Nigeria’s parliament may pass the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in April, the country’s minister of state for petroleum said on Thursday.
The measure, which is 20 years in the making, underpins everything from oil exploration to gas pipelines and fuel regulation and was sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the senate in September.
The bill would change the structure of state oil company NNPC, amend oil and gas taxes and revenue-sharing and create new regulatory bodies, among other things, to make Nigeria’s oil sector more dynamic and efficient.
The laws governing Nigeria’s oil and gas exploration have not been fully updated since the 1960s because of the contentious nature of any change to oil taxes, the terms of exploration, and revenue-sharing.
Sylva also said the government had not yet decided whether to allow oil majors Shell and Eni to continue to develop an offshore oilfield known as OPL 245.
Their $1.3 billion acquisition of the field is at the centre of one of the industry’s biggest court cases. Last week, an Italian court acquitted the companies and some of their current and former executives of corruption.
The Nigerian government said at the time it was surprised and disappointed by the verdict.
“We are still discussing with our legal people, we presently are looking at the judgement for now; when we finish we will make our stand known,” Sylva said.