01 October 2014, Abuja – Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, on Wednesday confirmed that the joint committee currently working on the Petroleum Industry Bill had almost concluded its assignment and would soon present its report for final approval and passage by the upper chamber.
Senate President, David Mark, had in Lagos, last week, assured Nigerians that the bill which is expected to bring sanity to the oil and gas industry, would be passed into law before the end of the current legislative year.
Also speaking in the same vein in an interview with journalists in Abuja, Nwaogu said her committee had been working seriously with those of Petroleum Resources ( Downstream and Upstream ) to ensure the speedy passage of the bill.
She said, “The passage of the Petroleun Industry Bill is in progress. I am a member of the joint committee that is working on it and I know what we are doing. It is a complex bill with 16 pieces of other legislations.
“We are taking out the obsolete and duplicated ones and we are putting in the things that are required in a 21st century Petroleum Industry Bill. It is a bill that will stand the test of time.
“It is a bill that will compare with other laws of other countries that are also endowed with oil and gas. I know that before the end of the current session, I know that we will pass the PIB.”
Nwaogu explained that the current administration in the country was looking at what will revitalise and restore the lost glory of Nigeria and had therefore started tackling the challenges it was facing in the power sector.
She said rot in the nation’s energy sector was as a result of non maintenance of the electricity equipment and facilities over the years.
The senator however said President Goodluck Jonathan had put a lot of policies in place that would bring about an improved surge in the power sector.
She said, “Already, over N2bn had been provided for the Gas Revolution Project. This is expected to dovetail into the power sector. From this year upward, Nigerians will see a revolution in terms of economic development, and in terms of infrastructural revival.”
– The Punch
