Non-passage of PIB scares away investors, says NNPC boss

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari has linked the near scare investors in the nation’s oil and gas sector in the last couple of years to the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bills (PIBs) by the National Assembly.

Making his lead presentation at the just concluded 25th anniversary edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), with the theme: ‘Rethinking the Future of Extractives’ Kyari argued that “Getting the petroleum legislation passed is the right thing to do because investors will not invest their money if they are not sure of how they are going to get their investment back, and what benefits they can get from their investment, and how stable the investment climate is. We must resolve the petroleum legislation and I’m aware that this administration is working assiduously to get the law passed within the shortest frame of time”.

Kyari averred that “Investors will not invest their money if they were not sure of how they are going to get their investment back.”

However, armed with the conviction that the Federal Government is set to work with the National Assembly and all other stakeholders to pass the long-awaited petroleum legislation, Kyari expressed hope that waiting investors at the shores of the country will come in with their Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

He expressed assurance that the emerging legislation will among other things, provide a win-win scenario for all players in the oil and gas Industry.

Continuing, the NNPC boss linked government’s inability to take Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on some critical projects to infrastructure and legal framework gap, especially in the downstream sector.

Kyari was hopeful that “The petroleum law, when passed, would create a robust fiscal regime that will make the nation’s oil and gas industry competitive, adding that International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the country would be spurred to invest more in the petroleum sector.”

In his further submission, he revealed that whereas the industry continues to wait on the PIB legislation, NNPC will collaborate with the African Export-Import bank (Afreximbank) or any financial institution willing to finance its critical projects, especially refineries rehabilitation, downstream infrastructure, including pipelines for good job going forward.