14082018 - Saraki: Showdown on hold as NASS fails to reconvene

24 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2018
PIB delay causes leakages, theft, sabotage in oil industry —NNRC
By Chiamaka Meribole
STAKEHOLDERS in the
Nigerian petroleum
industry have stated that the
delay in passing the Petroleum
Industry Bill, PIB, into law has
resulted in a lot of leakages, theft
and sabotage in the industry.
They made this assertion in a
communiqué issued at the
roundtable on the PIB in Abuja.
The stakeholders averred that
Nigeria's competitive advantage
is consistently being eroded by
increasing discoveries of crude
oil in more stable economies
operating within Africa such as
Tanzania, Ghana and
Mozambique among others.
They further explained that
Nigeria has realised the need to
change the governance
framework of its oil and gas
industry, having used an archaic
law that was enacted in 1969 to
run her oil industry in 2018.
According to the communiqué,
the non-passage of the PIB has
cost Nigeria's oil and gas
industry billions of dollars' worth
of investment and returns to her
economy.
It noted that this becomes
worrisome, especially as the PIB
sought to empower institutions
and not individuals, take away
bad governance which leads to
inefficiency, ineffectiveness,
rent-seeking tendencies,
inequity, secrecy and corruption
in the country's petroleum
industry.
However, the stakeholders
were unanimous in their views
that the 2019 elections had
provided Nigerians with the best
opportunity to get the political
leadership of the country to pass
By Prince Okafor
THE
Nigerian
National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, has stated
that the nation's aim of
attracting investors to its gas
utilisation drive and creating
value for the economy has been
responsible for different gas
prices in the domestic market.
The Chief Operating Officer,
Upstream, Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,
Mr. Bello Rabiu, made this
known yesterday, at the just
concluded Society of Petroleum
Engineers, Nigeria Annual
International Conference and
Exhibition in Lagos.
According to him, "Part of the
reasons for the gas master plan
is to make the domestic gas
market viable and reduce entry
barriers.
"As incentives, we have one
gas price for power, another for
industries, so that they can have
cheaper energy. Also, there is
a different price for gas-based
industries such as fertilizers
and petrochemicals. This is
aimed at arriving at a willing
buyer, willing seller model of
pricing."
He further stated that, "The
end goal of this is so that
Nigerian companies in these
industries can compete
favourably with companies that
produce similar products
around the world. In this sense
a Nigerian fertilizer
the PIB into law.
To this end, the stakeholders,
through the communiqué
recommended that the assent to
the PIGB is essential and should
happen as soon as possible.
They also called for the
proposals made on the variants
of the Petroleum Industry Bill
(PIB), that is the Petroleum
Industry Administrative Bill
(PIAB), the Petroleum Industry
Fiscal Bill (PIFB) and the
Petroleum Host and Impacted
Communities Development Bill
(PHICDB) at the public
hearings should be
expeditiously considered with
CONFERENCE: From Left: Executive Director Port Harcourt District, Total E& P Nigeria Ltd,
Mr. Victor Bandele; a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Funsho Kupolokun, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Maikanti Baru listen as Executive General Manager, GSR &
Planning (DeepWater), Total, Tunji Akinwunmi gives a brief of Total’s activities in Nigeria during
a tour of exhibition booths at the 2018 Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition
(NAICE).
Why we have different gas prices in Nigeria - NNPC
manufacturer should be able to
compete with other fertilizers
makers around the world.
"To ensure there is willing
buyer, willing seller model in
the domestic gas market, the
NNPC decided 5 billion
standard cubic feet of gas daily,
will be able to sustain supply
and sufficiency of gas to the
domestic market."
Also speaking, the
Managing Director, Shell
Nigeria Exploration and
Production Company,
SNEPCo, Bayo Ojulari, said:
"If the right people are placed
in areas where we want things
to be done, this country will
move forward. Apart from
human capacity in our oil and
gas business, human capacity
We use our charges to maintain Zone- LADOL
By Ediri Ejoh
THE management of
Lagos Deep Offshore
Logistics (LADOL) has
explained that its charges are
essential to enable it maintain
the zones.
Addressing journalists to
refute media reports for
imposing one percent Free on
Board (FOB) charges in Lagos,
Managing Director, LADOL,
Amy Jadesinmi, said: "All
charges are mandated by the
federal government policy
which is within a transparent
frame work. No company
operating in the LADOL free
zone have been charged with
the bills passed as a matter of
urgency by the National
Assembly.
