Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), alongside the Gas initiatives, will boost Nigeria’s energy sector and also improve efficiency in Nigeria’s industrialisation plans.
Osinabjo revealed this in a statement signed on Monday by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, after he spoke at the 25th anniversary of Sahara (Energy) Group, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Osinabjo added that the PIA will add more value to the sector for all interested stakeholders.
The gas initiatives of the Federal Government include the drive to encourage investments in gas production and optimize the nation’s enormous gas potential.
What Vice President Osinbajo said
The vice president said the PIA would also create a better-managed petroleum industry with more value addition for both investors and Nigerians alike.
He said, “Locally, we launch into the brave new world for the oil and gas industry with the PIA 2021.
“And this happily converges with the launch of the Year 2020 to 2030 as the ‘Decade of Gas Development for Nigeria’; this is a follow-up to the highly successful initiative of the Year 2020 as the Year of Gas.”
He stated that the FG launched the National Gas Expansion Programme in November 2020, with emphasis on the distribution of Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas across gas stations operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He stated that wealthier nations and their institutions have banned all public investments in certain fossil projects, including natural gas.
“Examples include the EU, the UK, Germany and Denmark, as well as specific institutions such as the Swedfund from Sweden, Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, the largest in the world, CDC, the development finance institution from the UK, the European Investment Bank, and the Investment Fund for Developing Countries from Denmark.
“The World Bank and other multilateral development banks are being urged by their shareholders to do the same.
“The AfDB is increasingly unable to support large natural gas projects in the face of shareholder pressure from their European members.
“Barely two weeks ago, the UN Secretary-General made a strong call, that ‘Countries should end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy.”
The Vice President urged indigenous energy companies to join in the urgent advocacy that is required to prevent the disaster that would result from defunding oil and gas projects. He said that the last two decades had brought significant growth of Nigerian oil companies.
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President Muhammadu Buhari, on August 16, signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021 into law.
The president has also approved and inaugurated a steering committee to oversee the process of implementation of the PIA.
