By  Franklin Alli

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has called on the National Assembly to include Metering System as a new provision in the Petroleum Industry draft Bill before it is passed into law, if the economy is to get value from the PIB process.

It will be recalled that earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, had projected that the Federal Government can save N474 billion annually from metering system in the oil and gas, including telecom sector.

“All over the world, there is legal meteorology which ensures that what you buy is accurate and legal. If you look at the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Report, there is a lot of leakage in the oil and gas industry, either because the meters are not working or they are not installed at the right places.

But for the first time, the president has given us approval to commence that operation across all sectors of the economy. We are starting with the oil and gas, telecoms and power sector. When the process is completed, we expect to save the country about $3billion (N474) billion and also generate revenue of about N17.4bn for the government.”

Briefing the press after the Public Hearing on the Draft PIB organised by the House of Representatives in Lagos and Port Harcourt, respectively, last week, Godwin Uyi  Ojo, Executive Director ERA/FoEN, said:  “Our demand is, we are asking for on the spot Metering System that will give us real- time measurement of the amount of oil that is taken per minute, per hour, per day.  This should be part and parcel of the Petroleum Industry Bill Process. The technology is already available for the oil industry and government should have the will power to invest in the technology.”

Ojo, who delivered a memorandum on behalf of ERA/FoEN and 50 other civil society groups at the Hearing, said ‘While we applaud the House for having organised the hearing, specifically, there are certain critical areas of the PIB that we want reviewed, deleted, reworded or reworked by the lawmakers in such a way that they conform to Companies and Allied Matters ACT (CAMA).