National Assembly to Pass Petroleum Bill This Month

Senator Donald Alasoadura, Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), has assured that the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill will be passed latest in March.

Alasoadura said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a plenary to discuss new legislation and policy to transform the oil and gas sector.

The plenary, which held on the margins of the 16th Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG), had six discussants to proffer solutions on how government policies could develop the oil sector.

According to Alasoadura, the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill will by the end of March, go through its third reading.

The bill seeks to address all governance-related issues in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

“Once a bill gets to its third reading, it is as good as being passed. We are expecting the bill to be passed in March or latest by April.

“The Local Content Law will also be properly taken care of.

“We’ve asked for areas of amendment from the Executive Secretary and we’ll be glad to do it.

“’We know we need laws that are in line with international standards. We need an NNPC that will be smooth, commercially oriented, that can run smoothly and make money,” he said.

He said the legislators decided to have only one regulatory body in the sector to ease the process of doing business and attract more investments.

(NAN)