Alasoadura in a statement in Abuja, said the PIGB would not only help to create more jobs for Nigerians but will also foster a conducive business environment for petroleum operations when signed into law.

He stated that under the new PIGB regime, it will become illegal to employ foreigners for certain skills that can be sourced locally and that even where such skills are sourced from abroad, due to unavailability locally, it would be mandatory for Nigerians to understudy such an expatriate.

While the PIGB will enhance exploitation and exploration of petroleum resources in the country for the benefit of all Nigerians, he said it would also increase power generation and industrial development capacity of the country through abundant domestic gas supply.

He said that the law would also create profit-driven oil entities, encourage investment in the the nation’s petroleum industry and tremendously increase government’s revenue.

“Government revenue from oil industry will increase,” he said. “This means more funds in the hands of government to engage in developmental activities, ideally. The downstream sector will become fully deregulated. In other words, subsidy will be totally removed.”

He said the law will also bring about a fully deregulated and liberalized downstream petroleum sector, create efficient and effective regulatory agencies and promote the development of Nigerian local content in the oil industry.

Besides, he stated that the emphasis on local content will not only be in the area of skills, but would also be applicable to materials sourcing, “This means more jobs for Nigerian local contractors, especially those from the oil producing regions.”

The Senator stated that “The PIB vests ownership and management of all petroleum resources, offshore or onshore, in the Federal Government of Nigeria, which is to manage them on behalf of all Nigerians.

“This means that irrespective of where the oil is found, it belongs to the government of Nigeria. Of course, equity calls for special consideration for localities where the resources are mined. This is taken care of by the Revenue sharing laws and other provisions of this Bill like the Host Community Fund.”

He stated that since Gas is still under-focused in Nigeria and its potential as a source of energy untapped, the PIB seeks to maximize the benefits of the nation’s gas resources. “If well explored, this will boost power supply in Nigeria,” he said.

He added that the PIB will also lead to the establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Investment Pact Scheme (NOGIPS) which will ensure that components of the oil industry equipment can be manufactured locally.

He said the new law further makes provision for the protection of the health, safety and the environment in petroleum operations, “what Saro Wiwa and co fought for, and the initial grudge of the Niger Delta militants – will be addressed to a large extent.”

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Mark’s directive followed a Point of Order raised by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North) on the undue delay in passing the PIB and investigation into activities surrounding the sale of Malabu Oil.

The Senate committed the PIB to its committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on March 7, 2013 for further legislative work while the probe of Malabu Oil was assigned to the same committee in July 2013.

Adetunmbi in his Point of Order told the Senate that he was at a function where the issue of the PIB and Malabu Oil were raised.

He said that he was asked why the Senate had not done work on the PIB and investigation into Malabu Oil.

He noted that participants at the function insisted that the massive corruption going in the country’s oil and gas sector was as a result of none passage of the PIB.

The lawmaker said the participants at the forum believed that the passage of the PIB will go a long way in curbing corrupt practices going on in the sector.

Adetunmbi added, “On coming back from the conference I had to check my records and I found out that the Petroleum Industry Bill after debate was committed to the appropriate committee on Thursday March 7, 2013.

“It will be one year next month. As it stands nothing seems to be going on about the bill.

“The Malabu oil probe was committed to relevant committee in July 2013 about seven months ago.

“It may interest this Senate that an international extractive agency advocacy group did a letter on July 6, 2013 to the Italian and Netherlands government requesting for public investigation of the role of companies from both countries as part of public accountability in the two countries.

“The same letter was written to the European Union (EU).

“The Italian, the Netherlands and EU parliament is about concluding public investigation and the outcome of the investigation will be made public very soon.

“I think as Senators, it is a privilege that we should know what is going on so that the reputation of this parliament is not called to question.

“This is because I fear a situation where if the report of European parliaments is reporting issues that affect our economy and our own parliament, the apex parliament in Nigeria is seen not to do what it is supposed to do one year after I believe it will affect all of us collectively.”

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The committee also directed the NNPC Group Managing Director, Andrew Yakubu, to supply it with details of excess crude swap and the number of aircraft in NNPC.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Magnus Abe, issued the ultimatum on Thursday in Abuja following the failure of the Managing Director, Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd, Paul Obelle, to appear before it.

Obelle had failed to honour an invitation to appear before the committee to explain the circumstances surrounding the fire that engulfed the petroleum plant on Oct. 22, but forwarded a letter urging the committee to reschedule the meeting till another date, to enable him make preparations for his daughter’s wedding.

“I would like to request your kind consideration to give us another date. This is to enable me attend my daughter’s wedding taking place on Nov.1 to 2 at Agbor and Asaba,” the letter said.

The National Assembly Liaison Office of NNPC also sent a letter asking for more time to enable it to collate additional information on petroleum products and crude swap arrangement demanded by the committee.

Abe decried the attitude of government officials who allegedly showed disdain to lawmakers by failing to honour invitations to provide details of the operations of public organisations.

He, however, noted that the information required was important, saying that the NNPC needed more time to collate the documents for the convenience of the committee.

“There are also issues to do with the implementation of the NNPC budget. We have also written to them to furnish us with all the details of the budget implementation as the year progresses.

“I would like to seize this opportunity to ask them and very seriously, call on NNPC and indeed, call on all government agencies that cooperating with the legislature is important for the stability of our democracy.

“So, I will plead with NNPC, to very quickly, within the next one week, assemble all the documents that we have asked for.

“This is more so particularly documents relating to the distribution of petroleum products and the crude-swap arrangement.

“This is an area that is of great importance to the Nigerian public because we need to know exactly how this arrangement is being carried out.

“We also want to know who are people involved and what the benefits to the Nigerian people are. So, we will give them time to collate their documents and also within two weeks, they should collate their documents within and outside Nigeria.

“That time is enough for them to collate their documents and after two weeks, we fix a new date for this meeting. We hope that they will not only come for this meeting, but they will come prepared,” he said.

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