PIA Provides Safe Workplace For Business – FG

The Federal Government says the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 clearly provides for a healthy and environmentally conscious workforce and safe workplace for business to thrive in the oil and gas industry.
The Authority Chief Executive (ACE), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mr Farouk Ahmed, stated this recently in Abuja at the maiden edition of the Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Managers’ Forum for the Midstream and Downstream Operators in the Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria.
“The forum, organised to probe into HSEC challenges facing sustainable development of the industry, will provide framework for innovative and practical solutions to these challenges for the  benefit of our environment, workforce, host communities and investment initiatives”, he stated.
The ACE, while underscoring the critical role HSEC could play, said the statutory provisions of the PIA on HSEC administration clearly indicated that the government appreciated the importance of a healthy and environmentally conscious workforce.
This, according to him, led to  the creation of a directorate to manage the HSEC matters in the mid and downstream value chain.
“In the past, the regulator and the industry through this platform exchanged ideas, thoughts and deliberated extensively on topical operational related HSEC issues which yielded positive results as well as fostered relationship between the industry and the regulator specifically on HSEC issues,” he said.
The ACE, however, said it was in this regard that the Authority decided to revive the forum to build on its past achievements, adding that the emergence of the forum was in response to a heightened environmental consciousness and global need for sustainable development in the industry.
“The oil and gas industry has for several decades maintained a pride of place at the top of the global energy mix despite the threat posed by renewable and cleaner energy sources.
“However, recent concerns about global warming, exponential improvements in the efficiency of renewable energy alternatives and the politics of oil pricing have combined to pose almost an existential threat to the global petroleum industry.
“The threats of renewable energy sources which in the past were almost always dismissed by energy industry experts have today become more real than ever”, he added.