President Buhari appoints steering committee to manage fallout of Petroleum Industry Act

The Nigerian presidency on Wednesday announced the setting up of a steering committee to handle the implementation of the newly signed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the steering committee headed by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Presidential Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, said in a statement on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.

Other members of the committee are: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director, NNPC, Executive Chairman, FIRS, Representative of the Ministry of Justice, Representative of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Natural Resources, Barrister Olufemi Lijadu as External Legal Adviser, while the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, will serve as Head of the Coordinating Secretariat and the Implementation Working Group.

The primary responsibility of the steering committee shall be to guide the effective and timely implementation of the PIA in the course of transition to the petroleum industry envisaged in the reform program, and ensure that the new institutions created have the full capability to deliver on their mandate under the new legislation.

The committee has 12 months duration for the assignment, and periodic updates will be given to Mr. President.

Engaging disgruntled sections of the country is expected to be a major task of the committee. Sequel to President Buhari’s assent to the bill on Monday, August 16, 2021, voices of dissent were raised among Nigeria’s major  oil producing region, the Niger Delta area. The 17 Southern governors, the Pan Niger Delta Forum, and other groups in the South, had widely criticised some provisions of the PIB, describing the 3% share for host communities as paltry, and the 30% profit share for oil exploration in the frontier basins, mostly in Northern Nigeria, as humongous.

The Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, criticised the allocation of three per cent share for oil-producing communities in the just assented Petroleum Industry Bill 2021, arguing that by signing the bill into law without addressing certain contentious sections, the country has short-changed and raped the oil-producing communities in the Southern region.

The Petroleum Industry Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.