Author: Adeoye Adefulu

Dr. Adeoye Adefulu is a Partner in Odujinrin & Adefulu’s Energy Practice Team. Adeoye holds a Ph.D from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law & Policy, University of Dundee, where his research focused on oil and gas reform in Nigeria. He is consistently ranked as one of Nigeria’s leading energy lawyers and is widely regarded as an expert on the Petroleum Industry Bill. Adeoye has advised private companies on the impact of the Bill on their operations and has also advised members of the National Assembly on critical aspects of the Bill. He writes extensively and has given several presentations on energy reform, the Nigerian oil and gas industry and Nigeria’s electricity industry.
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Upstream Licences Quick Reference Tables (QRT)

The Petroleum Industry Bill proposes changes to upstream licence framework. To replace the Oil Exploration Licence (“OEL”), the Oil Prospecting Licence (“OPL”) & the Oil Mining Lease (“OML”), the Bill establishes the Petroleum Exploration Licence (“PEL”), the Petroleum Prospecting Licence (“PPL”) & the Petroleum Mining Lease (“PML”). The changes are not just in the nomenclature, the new regime includes a number of significant differences to the old structure. Our QRTs will show you those differences in an easily accessible format.

 

 

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NNPC reforms under the Petroleum Industry Bill 2012: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose*

Feature article (warning – long post)

*the more things change, the more things remain the same

One of the primary objectives of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry reform has been to create a more efficient state-owned oil company (“SOC”). Government officials have often named the SOCs of Brazil – Petrobras, Norway – Statoil and Malaysia – Petronas, amongst others, as comparator companies on which the restructured national oil company would be modelled. The various drafts of the Petroleum Industry Bill (“PIB”) have proposed different reform alternatives culminating in the structural reform proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill 2012 (the “Bill”). This article seeks to review the reform structure proposed under the Bill and to critically analyse the choices made.  As our title suggests, it is our view that although several changes have been made, the fundamental issues surrounding the inefficiency of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (“NNPC”) remain untouched and will continue to plague the industry in the immediate future if these reforms are passed into law. Continue reading “NNPC reforms under the Petroleum Industry Bill 2012: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose*”

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It’s been a while!

Between the long public holiday weekend and work commitments, we have not been able to post as frequently as we should have done. We apologise for that and will remedy that this week.

Click here for the newly published summary of Part V of the PIB, which deals with downstream petroleum (including domestic gas utilisation). We are also finalising the promised critique of the NNPC reforms and expect to have that published by Friday 24th August. Have a good week.

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Assobie on PIB, corruption & ministerial powers

Read the views of Prof. Assisi Assobie, former Chairman of the stakeholders working group of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on corruption and the Petroleum Industry Bill as reported in The Guardian newspaper here. The report is quite short but emphasises what has been commented on by others on the extensive powers granted to the Minister in the PIB.

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The week ahead

Having started the week on a fiscal theme, with the conclusion to Dr. Omonbude’s tongue in cheek analysis and the link to KPMG’s fiscal article, we’ll continue with a feature article from Humphrey Onyeukwu, a Lagos lawyer and President of the Lagos Oil Club. This article will be published mid-week. We’ll also publish the Summary of Part V of the Petroleum Industry Bill (Downstream Petroleum) and end the week with our critical analysis of the proposed NNPC restructuring. Hint: we don’t like it.

Remember If you would like answers to any questions about the Petroleum Industry Bill, send an email to: questions[at]petroleumindustrybill.com. If we can’t answer your question, we’ll find someone who can! Have a good week.

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Petroleum Industry Bill Unlikely to Optimise Domestic Gas Supply

Continuing with our fiscal theme, here’s the link to KPMG’s recently published article titled Petroleum Industry Bill 2012: Highlights of the Fiscal Provisions.The article highlights critical provisions of the Petroleum Industry Bill and concludes by stating that its provisions are likely to lead to an increase in the effective tax rate of many companies. It also opines that the current provisions of the PIB are unlikely to optimise domestic gas supplies as the fiscal incentives for upstream gas development under the PIB are less attractive than available under the Petroleum Profits Tax regime. The article may be found here.

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Fiscal Provisions of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Bill: A not so quick-and-dirty assessment, Part II

This part concludes Dr Omonbude’s feature article on the fiscal provisions of the PIB

In the previous part of my note, I introduced and discussed two major features of the fiscal elements in the PIB. The aim of this exercise was to investigate these provisions in the context of how they had been presented within the Bill, and to set the ground for some of the analysis that would follow in this second part. The aim of this part of my note is to consider the other two big-ticket fiscal instruments as far as the Bill is concerned (namely the Nigerian Hydrocarbon Tax and the Companies Income Tax), and to then carry out a simplified analysis of these instruments. Continue reading “Fiscal Provisions of the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Bill: A not so quick-and-dirty assessment, Part II”