PIB: FG assures foreign investors of stable investment climate

*As stakeholders express fears over non-passage

By Yemie Adeoye, just back from  Houston Texas 

LAGOS – FOLLOWING the assurance from the Federal Government last week that the much-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, would be passed before the handover date of May 29, 2011, the Federal Government has assured foreign investors of a stable and investment-friendly environment should they decide to invest in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

This came just as stakeholders in the oil and gas sector expressed fears over the non-passage of the bill as well as the May 29 deadline which they claim is not feasible as they believe that the National Assembly members, most of whom are not returning to the floor, have become lackadaisical to burning national issues as they will rather focus on handing over to their successors with little or no fuss.

An indigenous player who spoke with Vanguard in Lagos under condition of anonymity said: “This is not the first time that the minister would be assuring us of dates for the passage of this bill.

The importance to the growth of the sector has been over-emphasised, seminars and workshops have been held to enlighten all involved, monies have been spent all to ensure a speedy and realistic passage of the bill but all we have got so far has been failed dates and of course rhetorics.

“Now they have given us another assurance that it will be passed before the end of this administration which unfortunately is a few weeks away. Well, we are watching but I’m sure no company will invest any fund into the sector before the passage and I do hope they are taking that into cognisance.”

Both International Oil Companies, IOCs, and indigenous players all expressed worries that if the PIB is not passed, there might be no further investment in the nation’s oil and gas sector, a situation which would have a negative chain-reaction for the sector as well as the recently passed Nigerian Content Development Act.

Mutiu Sumonu, Country-Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria also stated at a meeting of oil and gas stakeholders with the Minster in Houston that failure to pass the PIB would simply mean little or no further investment in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry and that could result in huge losses for the Federal Government as well as local companies which could have benefited from such investment.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke gave the assurance to foreign and local investors as she parades over 20 indigenous Nigerian companies with strong presence across the oil and gas industry value chain during the opening of the Nigerian pavilion at the just concluded Offshore Technology Conference which held in Houston, Texas, United States.