PIB Passage Could Move Nigeria’s Gas Reserves to World’s 3rd Largest

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): If Nigeria pass the Petroleum Industry Bills (PIBs) which have been split into four parts for ease of passage, the country may become the world’s third largest holder of gas reserves, a former Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Lead Consultant to the National Assembly on the PIBs, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, has disclosed.

Presently, the world’s ninth largest holder of proven gas reserves, Olorunsola, explained at a recent roundtable organised by the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) in collaboration with Media Initiative on Transparency in Extractive Industries (MITEI) in Abuja, that country could leverage the expected passage of the laws to grow the country’s gas reserves and play big in the emerging global gas business.

He said only the PIBs passage and assent can make Nigeria become a competitively attractive country for gas-based investments amongst others.

“Nigeria needs to move more from 1,500 depths to deeper offshore where the acreages are open. Nigeria can easily become the third in the world in terms of gas reserves if we do the needed exploration work,” Olorunsola added.

He further explained that until the PIBs become law, the country would not attract the right investments needed for such deep offshore exploration which he said ran into billions of dollars.

The omnibus PIB has however been split into the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) – presently awaiting presidential assent; Petroleum Host and Impacted Community Bill (PHICB); Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB); and Petroleum Industry Administration Bill (PIAB) which are still undergoing legislative process and expected to be passed before December 25, 2018, according to Olorunsola.

Courtesy: www.thisdaylive.com