Kunle Awosiyan |

The delay in passing the Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly will aggravate the anxiety within host communities of oil companies waiting to benefit from it and may subject the nation’s oil into serious instability.

This was contained in a report by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria on the state of the petroleum industry and the association’s expectations from the new government, a copy of which was made available to Hallmark Newspaper on Sunday.

According to the report, the PIB has provision of 10 per cent Host Community Fund and accept accountability for sabotage of oil installations in their areas but the delay to make it a law may spell doom for the country’s economy soon.

It will be recalled that on June 4 this year, the House of Representatives eventually passed the PIB along with a number of other pending bills but the bill did not receive the approval of the Senate before it wound down its activities.

The bill, when passed into law, is expected to clarify the rules and procedures that will entrench good governance, transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector as well the operational and fiscal terms that will enable Nigeria to competitively retain equitable proportion of revenue accruing from oil and gas industry operations.

The reported noted that, existing and prospective investors seriously yearned for basic incentives to stimulate their business interests across the industry’s value chain but that the delay in the PIB passage is, however, restraining the aspiration.

According to the report, there is the need for an all-inclusive stakeholders’ summit involving industry operators/players; representatives of the Presidency; National Assembly; security and service chiefs; state governments; ministries, departments and agencies of the government; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative; revenue offices; Nigeria Labour Congress/Trade Union Congress; the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers/PENGASSAN, among others.

“The summit should aim at harmonising the grey areas in the bill and ensuring its accelerated passage in a fair and equitable manner. While the PIB is being attended to, government must resolve the foggy issues in fiscal stability and predictability of the extant laws and the regulatory framework; uncertainty around the portfolio assets leasing to allow the operators the first right of renewal; and pending cash call on the JV operation expenditure and improved funding of capital projects.”