… gives 3% of oil firms’ expenditure for host communities
The Senate on Thursday passed the Petroleum Industry Bill with a provision for the use of 30 percent of oil and gas profits of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited to fund oil exploration activities in frontier basins.
The Bill as passed also approved 3 percent of annual operating expenditure of oil firms operating in the country to be contributed to the host community development trust fund.
The as passed also provides that The passage of the Bill followed a clause-by-clause consideration of a report by the Senate’s joint committee on Petroleum (Upstream, Downstream and Gas) on the PIB.
The Senate stuck to a recommendation of three percent Host Communities, against demands from South-South Senators who pleaded for five percent.
In the debates on the Bill, representatives of the host communities who visited the Senate had asked for 10 percent as the contribution to the communities.
Prior to the passage on Thursday, the Upper Chamber had held a closed session with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari.
Congratulating the Senators on the historic passage of the Bill, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the Ninth National Assembly had achieved a major goal.
“The demons (of PIB) have been defeated in this Chamber. We have passed the bill,” he said.
The three percent granted to the host communities amounts to $502.8million annually, Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, the spokesman for the Senate, explained to journalists.