The communiqué added, "The
relevant government MDA's;
Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resources (FMoPR), Federal
Ministry of Finance (FMoF),
Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR), Federal
Inland Revenue Service (FIRS),
Petroleum Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) etc,
must advocate for the Assent of
the PIGB for the benefit of the
Nigerian economy.
"Key issues for public
engagement on the PIGB should
in diversify economy, is the key
element we need to focus on,
we cannot do any of this
without building human
capacity and hence the
collaboration with universities
must be more solid than it used
to be.
"In Nigeria, 2 million people
enter the labour market every
year and the biggest economies
around the world are
leveraging on their population,
if your population is
productive. It is a blessing.
"But diversification must be
focused. We need a
diversification roadmap that
will integrate Nigeria economy
and it should be underpinned
as jointly signed by
commitment that shows what
charges not mandated by the
government.
"It is wrong to calculate the
value of the one percent
management fee in the contract
when the project had not yet
left the free zone. This is not a
unilateral action by us, and to
say otherwise is completely
false and highly mischievous
since we have been transparent
at all times.
"The enterprises operating
within the LADOL free zone
and the related parties are
aware of the charges and the
rules and regulations in detail.
The charges are known and
required to maintain the zones
include: harmonisation;
presidential assent; public
education about the new oil and
gas governance regime; passage
of the remaining complementary
three bills; effective
implementation of the PIGB; as
well as close monitoring and
reporting.
"The media and civil society
must begin in earnest to sensitize
the public on the need to change
the status quo.Accountability
actors to demand that the
National Assembly to create a
platform where people can verify
the bills they are working on.”
CSOs and media must
each of us is going to contribute
to building the roadmap, and
every year, as we reflect on our
performance against that, and
we show where we are, and
how we are moving forward.
"For Nigeria to diversify its
economy, it must leverage on
the low hanging fruits, such as,
agriculture, petrochemicals,
which use gas as its feedstock
and more importantly,
education and technology.
"To reap the benefits of a
diversified economy, an
enabling environment is
needed. This includes security,
transparency and
accountability, infrastructure
(power, pipeline networks) and
effective Public Private and
Academia (PPA) partnerships."
and the free zone scheme.
"There is nothing that was not
known at the start of the project.
Within the approved tariff, you
have what is called the one
percent management fee as the
statutory charge. The one per
cent management fee is one
per cent of the cost of the
product when it leaves the free
zone. Obviously you can't
calculate that till the end of the
project so what is known is that
there will be that calculation
and that management fee is
clearly stated on the tariff
schedule and it's not unique to
this project and is not unique
to Samsung."
MAN seeks FG's
intervention to end
disagreement with
DISCOs
By Sebastine Obasi
THE
Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria
(MAN) has called on the
Federal Government to
intervene in the debt
disagreement between them
and the electricity distribution
companies, DISCOs, so as to
enable them access the
stranded 2,000 megawatts of
electricity.
MAN President Dr Frank
Jacobs, who stated this also,
said that the condition given by
the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC)
was too stringent, as it may not
be achieved easily due to the
volume of the debt.
He said, "Some of the
challenges we have with taking
advantage of the stranded
2,000 megawatts of power is
that the NERC has continued to
insist that MAN members and
consumers clear off
outstanding debts to the DISCOs.
"However, there have been
disagreements on how much is
really involved and that has not
been resolved to date. The
figures reeled out by the DISCOs
are too high when compared
with what our members
claimed they owed."
He noted that a consensus was
reached by both MAN and
DISCOs to seek the intervention
of the government so as to
enable manufacturers to take
advantage of the stranded
power.
The MAN President also
called on the government to
create the enabling
environment for the private
sector to thrive by providing
the necessary infrastructure,
macro-economic environment
and ease of doing business.
"This means providing the
necessary basic infrastructure
to ensure that the
macroeconomic environment
is suitable for business to thrive.
Business successes are
determined by parameters such
as exchange rates, interest
rates, taxation and ease of doing
business and we urge that these
factors be addressed to
encourage local and foreign
investments," he said.
NCDMB to
commercialize
undergraduate
engineering
projects
THE Nigerian Content
Development and
Monitoring Board (NCDMB) will
partner the Council for the
Regulation of Engineering in
Nigeria (COREN) and the
Committee of Deans of
Engineering and Technology of
Nigerian Universities (CODET) to
develop and commercialize the best
engineering projects completed by
undergraduates in the 2017/2018
academic session.
The Executive Secretary of
NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye
Wabote made the commitment on
Tuesday at the 27th Engineering
Assembly organised by COREN in
Abuja. He spoke after the
announcement of the top three
individual and group engineering
undergraduate projects in the
country by the Committee of Deans.