Business News
Government undertakes oil, gas sector reform
Sep 19, 2003, 18:23
| | President Olusegun Obasanjo has instituted a major reform in the oil and gas industry in a bid to ensure that revenue from this sector impacts more meaningfully on the lives of Nigerians.
The President’s Special Adviser on Petroleum Matters, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, disclosed this on 18 September at the opening of the National Oil and Gas Policy stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja.
Dr Lukman, who represented President Obasanjo at the workshop, said the National Council of Privatisation (NCP), chaired by Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has been given eight weeks to submit a final draft of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Policy to the presidency.
The sector reform programme will include:
§ Review of extant petroleum laws and the establishment of a statutory basis for comprehensively regulating activity in the sector
§ Balancing the interests of consumers, the environment and operators
§ Review of petroleum products marketing
§ Review of gas laws
§ Privatisation of refineries
§ Restructuring of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
According to Dr Lukman, the new draft policy identifies four aspects of the sector:
§ Sensitivity to the natural environment
§ The need to derive maximum economic benefits for the nation
§ The competitive supply of petroleum products
§ The exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in a manner that is sustainable over a long period of time.
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