Senate passes PIGB into Law

The 8th Senate on Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) into law after it has gone through all legislative procedures which seek to unbundle the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and merged its subsidiaries into an entity.

This was part of the recommendations in the report by the joint committee on Petroleum (Upstream, Downstream and Gas) on the PIGB which was adopted by the Senate at plenary on Wednesday. By this development some subsidiaries of NNPC had also been merged into an entity to be known as the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

The bill which is co-sponsored by the Chair, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Bassey Albert got the legislative nod ten years after it first came into public consciousness. According to Senator Albert, the bill proposes a slim, focused yet robust framework for effective institutional governance of the Nigerian Petroleum industry. ‘’We supported and enhanced the creation of an independent one stop regulatory agency which will absorb the present Department of Petroleum Resources, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund into one agency’’ Senator Albert stressed.

With this development the role of the Minister of Petroleum Resources have been streamlined and sharpened as well as enhance the extensive reform of NNPC into two limited liability companies –The National Petroleum Company and the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company –to ensure efficient and effective commercial performance. The bill has also ensured that the major lapses associated with prior institutional frameworks have been remedied. 

Senate President, His Excellency Senator Bukola Saraki said the bill will assist solve the multifarious issues that are connected to Nigeria’s oil and Gas sector while thanking all for a job well done.

It could be recalled that the Senate joint Committee on PIGB made up of Upstream, downstream and Gas had two months back at the instance of Senator Bassey Albert held a four day retreat in Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom to fine tune the content of the bill which fast tracked its being passed into law on Thursday.