BREAKING: At last, Nigerian Senate passes Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)

After a decade-long log-rolling and politicisation of the bill, the Senate on Thursday passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The bill had gotten stuck in the previous assemblies, Persecondnews reports.

After the clause by clause consideration of the report of its Joint Committee on Petroleum (Upstream, Downstream and Gas) on PIB, the bill scaled the scrutiny of the lawmakers.

Among the highlights of the legislation is the three per cent of the revenue generated by oil companies for the host communities.

The South-South lawmakers had advocated 5 per cent.

Persecondnews recalls that the Senate had before the passage of the bill held a closed-door session with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari.

Congratulating the lawmakers on the feat, Senate President Ahmad Lawan noted that the 9th National Assembly had achieved “one of its fundamental legislative agenda”.

“The demons (of PIB) have been defeated in this Chamber. We have passed the bill,” he said.

Details shortly…