Oil majors give reasons for new optimism on Petroleum Industry Bill

For the first time there seems to be a consensus among the international oil companies( io cs) and government officials over the petroleum industry Bill (PIB), as chief executives of oil majors in Nigeria spoke in agreement expressing their optimism that the current works on the bill will lead to a win win situation for both the government and the industry.

This is a clear departure from the usual antagonistic posture often put up by the oil companies and complaints that the outcome of the bill may not be favour able to them and may discourage investments, because of the fiscal regime contained in the previous bill.

The chief executives, who spoke at a panel session at the ongoing Nigeria International Petroleum Summits (NIPS), said even though they were yet to know what the fiscal regimes were in the current bill, they were all of the view that the current level of interactions between them and government agencies concerned with PIB would produce a document that would move the industry forward.

This was a reaction to the issue of whether the bill would be passed into law or not in June this year, as stated by the minister of state for petroleum, timipre sylva.

Osagie Okunbor, country chairman for Shell Companies and managing director of shell petroleum development company, said given the 20 years history of the PIB, “He thinks, it is a valid concern people have raised.

“What is the reality this time and if it does not happen what does it hold for investment appetite,” he asked.

He said: “I think we operate at proximate level with the institutions of the state who are responsible for this, not the least the group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, sitting here, the minister of state for Petroleum, timipre sylva who was with us yesterday and even senator Bassey Akpan, chairman Gas Committee in the Senate.”

There are reasons to be very optimistic that the timeline both the minister of state for petroleum and Bassey Akpan spoke extensively about for the passage of the bill, which is June this year, would be realistic.

Beyond passing the bill is the other issue of what is in bill, he said, and asks if the bill is a necessarily an investor friendly one that the declared intensions of Nigeria is balanced against the sensible returns for the investors.

The Shell boss said: “I will say having been close to three or four past regimes on PIB, I am probably most confident, and I am saying it pretty open that this time around there is better chance of it being passed, not just passing it, but passed on pretty decent collaborative discussions and if in the course of doing this we have disagreement we shout to the public domain that this is not going well. But, so far, he said a lot of credit should go to both the group managing director of NNPC and the minister of state for Petroleum because things are going quiet well.”

Paul Mcgrath, chairman and managing director of exxon mobil, said probably more than anytime in the past the industry had some of the most mature and productive discussions with the key players just to ensure that both parties work in collaborative manners that the PIB happens. “Not just that it happens. But it happens in a manner that supports investments,” he said.