An exploration into Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill

The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is said to consolidate 16 existing Nigerian petroleum laws is an oil reform bill that was first presented to the Nigerian National Assembly in 2008. The overarching policy rationale for the Bill is to encourage transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector while ensuring that the sector becomes even more commercially viable.

This omnibus legislation has however been thrice denied legislative and executive consent because of the inability of various stakeholders to agree on all fundamentals that the law is to address. In this new attempt to pass the PIB into law, the Bill was forwarded by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Nigerian National Assembly for consideration and deliberations on Monday, September 28, 2020. The PIB passed its first reading in the Senate on Wednesday, September 30, 2020. It was presented by the Leader of the Senate, Yahaya Abdullahi, and read by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.

This attempt to pass the PIB into law is anticipated to yield the necessary consents. This implicates a need for a closer look at the latest version of the PIB and the necessary implications that it will birth.