BY Mary Ugbodaga
Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, says the petroleum industry bill (PIB) which is before the national assembly will resolve concerns about the production sharing contract (PSC) on gas.
Sylva was speaking during a national assembly public hearing organised by the joint committee on gas resources, petroleum resources (both upstream and downstream) in Abuja on Monday.
The public hearing was themed ‘Inclusion of gas terms in production sharing contracts and establishment of mechanisms to attract gas investment to grow the Nigerian economy’.
“Issues on gas terms was not captured in the PSC because at the time, the offshore was just a frontier territory, today, it is no longer frontier, it is a proven territory,” Sylva said.
“There have been a lot of discussions on how we can change the terms, I believe that most of these issues will be addressed in the PIB, especially the issues around gas terms which we all believe were not properly captured in the document.”
He said gas was not captured in the PSC because it was not the focus in the exploration activities at the time, adding that the new push for gas is what is needed for economic development in the country.
He also said the federal government would soon inaugurate a taskforce that would ensure full implementation of its autogas initiative to make Nigerians use gas for their cars.
Sylva urged the national assembly to ensure the PIB is passed by April to help the growth of the oil and gas sector and the country at large.
In his remarks, Mele Kyari, group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said a good fiscal environment and pricing framework are the two things needed to ensure that the PSC will work.
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