PENGASSAN Advocates Publicity Of PIB

The National Assembly has been urged to ensure adequate publicity of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before its passage into law.

This, according to the President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Mr. Babatunde Ogun, will create a platform for stakeholders to make input as the original content of the bill has been distorted.

He stressed the need to go through the bill again because some of the contents have been amended and added the corrected version should be made public on the floor of the National Assembly before passage.

“Said he: It is important for all stakeholders of the oil and gas sector to be fully represented in the oil and gas industry bill.” The bill should be published in the national dailies or posted on the internet so that stakeholders can see what the draft is like and make recommendations before it is passed into law.”

Noting PENGASSAN’S dissatisfaction in the delay of the passage of the bill he said the delay was causing material and financial obstructions to the industry and a lot of discomfort to the oil and gas workers in the country.

“With the PIB as currently presented, we do not know whether it covers our own concerns and that is why we need to see what the amendments look like” Ogun argued.

He explained that some of the concerns of the workers’ unions include the Nigerian content policy of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries and the first right of refusal to operators due to the peculiarity of petroleum operation in Nigeria to sustain and attract mutually beneficial interests.

He advocated the need for the two in-house unions to be represented on the boards of all the agencies that may emerge from the PIB even as the issue of post amnesty programme, the downstream  sector liberalisation and deregulation are implemented so as to handle the hiccups in local refineries.

Vivian-Peace Nwinaene