PIB: Kachikwu signals 5 more bills ready for NASS

I n one of his three books launched on Monday in Abuja, Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, signalled that five more pieces of legislation intended to further address teething issues in the oil and gas sector were ready to be sent to the National Assembly, apart from the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Kachikwu has promised to send the PIB to the legislature before month end but had earlier indicated that the petroleum sector issues could obviously not be captured in one bill because the policy “is just been too much and keeps killing some of the good positions.”

He said for instance, that such issues like the governance, which dealt with institutional framework and the structures, host communit y and derivation, among others needed separate pieces of legislations to tackle. Reviewing one of the books, “Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes,” at the event also attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Gbenga Oyebode said that among others things Kachikwu tried to proffer solutions on the host community issues, including how the government would need to increase derivation.

He said Kachikwu in the book, also recommended that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) needs to be reviewed to make it more impactful and that government should set up a fund to take care of the infrastructure deficit of oil producing areas. “Kachikwu concluded the book by recommending the NASS and government needs to work together to ensure that the present PIB in place today works.

“Another key element of Kachikwu’s policy is that essentially, instead of having one big bang PIB, we will have six different pieces of legislation. I think that a lot of criticism around PIB now is that it’s one big document which people may not like parts of it, but that should not stop us from passing other critical ones we can use,” Oyebode told the audience.

“I think that is a great development, a great policy direction that as things progress, when we have this particular PIB passed, then there will be five other pieces of legislation which in real terms are ready for submission to the National Assembly for consideration,” he said.