PIB: Experts call for upward review of host communities’ fund

Senators were, that passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, into law might lead to repeal of laws that established 10 agencies, including Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and preservation of five others.

Senators were also cautioned to x-ray the aspect of the PIB which gave the President Powers of discretion and section that made the Minister of Petroleum an institution.

The experts have also stressed the need for an upward review of the 10 percent petroleum host community development fund which was designed for the development of the economic and social infrastructure of the communities.

These were some of the issues that came to the front burner, yesterday, at a one-day workshop by the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, held at Bolingo Hotel, Abuja.

In his presentation, Professor Dagogo Fubara of Kariala Konsult Nigeria Limited said the 10 percent of oil companies’ net profit to be set aside for host communities was not easily realizable.

Fubara, who described the figure as inconsequential and capable of defeating the purpose for which it was established, called for full royalties from oil and gas companies to oil producing communities.

In his presentation, a member of PIB drafting Committee and Director, Multi Oil and Gas Company Limited, Francis Adigwe, noted that the oil and gas sector formed the bedrock of the nation’s economy, contributing 80 percent to government’s revenue, 95 percent to the nation’s foreign earnings and 30 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

He said passage of PIB into law would bring about the repeal of 10 acts, adding that not all laws relating to oil and gas would be repealed.

Adigwe, however, explained that the existence of PIB law would bring about the creation of 10 new government agencies that would be coordinated by the Minister of Petroleum who is to be treated as an institution and not as a person in the bill.