Page 10 - DMEA Week 26 2021
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DMEA POLICY DMEA
MPs say National Assembly
will pass PIB by mid-July
AFRICA MEMBERS of Nigeria’s National Assembly are reading next month.
reportedly working to wrap up discussions on “I’m optimistic that, at the rate we are working
the proposed oil and gas law, known as the Petro- round the clock, the PIB will be passed before our
leum Industry Bill (PIB), by mid-July. annual recess,” he said, according to a Bloomberg
According to Benjamin Kalu, a member of report.
the lower house of the legislature, a joint com- The MPs were speaking after Ahmad Lawan,
mittee that includes members from both the the president of the Senate, expressed confidence
House of Representatives and the Senate is “cur- that the National Assembly would pass the PIB
rently looking at the final draft of the bill.” in the third reading and send it to President
Committee members are trying to finish their Muhammadu Buhari for signature before the
work quickly so that the draft can be submitted to end of June.
both chambers for a vote before July 16, the first “We’ve got the commitment that it will come
day of the National Assembly’s annual recess, he up in June. We’ve heard that before and we are
was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. waiting to see,” he said earlier in June.
Legislators are not due to return from the Representatives of TotalEnergies (France)
recess until September 6, he noted. He did not and Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands)
say when he expected the Senate and National recently urged Nigeria’s government to approve
Assembly to vote on the PIB. the PIB as quickly as possible. They argued that
Nevertheless, Ajibola Basiru, a member of fast action was necessary to ensure the continued
the upper house, said he was confident that leg- flow of investment in the West African country’s
islators would be able to pass the bill in the third oil and gas sector.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT
ITFC loans $4.5bn to
Pakistan for oil, gas imports
MIDDLE EAST THE Pakistani government has reportedly used owing to lower international oil prices,
secured a three-year, $4.5bn loan from the depressed domestic demand and limited sup-
Islamic Trade Finance Corp. (ITFC) to help plies of Arabian crude.
cover the cost of the country’s energy imports. ITFC CEO Hani Salem Sonbol said at the
The parties were expected to sign a formal time that Pakistan was the second largest ben-
framework agreement for the trade financ- eficiary of ITFC financing and that institution
ing facility this week, local daily Dawn quoted would continue to support Pakistan’s financial
unnamed sources as saying on June 25. The loan needs relating to its oil and gas imports.
will be broken into three annual tranches, each The newspaper’s sources said the interest rate
worth around $1.5bn, that will used to pay for of this new facility would be lower than that of
imports of crude, oil products and liquefied nat- the existing loan – reportedly set at LIBOR+
ural gas (LNG) over 2021-2023. 2.3% – given the “substantial” liquidity surplus
Rather than transferring the funds to Paki- of banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
stani bank accounts, it is understood that the Saudi Arabia.
loan will be used to underwrite letters of credit The $4.5bn loan agreement is not the first of
for Pak-Arab Refinery (Parco), Pakistan State Oil its size between ITFC and Pakistan either, with
(PSO) and Pakistan LNG Ltd’s (PLL) imports. both parties signing such a deal April 2018 for
ITFC is a member of the Islamic Develop- the 2018-2020 period. That facility saw the insti-
ment Bank (IsDB) and was created in 2008 to tution extend $386mn to the South Asian coun-
advance trade among Organisation of Islamic try last year.
Cooperation (OIC) member countries. Pakistan reportedly spent $4.5bn on oil
Pakistan already signed a $1.1bn trade product imports in the first 11 months of fiscal
financing facility with ITFC in February, but year 2020-2021, as well as $2.5bn on LNG and
Dawn’s sources said the funds had not been fully another $2.5bn on crude oil.
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 26 01•July•2021
