.. PIB will end NNPC’s monopoly
The immediate past director-general of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside has listed two key factors needed to be accommodated in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to fully unlock gains of the petroleum sector in Nigeria.
Dakuku who made the revelations yesterday at a one day colloquium organised by TheNewsGuru (TNG), entitled, ‘PIB: finally getting it right and breaking the 20-year hiatus’ stressed that an efficient regulatory system will make Nigeria’s oil and gas industry competitive, attract investors and create more jobs for our youth as well as open newer opportunities for the country.
Optimistic that PIB will crush the monopoly of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he however, noted that their are two things that might hinder the functions of deregulatory bodies as captured in the PIB.
Addressing the problematic areas that needed be resolved in the PIB, Dakuku advised that the excessive powers given to the ministers in the PIB should be reduced and also posited that regulatory bodies created under the new PIB era should be given quasi legislative and quasi judicial roles to ensure they function independently and efficiently.
“A regulatory body apart from the executive roles it plays requires lots of quasi legislative, quasi judicial, they should be given some powers to make decision on their own without coming back to the court or going to the legislative for legislative supports. With the quasi legislative and quasi judicial function, such regulatory body will be independent and efficient but without it, a failure is inevitable”
Read Dakuku’s rich comments on regulatory bodies that will be set up in pursuant of the passage of the PIB: “I will be speaking on the critical issue of the regulatory bodies that will be set up in pursuant of the passage of the PIB and how it will impact our lives as Nigerians, you will recall that over a long period we have had the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), have played the role of a regulator and an operator. Historically, the PIB is about to break the monopoly of NNPC; So I am a bit surprised when people don’t expect resistant, there will be resistant when you attempt to break a monopoly anywhere in the world, even in China where you have lots of monopolies and the reason is because people benefit from monopolie
“What the PIB sets to do is to break down the NNPC monopoly and establish independent regulatory bodies and this is in line with global trends, where the world is migrating towards a private sector or a market driven oil and gas industry, this is the only ay to optimise benefits in te sector. The PIB propose to set up three important regulatory bodies – the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (the “Commission”) and the Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (the “Authority”) create frame work for tariff and pricing; and establishment of a new intervention Fund to be called the Midstream Gas Infrastructure Fund
“What will these independent regulatory bodies do? These institutions it will enhance greater compliance to industry regulation boost, promotes transparency and drive competition. Once there is competition in the industry, it increase efficiency and effectiveness of the system, once these are in place they system will attract investment, once investors come, there will be competition and this will crash price of goods and service. This is what the regulatory independent system does, it will make the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry competitive, this will create right environment, attract investors and create more jobs for our youth.
