By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja (Precise Post) – Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, provided insights into the PIB sent to the senate two weeks ago by the executive, even as he debunked media reports that the scrapping of NNPC is one of the items proposed in the bill.
Speaking with journalists after the closed-door meeting, Sylva said the country’s oil corporation will only be commercialised as part of measures to transform the oil industry as contemplated by the proposed law.
He noted: “We have heard so much noise about NNPC being scrapped but that is not envisaged by the Bill at all.
“We have said that NNPC will be commercialised. But if you are talking about transforming the industry, the only new thing that we are introducing is the development of the midstream, that is the pipeline sector; that sector between the upstream and the downstream, which because the framework was not there, has not really developed very well.
“So, we have provided robustly for the growth of the midstream sector. The host communities, I think, have the best deal now but I’m sure the details of the bill you will hear when it is read on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate”.
On other provisions of the bill, the minister reluctantly revealed that the Petroleum Equalisation (Management) Fund (PEF) and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) will have a new outlook if the bill scales through.
“I am sure that the PIB will also take care of that because with the PIB, the industry will be transformed and the PEF and the PPPRA will not exist in the same form that they exist today.
“But I don’t want to go into the details of the Bill until it is read on the floor of the Senate,” Sylva added.
According to the details of the proposed legislation sighted by LEADERSHIP last night, the bill is proposing the creation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the scrapping of the NNPC and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
In the proposed arrangement, the new petroleum company will be incorporated by the Minister of Petroleum who alongside his counterpart in the Finance Ministry will determine NNPC’s assets and liabilities that will be inherited by the new oil firm.
Section 54(1, 2 and3 )) reads in part: “The Minister (of Petroleum) and the Minister of Finance shall determine the assets, interests and liabilities of NNPC to be transferred to NNPC Limited or its subsidiaries and upon the identification, the minister shall cause such assets, interests and liabilities to be transferred to NNPC Limited.
“Assets, interests and liabilities of NNPC not transferred to NNPC Limited or its subsidiary under subsection 1 of this section shall remain the assets, interests and liabilities of NNPC until they become extinguished or transferred to the government.
“NNPC shall cease to exist after its remaining assets, interests and liabilities other than its interests, assets, and liabilities transferred to NNPC Limited or its subsidiaries under subsection 1 of this section shall have been extinguished or transferred to the government.”
According to Section 53 of the bill, the minister shall “within six months from the commencement of this Act, cause to be incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, a limited liability company, which shall be called Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC Limited).
