SENATOR EXPLAINS IMPLICATIONS OF PETROLEUM INDUSTRY BILL

The Chairman, Senate Committee on the Petroleum Industry, Senator Lee Maeba, said in Port Harcourt that the Petroleum Industry Bill was designed to bring changes in the industry.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Maeba, who represents Rivers South East Senatorial District, is also the Chairman, National Assembly Joint Committee on the Petroleum Industry.

Maeba told the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday that the principal aim of the bill was to create an efficient management system for the petroleum sector.

The bill, he noted, was targeted at improving revenue generation and to make it commensurate with the value of the petroleum resources produced in the country while helping to achieve the country's long outstanding aspirations of becoming an industrial nation.

He noted that the bill had undergone first and second readings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and had been the subject of intense public hearing in both houses.

NAN reports that the Senate Joint Committee comprises of the Senate Committees on Upstream, Downstream and Gas.

On the fundamental principles of the bill, the senator said that part of the principles included vesting of ownership of petroleum resources exclusively in the Federal Government.