem of scarcity, government set up a presidential committee which was headed by Bauchi state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda to come up with a workable solution to the problem. It is on record that it is the committee that recommended full deregulation.
It will be recalled that the PPPRA at that time said that it costs N85 to import a litre of petrol while the official pump price is N65. But the Yuguda committee says that the template price is unrealistic. It has therefore proposed that the price should be N77 per litre of petrol.
If deregulation had come on stream at that time, it would have cost a lot more than N77 to buy a litre of petrol.
The most obvious solution to the challenges in the sector may reside in the all-important Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the final draft of which has been with National Assembly for quite a while.
We are told that the fundamental objective of the PIB   covers vesting of petroleum and natural which means that, “property and sovereign ownership of petroleum within Nigeria, its territorial waters, the continental shelf, the Exclusive Economic Zone and the extended continental shelf shall vest in the sovereign state of Nigeria for and on behalf of the people of Nigeria”, allocation of acreage, which also means that;  “any company qualified under terms and conditions prescribed from time to time by the relevant Institutions shall be free to apply for the grant or award of a license, lease or contract, as the case may be, for the exploration and production of petroleum.”.
Under the emerging PIB, we are also told that, the management and allocation of petroleum resources and their derivatives in Nigeria shall be conducted strictly in accordance with the principles of good governance, transparency and sustainable development of Nigeria, even as the draft also assures that ‘the main criterion for the management of petroleum resources shall be the total benefits that will accrue to the sovereign state of Nigeria”.
We equally take note of the bent towards local content as it is also contained in the fundamental objectives of the draft.  The draft specifically stipulates that Government will deliberately promote the involvement of indigenous companies and manpower and the use of locally produced goods and services in all areas of the petroleum industry in accordance with existing laws and policies.
On paper, the PIB appears to be the solution to the age-long problems that have bedeviled the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The minster of petroleum resources, Mrs Deziani Allison Madueke, also shares this optimism when he told State House reporters last year that the PIB is government’s way of addressing all the identifiable loopholes in the management of the nation’s oil and gas resources.  
We share everyone’s optimism about the bill, but we hope that the National Assembly which has the statutory  duty of processing the bill will not allow politicking to thwart the current efforts of the executive arm, which even though late, has finally submitted the draft to the legislature.
We are conscious of the fact that there are several entrenched interests in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, but the National Assembly should resist attempts to sway them from the part of national interest.
Sadly, the nation’s lawmakers are currently divided for and against the bill, and drawing from their parochial bents, a section of lawmakers from a particular section of the country has vowed to work against the bill.
As a maritime sector media organisation, our hope is that the PIB will enhance the fortunes of the sector; especially as it concerns the downstream subsector, indigenous ship owners and also employment of seafarers.
At the end of the day, we expect a PIB that will empower more Nigerians, make the oil and gas sector more sustainable, integrate ancillary sectors and have specific interests of oil-bearing communities at heart and also be in the long term interest of Nigeria as a foremost member of the Oil Producing and Exporting Counties (OPEC).
It is obvious that institutions such as:  NNPC (and its subsidiaries), DPR, Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) and a host of others have all failed. The PIB should be the much needed opportunity that is required to clean the rot that is prevalent in the oil and gas sector.