Social Action, a
Recall that President
Recall that President
However, in his speech during the presentation of the 2020 budget estimates to the joint session of the
While stressing the need to ensure timely passage of the law with the view to unlock the huge potentials in the oil and gas industry, Social Action's Head of National Advocacy, Mrs Vivian Bellonwu-Okafor in a statement titled: 'Make the Petroleum Industry Bill a first-line charge,' assured that the passage of the bill will impact positively on nation's socio-economic and well-being of the citizens.
'The appointment of Minister of
'As new minister of petroleum, no doubt, the tasks before the Minister are enormous: from the challenges of the downstream to the roughages that line the mid and upstream sectors, to the traumatized environment and region bearing the oil, it is, without doubt, a full cup.
'Effective delivery will to a large extent be a factor of proper priority placement and in this regard the long-drawn petroleum industry Bill, PIB needs to be placed in proper focus.
'Noble as the objectives of this bill may be, with part of its aim seeking to establish framework for the creation of commercially oriented and profit-driven petroleum entities to ensure value addition and internalization of the petroleum industry, the PIB has suffered seemingly intractable setbacks in its legislative journey, leading to its non-passage since introduction in 2008 till date.
'The bill which was meant to establish key institutions for the Oil and Gas industry, provides effective regulation of operations and operators in the industry in line with global best practices and cater for the interest and aspirations of local host communities in the industry has been left comatose in
'Mindful of the fact the PIB holds far-reaching import for both the environment and economy of the country, we urge the new Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Silva, to take on the task of delivering this bill pointedly and make it a focal action point of his mandate to see to it that the PIB breaks the jinx of bill status to being a law.
'Such a landmark feat will no doubt see ripple effect across the nation's socio-economic sector,' Bellonwu-Okafor noted.
© Pakistan Press International, source