· Senate approves 3% for host community
· Meets Sylva, Kyari behind closed doors
· Chambers adjourn till July 6
By Teddy Nwanunobi
The duo of the Senate and House or Representatives, on Thursday, passed the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Valuechain reports that the passage of the Bill by the two chambers of the National Assembly came after 13 years of waiting.
At the Green Chamber, where the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase, chaired the Committee of the Whole, members of the Lower Chamber considered the report of the Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Mohammed Monguno.
The representatives, who voted on the 319 clauses of the bill, went through the consideration of the report, clause-by-clause, before it was passed.
It would be recalled that the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led chamber had received the report of the Bill about 24 hours earlier, before going through the process of passing it.
Before the clauses of the Bill were considered, Monguno said by passing the Bill, the Ninth House would have succeeded in enacting important legislation.
He said the Bill seeks to bring governance issues in the oil and gas sector in tandem with the international best practices.
Monguno said the Bill would make the oil and gas industry more transparent and competitive.
“We need to pass this Bill so that our name will be written in gold. By passing this Bill that seeks to bring governance issue in the oil Industry in tandem with the international best practice. It will unbundle NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) so that NNPC will be NNPC Limited, and metamorphose into a limited liability company.
“The Bill seeks to create a commission in the oil and gas industry for the purpose of bringing governance in a transparent manner with a viewing to making Nigerian oil gas industry competitive and attract more investments.
“Against this background, the passage of this Bill has eluded the previous assembly. We should pass this Bill so that our names will be written in gold,” he said.
After the lawmakers approved the Bill clauses, Gbajabiamila commended his colleagues for their commitment in passing the Bill.
He said the lower legislative chamber has made Nigerian proud, hinting that the electoral act would be passed in the next couple of days.
“I want to commend the 24 wise men and the 360 members in producing this 318 sections law. In the coming week, the electoral amendment will follow suit. By the time we are done, irrespective of which side of the divide you are, this Ninth House would have done us proud,” he said.
At the Senate, before passing the Bill, the senators met behind closed doors with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari.
The Bill, which passed the third reading, after the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Petroleum (upstream and downstream) and Gas, Senator Mohammed Sabo, presented a report and its clauses were put to voice vote, has five parts, eight schedules, and 319 clauses.
While presenting the report, Sabo explained the aim of the legislation.
“(It will) promote transparency, good governance, and accountability in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
He said the Committee recommended that 30 per cent of the NNPC profit from oil and gas should be used to fund exploration of frontier basins.
“The various obsolete laws currently in operation in the country have been updated and consolidated in this chapter to meet global competitiveness and best practices. A total of 355 amendments were recommended to this chapter while others were retained,” he said.
During the clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill in the committee, the percentage that should be allocated to the host communities caused a division among the senators.
At the public hearing on the Bill, representatives of the host communities demanded that they be allocated 10 percent.
Although 5 per cent was proposed, the Committee recommended 3 per cent, after a meeting of the senators with Sylva and Kyari behind closed doors.
After three per cent was accepted as what is due to host communities, Senator Thompson Sekibo challenged the decision to cut down to 3 per cent.
The Senate Leader, Senator Abdullahi Yahaya, described it as a bad precedent, and urged Sekibo to withdraw his motion.
Senator James Manager said 5 per cent was not too much for the host communities.
Valuechain reports that the passage of the bill comes exactly 13 years after it was first presented to the National Assembly in 2008.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on September 28, 2008, presented the PIB to the National Assembly for reconsideration.
The PIB has been the subject of controversies for years because of vested interests by stakeholders in the oil sector.
Since 2008, successive administrations and national assemblies have failed to pass the legislation.
In 2018, the House of Representatives passed a harmonised version, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) – almost a year after the Senate passed the Bill.
However, the PIGB was rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari for “legal and constitutional reasons”.
The Bill seeks to introduce changes to the governance, administrative, regulatory, and fiscal framework of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, in order to ensure transparency, strengthen the governing institutions, and attract investment capital, among other objectives.
The Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who said the Senate expects Buhari to sign the Bill as soon as it is transmitted, added that the Bill got the input of both the executive and legislative arms of government.
Valuechain reports that the Senate and House then adjourned till July 6, 2021.