Senate Fails In Bid To Re-Open PIBill; Is Bill Dead!

* Allison-Madueke Declines FG’s Commitment To Fresh Bill

EMMA UCHE, THEWILL.
ABUJA, November 29, (THEWILL) - The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is dead for now and may not be represented to the National Assembly any time soon.

This became clear on Tuesday as efforts by Senators to extract commitment from the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke on when or if the federal government would forward a fresh bill met a brick wall.

She refused to discuss the issue during her appearance before the Senator Emmanuel Paulker-led Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) yesterday.

When the issue was raised by a member of the committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe during the interactive session the committee had with officials of the ministry, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and others agencies in the petroleum sector, the Minister promptly requested that discussions on the document be held behind closed doors.

“It’s very topical and sensitive at this point in time. I would like to talk in a closed session with the committee. I crave your indulgence to sit down with you separately in a closed session,” she said.

Responding, the committee chairman said: “The ball is in your court. Knowing that the economy depends on oil, this bill is very important. I’ll also crave your indulgence to put your request on paper in order that we can push this bill forward...”

The committee however rejected the minister’s presentation, saying it was against the expectations of members.

After a brief discussion among the committee members, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, ACN, Lagos West told the minister, “Your presentation is not in tandem with our expectations, we are not on the same lane, all you have presented does not have any relevance to this sitting, it is either you are not ready for this briefing or otherwise.

“I can’t see any synergy with what she has presented to us with what we expected her to come and brief us.

“According to the agenda of the interactive session, the Committee expected the ministry and its agencies to brief it on their activities during the year, on-going projects, update on the performances of oil licenses awarded from 2005, 2006 and 2007 bid rounds.

“Others include the renewal of expired and subsidizing leases, cash call and alternative funding, on-going arbitration with the International Oil Companies, asset divestment by the IOCs between 2007-2011, planning for upcoming Bid rounds and State of Petroleum

Industry Bill,” he said.
Meanwhile, Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Austin Oniwon told the committee that the agency has exceeded its cash call target for the 2011 fiscal year.

Oniwon said the NNPC was expecting to make $13.9 billion but made $16.7 billion, surpassing its budget by 121 percent.

He attributed the earnings to stability of crude price which he said “has been firm and volume has been good” with production of oil stabilising at “2.4 million barrels per day at that time.”

The NNPC GMD bemoaned illegal bunkering which he said “is real and its bad but not so bad as to affect the 2011 budget. We are looking for solutions to the problem but we are not adding to reserves.

“We’ve only been able to sustain production but not adding to national reserves,” he added.