President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021.
With the President’s assent, the nation’s hydrocarbon resources industry now has an updated legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework to guide its operations.
A statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, indicated that President Buhari assented to the Bill while working from home in five days quarantine as required by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after returning from London on Friday.
Adesina stated said the ceremonial part of the new legislation would be done on Wednesday, after the President’s days of mandatory isolation would have been completed.
The PIB had been one of the oldest Bills considered by the National Assembly over the past years, going through various politico-economic hurdles in its deliberations by lawmakers in over 10 years.
Hope brightened on the Bill’s page last month when the Senate finally passed the Bill on July 15, while the House of Representatives did same on July 16.
