Nigeria passes bill to overhaul oil and gas industry

Nigeria’s parliament has passed the long-anticipated Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a package to overhaul the country’s oil and gas industry.

The bill, passed on Thursday, now only needs approval of the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, which is expected next week.

The PIB will update Nigeria’s Petroleum Act for the first time in decades, bringing in amended royalties and fiscal terms for oil and gas production – all meant to adjust to current market realities while attracting investment.

In another key change, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s assets and liabilities will be transferred to an LLC with stakes split between the petroleum and finance ministries.

The bill “will be a good revamp and modernisation of the petroleum law which should bring about a more efficient and effective oil and gas industry,” Chiagozie Hilary-Nwokonko, a partner at Streamsowers & Köhn, told The Energy Year earlier this year.

Other observers have been more critical of the bill. “No matter the number of cosmetic changes made to the PIB, as long as the government keeps acting through discretion and keeps seeking revenue through taxation, the industry will keep having elemental flaws,” Gbolahan Elias, a partner at G. Elias & Co., told The Energy Year.