News. Information. Analysis
The public hearings on the Petroleum Industry Bill at the House of Representatives slated to be held today in Abuja failed to hold. No reason was given by the PIB Ad hoc committee.
Attendance at the event was sparse with most of the crowd dispersing after 4 hours of waiting. It is not clear whether the hearing will hold tomorrow as scheduled.
The House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (“PIB”) in a communiqué issued on Monday, July 8, 2013, has notified the general public of its final public hearing on the Bill.
Members of the public, especially industry stakeholders, professional / interest groups, host communities, state and local governments, have been invited to make representations to the Ad-hoc Committee on the PIB on Wednesday, 9th and Thursday, 10th July 2013 at the New Wing of the House of Representatives National Assembly Complex, Abuja. All memoranda on the Bill are required to be typed, hardcover bound and produced in twenty (20) copies.
The House of Representatives’ hearing is to be followed by a two-day public hearing by the Senate’s Joint Committee on the PIB.
The Senate’s public hearing, taking place on Tuesday, 16th and Wednesday, 17th July, 2013 at Conference Room 022, New Senate Wing National Assembly Complex, is to host the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the 36 State Governors as well as heads of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies on the first day, and on the second day, Managing Directors of International and National Oil Companies, the Nigerian Labour Congress, Petroleum Marketers, industry stake holders and members of the public.
Stakeholders and interested members of the public willing to make representations on the Bill to the Senate’s Joint Committee are required to submit their memoranda in fifty (50) hard copies and one (1) soft copy to the Committee’s Secretariat in Room SB 10 (Red Carpet), (White House), the Senate National Assembly Complex, Abuja on or before Thursday 11th July, 2013.
The House of Representative’s Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (“PIB”) headed by the Chief Whip of the House, Hon. Ishaaka Bawa, held its South-West public hearing on Monday, 22 and Tuesday, 23 April, 2013 at Lagos Airport Hotel.
In attendance were various stakeholders in the petroleum extractive industry, petroleum industry consultants and experts as well as representatives from various government departments.
Although the Committee received a handful of remarks on the first day of hearing (particularly from the Lagos State Government), most representations were left till the hearing’s second day.
A representative from Shell expressed concern that PIB’s fiscal framework did not encourage new investments and if passed as drafted, the country stood the chance of experiencing a decline in deep water explorations.
Also contributing, Engr. Dada Thomas of Frontier Oil Ltd. and Mrs. Catherine Uju Ifejika of Britannia-U Nigeria Ltd. spoke on the Bill being unfavourable to Marginal Field Operators and dis-incentivising gas production. They advocated for better incentives for indigenous operators, a less stringent fiscal framework and an attractive pricing regime for operators involved in gas operations.
Speaking primarily on the Petroleum Host Community Fund, Environmental Rights Action’s Executive Director, Mr. Godwin Ojo, called for a redefinition of Petroleum Host Communities. He suggested the need to expand the category of communities classified as Host Communities. He suggested that Host Communities include all States affected by every aspect of petroleum operations and not just the Niger-Delta states.
Rounding up presentations, the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN)’s PIB committee chairperson reiterated the general sentiments the Bill had received since its draft was released in July 2012.
Amongst other things, he expressed the need for the Bill to take more local content initiative, restrict the powers of the President as regards discretionary award of licences and leases, merge the regulatory agencies, allow greater transparency in NOC divestment and provide more tax incentives.
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill, announce today, Sunday 21st April, that it is to hold its zonal public hearings in Port Harcourt, Enugu, Lagos, Kaduna, Ilorin & Gombe on Monday 22nd April & Tuesday 23rd April. The announcement may be found here. The Lagos public hearing is to be held at the Lagos Airport Hotel from 9 am to 4 pm each day. Given the importance of the PIB, the very short notice given by the committee is extremely disappointing is likely to affect the quality of the debates held at the sessions.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the PIB, and Chief Whip of the House, Isiaka Bawa has announced the House’s intention to hold zonal public hearings on the PIB across the cross section of the populace, TheGuardian has reported.
