The mass job loss and staff transfer rocking the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulating Agency (PPPRA) have been altered.
This trend, Newdawn gathered exclusively was buoyed by the President’s decision to withdraw his assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB). The two agencies were expected to be collapsed into one entity immediately the bill secures the President’s assent.
The job loss fear, which emanated from the imminent scrapping of the agencies led some “highly connected staff” to begin lobbying to avoid being transferred out of the corridor of the “juicy” ministry of petroleum resources.
The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) 2017 passed by the Nigerian Senate on May 25, 2017, has sought to rationalise and merge two existing agencies including the DPR and the PPPRA Agency.
Asides this, clouds also thickened over the planned listing of 40 per cent flagship asset of the Nigerian National (NNPC) through Initial Public Offering (IPO) as more confusion greeted the PIGB
Assent to the PIGB, a legislation through, which the listing is predicated, has been withheld by President Muhammadu Buhari and a further check by Newdawn showed that the re-election bids by the legislators is posing threats to reconsideration of the reasons the President gave for withholding his assent.
Giving credence to this, oil and gas policy expert, Leonard Ugbajah, told newdawn at the weekend that lawmakers “no longer bother about the reforms in the sector, particularly to quickly reconsider issues raised by President for withholding the bill, because all of them are pre-occupied with politics of how to get re-elected.”
Stating that oil “remains biggest revenue earner for the country and allowing reforms about the sector to lay by cannot be the best for Nigeria,” Ugbajah, a lawyer, maintained; “We all know efforts put into getting the PIB passage. At some point it was divided into four, the one about governance was passed and the President declined assent to the bill. The revenue expected from the sector has been declining over this.”
Like the stalling of NNPC’s listing, the President’s assent withholding for the bill has also embargoed the reforms in the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulating Agency (PPPRA), where the two agencies are expected to be collapsed into one entity.
The National Petroleum Corporation (NPC), a proposed limited liability integrated oil and gas company, is expected to take off within six month after Buhari’s assent to the Bill (PIGB), which has now been withheld.
“The Initial Shares (IPO) shall be held by the Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated (40%), the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (40%) and the Bureau of Public Enterprise (20%). However, 10% and an additional 30 % of the shares of the company shall be floated on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) within five years and 10 years from incorporation respectively,” the NNPC document stated, quoting a section of the PIGB.
This divestment of 40 per cent of NPC shares to the Nigerian Stock Exchange has now however been stalled.
