The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Maikanti Baru, has projected that the remaining parts of the Petroleum Industry Bill would be passed before the end of June this year.
Baru, who set the deadline at the 2018 Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum organised by the Society for Petroleum Engineers held in Abuja yesterday, hinged his prediction on the assurance given the Corporation by the National Assembly on the legislative process on the Bill.
It would be recalled that of the four parts of the bill, only the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill now awaiting the assent of the President had been passed by the National Assembly.
The three others namely, Petroleum Fiscal Bill, Petroleum Administration Bill and the Petroleum Host Community Bill are all awaiting legislative deliberation and consideration.
Baru, who was represented by the corporation’s Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Bello Rabiu, explained: “In the area of policy, the popular omnibus single Petroleum Industry Bill has been broken into parts for quick review and passage by the National Assembly.
“As you are aware, the first part of the bill, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, was passed by the House recently. When the other sections of the bill are finally passed, it will unlock over $10bn of investment held up due to uncertainty.
“The promise we got last week from the National Assembly was that before the end of the second quarter of this year, which we see as the 30th of June, they promise that the three other bills will also be concluded and passed. So, hopefully, 2018 will see the end of all the discussions around the PIB, which started in the year 2000”, the NNPC boss added.
While disclosing that the volume of gas flared by oil and gas companies had dropped from 2.5 billion standard cubic feet per day to the current level of 700mmscf daily, Baru disclosed that the NNPC had identified seven critical gas development projects scheduled to deliver about 3.4 billion scfpd on an accelerated basis to bridge a projected medium term supply gap by 2020.
According to him, the gas projects include, the development of the 4.3 trillion cubic feet Assa North/Ohaji South field, development of the 6.4Tcf unitised gas fields (Samabri-Biseni, Akri-Oguta, Ubie-Oshi and Afuo-Ogbainbri) and the development of the 7TCF NPDC’s OML 26, 30 and 42.
He listed the others as, the development of the 2.2Tcf Shell Petroleum Development Company JV gas supply to Brass Fertiliser Company, cluster development of 5Tcf OML 13 to support the expansion of Seven Energy Uquo Gas Plant and the cluster development of 10Tcf Okpokunou/Tuomo West (OML 35 and 62).
He pointed out that the Federal Executive Council approved the contract award of the 40-inch by 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline and associated facilities recently, adding that the “pipeline is expected to supply natural gas to power plants and industries in the northern part of the country.”
