Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Silva has debunked reports that the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) does not accommodate the existence of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The Minister who said this after meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Monday evening said the PIB does not envisaged the scrapping of the corporation but have it commercialised.
He said the new deal in the PIB is the development of a midstream sector to accommodate a robust pipeline industry in the sector to sustain the growth of the oil and gas industry.
According to Sylva, two agencies which have also been impacted on by the new thinking of the federal government as contained in the PIB are the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) and the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which he said will exist in new form.
“I have heard so much noise about NNPC being scrapped, that is not envisaged in the bill at all.
“NNPC will be commercialised, in transforming the industry, the new thing we are developing is developing the mid stream.
“That is the pipeline sector, that sector in the mid stream and the downstream because the framework is not fully developed.
“So we have provided robustly for the growth of the midstream sector,” Sylva said.
The Minister also said that the host communities will have a good deal when the PIB is passed.
“Host community has the best deal and the details you would hear in the next few days. The PIB will take care of that,” he added.
On the relevance of the PEF and the PPPRA, Sylva said: “PEF and the PPPRA will not exist in the form it is today.”
