Ayomide Samson
The recently enacted Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and its implementation so far, will face thorough scrutiny by industry professionals, policy makers and stakeholders at the 2022 Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2022), scheduled to take place in Abuja from February 27th to March 3rd, 2022. The Petroleum Industry Act 2021 was assented and signed into law by the President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16th, 2021 to repeal the extant Petroleum Act 2004.
The Petroleum Industry Act was enacted to provide for the legal, governance, the regulatory, and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, the establishment, and development of host communities and other related matters in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry.
“The passing of the PIA has delivered the much-needed stability for the industry in settling the applicable regulatory and fiscal terms. It is now time for industry experts and stakeholders to sit down and assess whether it creates a framework that can support the long-term challenges of declining investment and project development especially against the backdrop of the energy transition”, says James Shindi, Managing Director, Brevity Anderson, event producers of NIES2022.
“The PIA is a historic move. It is a major feat by the Buhari presidency and we want to use the NIES platform to ensure that its implementation turns out to be a win-win for government, industry and the Nigerian people”, Shindi said.
According to an Ernst & Young publication, the PIA seeks to ensure “an increased level of transparency and accountability in the sector by strengthening the governing institutions to attract investment capital through changes to the governance, administrative, regulatory and fiscal framework of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.”
It should be noted that from the inception of the summit in 2018, discussions around the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) took the centre stage, often tilting to heated debates at the conference with the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, making definitive statements on the passage of the bill which happened few months after.
The Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) formerly known as the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS), is the official oil and gas meeting of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. With the full backing of the Federal Government of Nigeria, NIES has over the years witnessed the highest level of attendance by top decision makers, industry leaders and all stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.
NIES is a federal government of Nigeria official petroleum industry event with the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and all its parastatals including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) are joint hosts.
