Will frontier agency see light of the day?
the National Assembly gets set to wind up in June, many bills amongst which are those that would greatly impact on the macro and micro sides of the economy are yet to be finally dealt with for them to become law.
One of such bills is the National New Frontier Exploration Agency bill, whose main thrust is for the purpose of exploration and production of oil and gas in the frontiers of Chad, Sokoto, Dahomey, Imo, Bida, and Bauchi basins as well as Benue Trough.
The bill was introduced in the House about three years by Rep Kaka Kyari Gujbawu (PDP, Borno) and has gone through the parliamentary processes of first reading when it was stood down for second reading to be consolidated with the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that was transmitted to the House later by the Presidency.
The bill seeks to provide for a robust legislative framework that would empower the agency, if established, to acquire, hold and dispose of property; enter into contracts of partnerships with any authority, organisation company, firm or person, which will facilitate the agency’s duties; charge fees at commercial rates for its services to the government or person and to train managerial, technical and other staff for the purpose of running its operations.
Also if established, the agency’s objectives will include promoting efficient, profitable and sustainable exploration and production of petroleum in the new frontiers of Nigeria to better the country’s economy; undertake activities that will stimulate the interest of both local and international oil companies towards increasing petroleum exploration and production in the affected areas and regulate same; protecting the interest of the Nigerian government.
Investigations have revealed that Niger, Chad and Ghana are currently benefiting from billions of dollars annually from oil exploration in the basins surrounding those of Chad, Sokoto, Bida and Dahomey.
A Reuters report in 2014 said that the government of Niger Republic had expressed plans to export oil through a pipeline that linked its neighbour Chad to the Atlantic Ocean via Cameroon.
From 2011, Niger started producing crude, averaging around 20,000 bpd, from the country’s Agadem field. The country is expected to export between 60,000 bpd and 80,000 bpd of crude in the near term, according to oil ministry sources.
The government has set up the Soraz Refinery, which is jointly owned with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Recently, CNPC was awarded a second operating permit in Agadem, which has been estimated to contain one billion barrels of oil.
Also, from another report, Cameroon’s Pipeline Steering and Monitoring Committee said Chadian crude oil exports from January 1 to October 31, 2014 stood at 27.56 million barrels, up from 24.55 million barrels of crude oil the landlocked country exported between January and November 2013.
According to a Dow Jones report, the ChadCameroon oil pipeline, which began operations in October 2003, has exported an estimated 476 million barrels of crude since it was built. It is being operated by Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd.
Whereas, statistics show that the neighbouring countries surrounding these fossil oil rich frontier basins are earnestly exploring and benefitting from the petro-dollars, Nigeria still awaits the passage of the Frontier Exploration Agency Bill to give the required teeth for an aggressive and prompt utilisation of this black gold resource.
The Frontier Agency, once established, would also have the powers to establish and maintain a fund that will consist all monies chargeable and payable in its favour; monies appropriated by the government and those raised by way of gifts, loans and grants among others.
Like many government agencies and parastatals, the Frontier exploration agency will be headed by a director general, while there is also a governing board, which will take major decisions for the agency.
Proponents of this bill argue that it is a good legislation that would go a long way in boosting the Nigerian economy, while others contend that if the agency comes to government will have only little challenges to face as far as managing the economy is concerned.
This is in addition to the fact that the agency will give consideration to bonus, royalty, production share and special share as well as petroleum industry development in deciding the grant of award of exploration and/ or production contracts.
During debate on the bill three years ago, its sponsor Rep Gujbawu made case for the establishment of the Frontier Exploration Agency since the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is saddled with the responsibility of crude oil exploration in mostly non-frontier communities, presently has its hands full.
He argued that it would be good to have an agency that will concentrate all its attention to the frontier section so that the Nigerian nation will also avail itself the generation of the much required petrodollars to further drive the economic activities via increase in oil output so as to exponentially increase our current dwindling foreign exchange earnings.
Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate supported the passage of the bill. Consequently, it was referred to the ad hoc committee on PIB.
The passage of the bill has become more imperative with the dwindling price of crude oil.
However, the bill, like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now faces the challenge of time constraint as the lawmakers have only about one month to finish up their legislative business for the 7th Assembly.
The committee has since completed its work on public hearing and submitted its report to the House for adoption before its third reading.
Another version of the bill was also sponsored in the Senate to reach a compromise for the passage of the PIB.
Once the two chambers adopt the consolidated bills, a conference committee will be formed by both chambers for them to agree on a particular stand before finally passing it and transmitting same to the president for his assent.
But considering the time, the question is, will members of the National Assembly and the Executive carry out the necessary legislative actions on the bill before the expiration of their tenure?
Already, most of the returning lawmakers are neck-deep into the politics of who occupies which position in the 8th Assembly, while those that are not returning seem to care less about any legislation that may come up between now and June as they are going. As for the executive also, they are busy preparing handover notes.