By Emeka Okafor
Governors of Southern Nigeria on Monday vehemently rejected the 30 per cent being proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for oil exploration in the northern part of the country through the “Frontier Basins”.
According to the recently passed PIB, the 30 per cent from profit generated by the proposed Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited will be allocated for exploration in the “Frontier Basins”.
The “Frontier Basins” is contained in Section 9 of the recently passed Petroleum Industry Bill which will regulate the oil sector in the country if eventually signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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The passed PIB identified “Frontier Basins to include Chad Basin, Gongola Basin, Sokoto Basin, Dahomey Basin, Bida Basin and Benue Trough in the Northern part of the country.
The governors made their rejection known in a communique issued on Monday after its meeting in Lagos.
The meeting was attended by governors of Ondo, Delta, Rivers, Lagos, Ekiti, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Abia, Uyo, and others from the 17 southern states in the region.
While, however, commending the National Assembly for the progress made in the passage of the bill, rejected the three and five per cent approved by the Senate and House of Representatives in the bill.
“The Forum rejects the proposed 3% and support the 5% share of the oil revenue to the host community as recommended by the House of Representatives.
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“The forum also rejects the proposed 30% share of profit for the exploration of oil and gas in the basins.
“The forum rejects the ownership structure of the proposed Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited.
“The Forum disagrees that the company be vested in the Federal Ministry of Finance but should be held in trust by Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority since all tiers of Government have stakes in that vehicle”, the communique read.
