NAPE Demands Urgent Passage Of PIB

The President of the Nigerian Association of  Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Mr Lawrence Afe has called for the urgent passage of the Petroleum  Industry Bill (PIB) into law to fast-track the development of the nation’s oil and gas sector.

Describing the non-passage of the bill as a big embarrassment to the country, Afe said if the bill is not passed urgently, it would become a serious credibility problem as most projects planned in the upstream by exploration and production companies have been stalled.

The NAPE President told newsmen in Lagos recently that the quick passage of the bill would boost investment inflow in the petroleum industry thus moving the nation forward as well as attract more investors.

According to him, the government needs to embark on aggressive policy of hydrocarbon oil reserves replacement in the country as deleting existing reserves without replacement does not augur well for the nation.

He explained that Nigeria had an estimated oil reserve of about 37.2 billion barrels which could be depleted pointing out it depletes about one billion barrels of crude oil annually from its 37.2 billion barrels of hydrocarbon reserves.

If we take a critical look at perspectives for growing reserves in the next decade, the answer is exploration, exploration and more exploration to run parallel to the development projects which are however, becoming more and more expensive to execute due to slippage in complex contractual environment coupled with security challenges,” he explained.

He noted that an all encompassing and enabling environment is needed to galvanise renewed  exploration activities in major hydrocarbon heartlands and frontier basins. Commending the federal government for granting amnesty to youths in the Niger Delta, he urged government to make it all encompassing because, as he puts it, some militants who laid down their arms have not benefited from the amnesty initiative.

His words: “Amnesty should be all encompassing because it was learnt that some were left out of the programme”.

Vivian – Peace Nwinaene