Stakeholders have threatened to delay the deadline to pass Nigeria’s long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Gatekeepers News reports that the stakeholders, including community leaders, are seeking an increased share of revenues. A demand which could push its passage into late this year.
Community leaders revived demands to increase their share of petroleum produced in their regions to 10 per cent, up from 2.5 per cent.
Also, communities with oil exploration in Northern Nigeria’s Lake Chad region and the country’s middle are seeking a more significant share of oil revenues.
Lagos-based consultancy firm Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) Limited had said last week that the failure to pass the oil overhaul bill cost some $15 billion annually in lost investment.
“With the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy picking up pace, the passage of the (overhaul) may be too little too late.
“It is unlikely that Nigeria will be able to make up for either the lost time or the lost investment,” it said.
Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, had backed floating NNPC shares, which could allow the financially strapped company to raise money and operate more efficiently.
But the diminished state control that a float would bring is expected to scuttle its chances.
Sylva also pressed for market-based prices for gas in the power sector, which experts say would boost investment in Nigeria’s erratic power sector. However, since the measure would also be likely to increase electricity prices, it too could fail.
A spokesman for Sylva did not comment on the proposed changes or expected passage of the bill.
