Stakeholder urges strong regulations in oil industry

The Managing Director of Seplat, Austin Avuru has insisted that for the nation’s oil and gas sector to move forward, there is need for strong regulation
Speaking at Petroleum Club Guarantors Dinner in Lagos recently, he noted that “if the country does not institute strong regulation in the oil industry, it would collapse.

According to him, Indigenous operators do not have the in-depth of discipline to entrench the governance necessary to move the industry forward. Local operators are often compelled by relevant institution of government before paying royalties. Therefore, “when operators do not pay royalties and taxes it will collapse the industry.”

Speaking further, he also added that PIB is not necessarily the solutions to Nigeria’s oil industry problems. What the country needs is fiscal bill that will address fiscal regime in the industry, this will give ample opportunity to investors to have clear idea of what the fiscal regime and governance structure is before investing in the sector. He however commended the National Assembly for passing the PIB governance bill.

The passage of the bill, he observed, would address substantially the Niger Delta problem and hopefully, government will become sensible about its infrastructure. He added that before 2027, an efficient world class rail system from north to south and west and to the east is indispensable.

In his speech, Chairman Petroleum Club Mr Godswill Ihetu noted that we have given support to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas NLNG in their quest to resolve the attempt by some elements in the national assembly to amend the NLNG Act by withdrawing the assurances and guarantees provided to the NLNG in that Act. We now know that the partners are making steady progress towards achieving Final Investment Decision FID on NLNG’s Train 7 Plus Project next year. This milestone would not have been achieved if the government had not continued to support the assurances and ensure sanctity of contracts entered into with shareholders.

Nigeria needs to give investors and lenders confidence that it would continue to provide stable fiscal regimes and would abide by all its agreements and undertakings.