NUPENG, PENGASSAN Declare Position On PIB

The two unions in the oil
and gas industry, namely, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) have  stated their joint position on the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB).
In a statement signed on behalf of the two unions by the chairman, NUPENG and PENGASSAN joint committee on PIB, Comrade Chika Onuegbu and made available to The Tide, said the unions’ position was presented before the Senate Joint Committee on PIB on November 13, 2013.
The statement said the unions had undertaken a thorough review of the bill and believe that the objectives of the PIB and Nigeria’s national interest are best secured under six broad principles.
According to Comrade Chika Onuegbu, these six principles include, transparency and accountability, fiscal terms, institutional framework, Minister, NOC, PHCF and Regulator Refinery and other downstream activities, labour issues and membership of institutions, boards and committees and health, safety and environment.
Comrade Chika who is also the chairman, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Rivers Chapter said the PIB must in concrete terms provide for total transparency with regard to award of all contracts, licenses and other accompanying processes.
He said the joint unions committee believed that the provision under the PIB granting the  president powers for discretionary award of petroleum licenses and leases should expunged as it was a recipe for cronyism and corruption.
He said the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) and Public Procurement Act (PPA) should apply to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) successor companies namely, the Nigerian Petroleum Assets Management Company Limited (NPAMC), the National Oil Company, the National Gas Company (NGC) Chika said the unions expressed the believe that entrenching transparency and accountability in the oil and gas industry will secure the industry.
The unions said on fiscal terms that one of the proposals which has attracted the most strident comments from industry players about the PIB was the issue that deals with a new fiscal regime for the industry, particularly the upstream players.
The unions said it was their considered view that the PIB should be allowed for the optimisation of returns to Nigeria from its oil and gas  resources without stifling investments and growth of the industry,
The unions enjoined the National Assembly to engage independent fiscal experts to review the fiscal regimes and come up with facts about the current fiscal regimes proposed under the PIB.
Chika said the PIB 2012 creates a very powerful minister, even more than under the Petroleum Act 1969 and therefore called for such powers to be curtailed as the concentration of such powers in one individual will create not only unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks but can also lead to abuse.
The joint unions said the PIB did not contain any royalty rates or amount for fees and rents leaving it to ministerial regulations, stressing that such issues should be addressed.
The unions said royalty rates was one of the key basis on which investors base their investment decisions and therefore should not be left to only ministerial wide discretionary powers.

Philip Okparaji