Page 11 - AfrOil Week 13 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Sylva sees Nigeria passing PIB in April

NIGERIA TIMIPRE Sylva, Nigerian Minister of State for Lawan has repeatedly stated that he is com-
Petroleum Resources, has said he expects the mitted to working with the presidential admin-
National Assembly to pass the country’s new oil istration in order to facilitate the passage of key
and gas law, known as the Petroleum Industry legislative measures. The new oil law is one such
Bill (PIB), within the next month. measures, as it is seen as crucial to ensuring the
“The National Assembly has expressed the attractiveness of the country’s hydrocarbon
intent to pass the PIB bill in April 2021,” Sylva sector.
told reporters in Abuja on March 26. He did not Buhari submitted a draft version of the PIB
elaborate, but he stressed that the administra- to both houses of the National Assembly last
tion of President Muhammadu Buhari was pre- August. The Senate and the House of Repre-
pared to provide the legislature with as much sentatives passed the bill in its first reading the
support as it needed to ensure passage before following September and then passed it in the
the end of April. second reading in October. Discussions were
Sylva’s remarks were in line with statements then put on hold for several months, pending
made earlier this year by other Nigerian govern- the finalisation of the 2021 budget, but resumed
ment officials. One of these was Ahmad Lawan, earlier this year.
the president of Nigeria’s Senate, who said in late Oil companies and host communities of oil-
January that he expected the PIB to clear both rich areas have been given the opportunity to
houses of the National Assembly in April and comment on the bill in public hearings, Sylva
then be signed by the president in May. noted last week. ™

NNPC to take diminished role

in Port Harcourt oil refinery

NIGERIA NIGERIA National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC)
will reduce its shareholding in the country’s Port
Harcourt refining complex once repair work on
the decrepit facility has been completed.
Speaking to local media last week, the com-
pany’s managing director Mele Kyari said that
the plan was for the state to complete the work
and attract a majority shareholder to invest and
operate the facility from that point onward. “We
bring in the private sector to take equity in this
refinery and then we continue to grow that busi-
ness from that perspective,” he said.
The Port Harcourt complex is comprised of
two units, built roughly 25 years apart, with joint
total capacity of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd), The Port Harcourt refinery has been off line for around 18 months (Photo: NOC)
making it Nigeria’s largest refinery. However, it
has been off line for around 18 months. NNPC be completed within 24 months and the final
has cited repairs as the reasons for the shutdown, stage within 44 months.
though these have not yet begun. Kyari’s comments align with a statement
Earlier last week, Nigerian Minister of made by Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s Minister of
State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva State for Petroleum Resources. “Operations
announced that the rehabilitation of Port Har- and maintenance have been a big problem for
court would “commence forthwith,” following [Nigeria’s] refineries. This has been exhaustively
the signing-off of a $1.5bn package to cover the discussed in council,” he said.
repairs. Italy’s Maire Tecnimont will carry out NNPC agreed a loan of around $1bn
the work in three phases, with the first phase with lenders led by the Cairo-based African
designed to bring the unit back to 90% name- Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Febru-
plate capacity within 18 months, the second to ary of this year.

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