By Victor AHIUMA-YOUNG

ORGANISED Labour in the Nigeria’s Oil industry, has called on the National Assembly to arrange a meeting between the Government represented by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Oil Producers Trade Section, OPTS, to reconcile the disagreements on the fiscal regimes in the protracted Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

Under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, counterpart, in a joint position on PIB, argued that it is labour’s belief that the PIB should allow for the optimization of returns to Nigeria from its oil and gas resources, without stifling investments and growth of the industry.

Chairman, NUPENG and PENGASSAN Joint Committee on PIB, Chika Onuegbu, in the committee position, insisted the government would have to strike a balance between taking a significantly higher stake from industry operations and ensuring the sustainable growth of the  industry.

NUPENG and PENGASSAN contended that having engaged both sides of the argument, advises that the Government should critically examine the implications of the proposed changes in the fiscal regime.

According to the unions “we strongly advise that the National Assembly should arrange a meeting between the Government represented by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), to reconcile the disagreements on the fiscal regimes. For the meeting to be transparent and successful, the National Assembly should engage independent fiscal experts to review the fiscal regimes and come up with facts about the current fiscal regimes, proposed fiscal regimes under the PIB, and the competiveness of

Nigeria’s proposed fiscal regimes when compared with similar countries of the world. The truth is that the PIB is now with the National Assembly and Nigerians expect our Honourable Representatives and Distinguished Senators to act in the overall best interest of the country by balancing the government desire for increased revenue with the growth and development of the oil and gas industry. As an instrument intended to bring direction to the hydrocarbon sector, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), represents a great opportunity for Nigeria to ensure a solid legislative foundation on which the future of oil and gas operations in the country will rest.”

They noted that as critical stakeholders, the workers in the industry, through the two unions in the Nigeria Oil and Gas industry had undertaken a thorough review of the bill and believed  that the objectives of the PIB and Nigeria’s national interest were best secured under six broad themes; “Transparency and Accountability; Fiscal Terms; Institutional Framework: Minister, NOC, Petroleum Host Community Fund, PHCF and Regulator; Refinery and other Downstream Activities; Labour Issues and Membership of Institutions, Boards and Committees ;and Health, Safety and Environment.”

According to NUPENG and PENGASSAN, “under the PIB, the NNPC is to be broken into 3 different entities: the National Oil Company (NOC); the National Petroleum Asset Management Corporation/Company (NPAMC) and the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC). It is our considered view that the PIB needs to reduce government’s stake in the NOC, if it is to be run as a profitable commercial entity. The Brazilian government for example, holds less than 50% of Petrobras shares, although it owns a majority of the voting shares in order to retain control of the company.

The board, chief executive and top management of the NOC should also be granted a fixed term in office akin to what obtains in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This way, the company can function with minimal interference with the board setting targets for the management to meet.”

“The present PIB also proposes a National Petroleum Asset Management Corporation/Company (NPAMC) to manage the NNPC’s present Joint Venture (JV) assets. This company is to be owned 100% by government and it is proposed that the company will be capitalized with a 2-year seed loan from the Federal Government and thereafter stand on its own.