PIB: Nigeria won’t accept threat, blackmail by IOCs, says Mark

Senate President, David Mark, yesterday asked International
Oil Companies (IOCs) to avoid the use of blackmail and the
threat of pulling out of the country if the Petroleum Industry
Bill (PIB) does not go their way.
He spoke while inaugurating a two-day Public Hearing on the
PIB in Abuja.
The Hearing is organised by the Senate Committee on
Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), Senate
Committee on Gas Resources and Senate Committee on Justice
and Legal Matters.
However, governors who were scheduled to participate in the
event were absent. But Niger, Kaduna and Kano states sent
representatives.
Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Emmanuel Paulker,
in his opening remarks, said the Hearing was organised to offer
Nigerians and other stakeholders the opportunity to contribute
to the bill.
He said members of the Committee have not taken position
on any of the clauses of the bill, assuring that submissions by
stakeholders would be considered.
Mark noted that the Sixth National Assembly tried but failed to
pass the bill due to proliferation of versions of the Bill, adding
that there was no doubt that the speedy passage of the PIB
would be a win-win situation for IOCs and the Federal
Government.
The Senate President warned that what the country would not
want to hear is the threat of pulling out of the country if the
bill did not turn out to be what some IOCs wanted.
“Nigeria wants to welcome investors in the oil and gas sector,
but this should not be at the expense of the country, but IOCs
should not take undue advantage of the Nigeria.
“What we don’t want to hear is if you don’t do this, we pack
out. That will be unacceptable because Nigeria has been an
extremely friendly country for investment,”he said.
Also, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani
Alison-Madueke, urged stakeholders in the oil and gas industry
not to politise or personalise the PIB, stressing that it is geared
towards providing a win-win scenario for stakeholders in the
sector.
The Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs
Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
Tumini Green,  quoted Mrs. Alison-Madueke, who spoke at the
public hearing as saying that the responsibility for the exercise
of the powers proposed in the Bill for the President and
Petroleum Minister, will, ultimately, rest on any administration
in power at the time, and so should not be personalised.
She argued that it was important for the law to empower any
administration to act in the best interest of the Nigerian
people.
“By the time the PIB is fully articulated and implemented, the
President and Minister of Petroleum Resources will no longer
be in office. This Bill takes a while before it is operational. The
proposed transition period after the passage of the Bill is at
least three years. Note, there are over 80 regulations to be
made for this Bill to be operational,” Mrs. Alison-Madueke
said.
She said while Nigerians learn best practices from other
developed nations, they should also work within the
understanding of its own socio-economic and social-cultural
norms, and create entities and policies that will work and are
not destined to fail.
She said contrary to the impression that the PIB granted
enormous powers to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, it
should be noted that the powers vested on the Minister by
the Bill, are not different from those vested on the Minister’s
counterparts by the petroleum laws of the United kingdom,
Malaysia and Norway, stressing that the powers granted are
less than those of her counterparts in advanced petroleum
producing countries.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke noted that the PIB establishes a flexible
fiscal regime that will increase government’s take, and yet
encourage investment in the petroleum sector, saying that it
allows for production-based incentive system which in the long
run, will accommodate every player in the industry.
On the Host Communities, the Minister noted that it was
established to mitigate the human and environmental
conditions in the region and to assuage the feelings of the
host communities towards oil and gas companies.