According to the report, the zonal public hearings to be held simultaneously on April 22 and 23, 2013 in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kaduna, llorin and Gombe would give an opportunity to state governments, state legislatures and professional/interest groups to participate in the passage of the PIB into law. This would culminate in a panel meeting during a three-day conference with the Senate in Abuja for harmonisation at the end of the scheduled hearing. The Abuja hearing, the date of which is yet to be announced would be the grand finale affording the final opportunity to the committee to collate the views of other stakeholders who might have been unwittingly left out of the zonal hearings.
Also in this report and a similar report, The Guardian highlights concerns expressed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) on certain aspects of the Bill. A major thread running through the institute’s recommendation forwarded to the Senate President and members of the National Assembly, was the excessive powers conferred on the Minister. The fiscal terms of the Bill also raised ICAN’s concerns, which argued that the terms were not favourable as they heighten uncertainty and endanger returns on investments.
Reports reaching us indicate that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwa, will today Wednesday, March 13, 2013 inaugurate a 23 man ad-hoc committee headed by the Chief Whip of the House, Ishaka Bawa to consider the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The committee was set up in November 2012 shortly after the Bill scaled through the second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.
It will also be recalled that the Bill just last week made it past the second reading on the floor of the Senate and was sent to the relevant Senate Committees for deliberations.
It has been reported (here and here) that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on Thursday, March 6, 2013, scaled through the Second Reading on the floor of the Senate and has been passed on to the Senate Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream), Gas and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
Senators Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central), Chairman Committee on Petroleum(Upstream); Magnus Abe (Rivers South/East), Chairman Committee on Petroleum(Downstream); Nkechi Justina Nwaogu (Abia Central), Chairman Gas Committee; and Umaru Dahiru (Sokoto South), Chairman Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters are charged with collating the views of the Senate on the Bill together with those of the public, which would be received through public hearings, and report same to the House within six (6) weeks.
The Senate President, David Mark commended the accord shown by his colleagues in getting the Bill passed to the Committee Stage and expressed his delight that the Bill had enjoyed robust debate as no fewer than 81 Senators had made contributions on the Bill over the past 3 days.
Mark summarized the general issues the Senate had with the Bill as:
He also made note as to the impracticability of certain portions of the Bill such as the Bill exempting the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) assets to be privatized from provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
Although he pointed out that the Bill was a “worthy Bill”, he also mentioned that no Bill had come through the Senate and not been tinkered with. He assured the House that subsequent to the public hearings, “amendments, additions and subtractions” will be made to the legislation.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 saw the second reading of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the floor of the Senate enter into its second day. (Reported here and here).
Deliberations once again centered on the controversial 10 per cent allotted for the Petroleum Host Community Fund (PHCF).
Senate Committee Head on Rules and Business, Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North East) in refuting the collective opposition by Northern Senators to further funding of oil producing regions through the PHCF, introduced another dimension to the debate by alleging that over 83 per cent of the indigenous acreage allotted in the Niger Delta were given to individuals from the North-East and North-West geo-political zones while the rest were distributed amongst individuals from the South-East and South-West which effectively returned most of the proceeds on investment in the Niger Delta to the North. He then called for the revocation and reallocation of oil blocks in line with the federal character principle. Adding his support to Enang’s view, Senator James Manager (Delta South), warned against withdrawing the Fund as it may breed the return of militants to the creeks, whilst Senator George Thompson Sekibo (Rivers) maintained that the money from the fund was not meant for the South-South region alone.
Senator Abdulahi Adamu (Nasarawa West) while accepting the spirit behind the reforms in the oil and gas sector asked that caution be exercised in the moves to privatise the National Oil Company as a lack of transparency and accountability could jeopardize the process.
Senator Olufemi Lanlehin (Oyo South) voiced concerns about Section 191 of the Bill which gave the President discretionary powers to grant licenses. He expressed worry that the Bill did not place any limitations on this discretionary power by the President.
