Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Commerce, Sylvester Ogbaga, yesterday, said Nigerians should hold the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the Presidency responsible for the delay in the passage of Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
Ogbaga also urged the public not to see the National Assembly as the stumbling block standing in the way of the bill as it is being made to appear in several quarters.
Ogbaga ,PDP, Ebonyi, stated this while addressing participants at a one‑ day interactive session on investment in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas sector entitled; “Enhancing The Oil and Gas Value Chain”.
He said Nigeria as the largest market in Africa offers unique investment opportunities in refining, storage, transportation and marketing of petroleum, petrochemicals and allied products.
“The Nigerian oil and gas value chain is undergoing a radical transformation following government’s commitment towards the key legislative reforms and aspiration towards firmly becoming the undisputed regional hub for gas based industries such as fertilizers, petrochemical and ethanol”.
He explained that although, the legislature would have passed the PIB, it however has faced issues of undue interferences from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as the Presidency with regard to intermittent review in the composition of the bill.
“People always think that the delay being experienced by the PIB is caused by the National Assembly which is very wrong”.
“The Bill would have been passed if not for the way both the Executive and the NNPC kept recalling it for content update and modification, so it’s not solely on the part of the National Assembly as Nigerians are being made to believe,” he said.
