Business
Reps Remove Presidential Power To Grant Oil Licences
More than two years af
ter the House of Representatives began hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the lower house has come out with its recommendation on amendments to the bill on Friday.
According to The Tide source, the recommendation includes stripping the president of executive powers to grant oil licences and leases.
In place of the discretionary award, oil lincences and leases would be awarded through competitive bids.
This was one of the nine recommendations the House made, just as it retained four aspects of the PIB including section 225-229, which provides for the existence of three conventional licences, namely Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) Petroleum Prospecting Lincences (PPL) and Petroleum Mining Lease (PML).
The House equally removed the powers of the Minister of Petroleum Resources over the National Oil Company (NOC), Upstream Petroleum Inspectorate Agency (UPIA), Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (DPRA), Asset Management Company (AMC) and other corporate entities to be established by the bill when enacted.
These recommendations were submitted in a report of the adhoc committee of the House chaired by its Chief Whip, Hon Isyaka Bawa Bwari, which was mandated to review all 363 sections and annexures in the bill.
According to the report of the 23-man ad-hoc committee, in place of the discretionary powers of the president, the grauting of licences and leases would be subject to competitive bids.
“The discretionary power of the president to grant petroleum licences and leases, as contained in section 191 of the bill is completely removed.
“Instead the committee recommended competitive bids for the award of such licencus and leases,” the report said.
Our source gathered that the rationale behind the amendment was simply to avoid the practice whereby the power for the award of oil blocks was discretionary.
On the committee’s recommendation for reducing the powers of the minister of petroleum, the report said the powers conferred on the minister over control of newly established agencies in the petroleum industry appear undermining the independence of the regulatory agencies.
“Therefore, the committee, in its wisdom, has recommended the removal of the powers given to the minister either to serve as chairman or recommend to the president the appointment of chairman to boards of such agencies.
“This recommendation seeks to ensure smooth running of the agencies without undue influence and to guarantee independence of sarne, which is in line with current global practice.