An area that garnered support from Senators from both Northern and Southern divides was the need to provide adequate funding and support frontier exploration. Senator Manager was of the view that oil exploration in other states would contain the bickering over the PHCF incentives.
Reported by the Newspapers yesterday (here and here) is the commencement of the much anticipated second reading of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the Senate on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 following a failed attempt to commence deliberations in December 2012.
Initiating the debate, Senate leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba stated that the PIB was one of the most significant pieces of legislation to be considered by the Senate, whilst lauding the various benefits to be derived from the passage of the Bill which he stated included increased domestic gas supply for the power industry, a flexible and stable fiscal framework that is competitively attractive, the creation of a two-tier royalty and tax regime which captures the upside of crude oil and gas prices and the creation of a more commercially viable national oil company through the corporate restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) amongst others.
The crux of the Bill’s second reading centered around three contentious issues:
Senators Abdukadir Jajere (Yobe South) and Ali Ndume (Borno South) led by Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) opposed the 10% remittance provision in the bill for the Host Community Fund. Senator Lawan stated that oil producing states had over the past decade received revenue adding up to 11 trillion Naira from the 13 per cent derivation fund; the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); the Ministry of Niger Delta, the Amnesty Programme; and the Special Presidential Initiative Fund but had little or nothing to show for it as its leaders had mismanaged these funds thus failing to carry out significant development in the region.
It was further argued that the Petroleum Technical Bureau should be an independent organisation detached from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources which must concern itself with developing frontier acreages and should not be mixed with the abolishment of the Petroleum Equalistaion Fund.
Jajere further pointed out that the PIB provides the Minister of Petroleum Resources with excessive power, noting that if the bill is passed in its current form, the Minister would become too “powerful and uncontrollable”.
Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central) in his own contribution called for caution as he believed the Senate was spending too much time arguing on the 10% PHCF derivation. He insisted that there was need to address issues of transparency in the Bill as its lack thereof has bedevilled the Nigerian petroleum industry.
Senators Isa Galaudu (Kebbi North) and Ibrahim Gobir (Sokoto East) on the other hand, opposed the bill in totality, saying it should not be passed at all.
Senators Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta North) and Benedict Eyade (Cross River North) urged their colleagues to rise above emotions and sentiments so that the bill could pass the second reading. Okowa said that it was important to realise that Bills emanating from the Executive may have its flaws but what is most crucial is the Executive’s good intentions.
The Senators’ differing stances we believe to a great extent provide a glimpse into what cross sections of Nigerians think on these issues and it would be interesting to see the outcome of the debate.
The 13th National Oil and Gas Strategic Conference & Exhibition held between the 18th and 21st of February 2013 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja featured the participation of several key individuals and exhibiting companies in the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector.
The four day conference kicked off with a cultural evening and a welcome dinner hosted by Chevron, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Shell.
The next day, Tuesday February 19, marked the first day of the conference as several sessions including topics on “Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Strategy in the Next Five Years – A New Dawn to Boost Investment & Production?” and “Gas, Power & Renewables – What has Been Achieved & Where are we Heading?” were deliberated upon.
Discussions on the third day of the conference centred on “Focus on Independents: How Are Indigenous Companies Transforming the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry?” and “Focus on the Petroleum Industry Bill– Is This A New Dawn for Nigeria?” with the latter session being chaired by the Energy Practice Partner of Odujinrin & Adefulu, Dr. Adeoye Adefulu. Speaking at the event, Dr. Adefulu expressed his optimism on the Bill being passed into law and stated that the uncertainty surrounding the passage of the Bill did not favour anyone (industry players, communities and the general public alike) as there has been wide spread clamour for the Bill to become operational.
The conference rounded up with a Nigerian Content Seminar which highlighted the opportunities afforded by the Nigerian Content Development Act as well as its challenges and accomplishments.