Monday July 27, 09:06 PM
Nigerian lawmakers mull oil law that meets international standards
ABUJA (AFP) - Nigeria's senate on Monday pledged to ensure that a bill on the reform of the petroleum and gas sector it is currently debating would meet international standards and protect foreign investors.
The bill, which has been criticised by foreign investors, seeks to reform the oil and gas sector and transform the corruption-ridden and under-performing state oil company NNPC into a commercially-oriented oil company.
Speaking at the opening of a public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), Senate President David Mark said "legal framework provided for the petroleum industry will be such that it meets best international practices without sacrificing our national interests".
The chairman of the senate committee coordinating the hearing, Lee Maeba, told the upper house of parliament: "We cannot do anything that will not protect and promote the interest of the Nigerians participating in the industry."
"Also, we cannot pass any bill that will not accommodate the interest of foreign investors in the industry," Maeba said.
Junior oil minister, Odein Ajumogobia, said the bill seeks to remove "confidentiality" and promote "transparency" in the operation of the petroleum sector.
Ajumogobia said the bill was seeking the creation of a "midstream" sector in addition to the upstream and downstream sectors.
He did not give details.
He said that the law was also seeking to compile into one piece of legislation the 16 different laws in the oil sector and make transactions transparent.
But the main ethnic group in volatile southern Niger Delta, the Ijaws criticised the bill describing it as demonic for not taking the interest of their impoverished host communities into consideration.
"We have taken a critical look at this bill and we are of the firm view that it does not contain the desired provisions necessary to cure the deficiencies in the existing obnoxious and obsolete laws regulating the petroleum industry," the president of the Ijaw National Congress, Atuboyedia Obianime, said.
The international oil majors are expected to make their presentation on Tuesday.
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