Phased Enacting of Nigeria's Petroleum Bill Thwarted
Nigeria's federal House of Representatives has set up an ad-hoc committee to review the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), part of which was passed May 25 by the Senate only.
It signals that it could take a long while before any of the PIGB becomes law, despite the Senate's effort to get a less controversial part enacted first.
The PIGB comes in three parts. The first, passed by the Senate, is to restructure the operations at the government's Department of Petroleum Resources and state-owned NNPC. The second would crucially address the tax regime and provide incentives for new investments. Part 3 would address grievances in oil and gas producing regions.
Although the PIGB passed a second reading on June 15 in the House of Representatives before it went on recess, it was also agreed that an ad-hoc committee is set up to properly review all the parts of the PIGB so as to consolidate them before the entire bill becomes law.
This effectively puts the bill on hold, torpedoing the Senate's strategy of getting one part approved first, and then focusing on the rest.
A Petroleum Bill was first proposed in Nigeria in 2000.
During the House Committee Workshop on Petroleum June 1 in Abuja, that committee's chairperson Victor Nwokolo said the Senate had only focused on a fraction of the bill and that the House of Representatives cannot move forward without a proper review. He also said the Senate had not properly addressed the issue of revenue collection. Nwokolo also said that the members of the House of Representatives needed to study trends in other parts of the world in relation to the petroleum industry in order to come up with a law that would be accepted by all.
The ad-hoc committee, chaired by chief whip Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, will draw up a report that will be made available when the House returns from its recess on July 4.
One of its members Musa Adar told NGW recently that, until the review is done and committee members have given their recommendations to be acted upon by the house, the bill cannot become law. As such, it's believed this puts the earlier Senate adoption at risk.
Adar also said there is no timeline to be given as to when the bill will become law, but said a clearer timeline may be given after July 4 when the house comes back from recess and the committee begins its deliberations.
Omono Okonkwo