Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Shehu Ladan yesterday expressed the readiness of the corporation to accommodate further dialogue with stakeholders on the oil reform legislation.
He also observed that that the Federal Government effected a total of 165 amendments to the draft Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB in response to views expressed earlier by stakeholders like the international oil companies, World Bank, labour unions and the Federal Inland Revenue Services among others.
Presenting a paper titled: Petroleum Industry Bill and National Development” at the 2010 Society of “Petroleum Engineers Nigerian Council- Annual Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, the NNPC boss stated that the government memorandum which was submitted to both chambers of the National Assembly identified 14 critical gaps in the draft bill and sought to close those gaps with a plethora of amendments.
He noted that in closing these gaps, further interactions were held with various stakeholders resulting in the following modifications. ``A total of 56 changes made to respond favourably to comments made by the petroleum industry through OPTS, 36 changes made to respond to Federal Inland Revenue Services, seven changes made to respond to World Bank/IMF concerns and 66 changes made to respond to other stakeholders including the labour unions.’’
The NNPC helmsman noted that these changes are consistent with the general principles underpinning the PIB namely:
``The need to remove outdated provisions in our current laws, encourage alignment with international best practice, remove opaqueness and lack of transparency in the current statues, enhance good governance practices and processes while developing a fiscal and contractual system that is responsive and flexible to the dynamics of the oil & gas industry.’’ Ladan noted that despite the initial modifications, the Corporation is still open to future dialogue on the contentious issues especially as it affects the fiscal regime.
``Dialogue remains the only way out. You recall that this is not the first time we are having issues with the IOC’s. Recall the arguments that came during the setting up of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Project and at the end of the day, dialogue prevailed. So in the next couple of days we should be able to iron out the issues with our Joint Venture partners,’’ he said.
The GMD also expressed his commitment to pursuing the transformation programme of the NNPC while addressing the issues of gas shortage for power supply, ensuring integrity of the pipelines and uninterrupted supply of petroleum products throughout the country.
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