Thread by @mrlurvy

What you need to know about Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill.

Crude oil dominates Nigeria’s economy, accounting for around 90% of export earnings. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

The country has the largest oil and gas reserves in sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 37bn barrels of oil and 188 trillion cubic feet of gas. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

Yet for decades, the virtually ungovernable industry has been plagued by poor leadership, eye-watering corruption and environmental degradation. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

Value has leached away through opaque licensing deals, unaccountable middlemen, a lack of refining capacity and graft in the government and state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). #NigeriaNeedsPIB

Sabotage and pipeline theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta have ensured that the taxpayer loses out on billions of dollars in annual revenues. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

Nigerian administrations since the 1960s have – with varying degrees of effort – failed at reform. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

In the last 20 years, multiple governments have attempted to pass an all-encompassing Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the scope and complexity of which has ensured repeated failure. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

What changes under the new bill?

The new bill could offer a radical departure from past norms. The bill plans for the selling of shares in a reformed NNPC, the replacement of regulatory bodies, and the reduction and streamlining of royalties. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

The legislation suggests the NNPC should become “a commercially oriented and profit-driven national petroleum company” independent of government and audited annually, although no dates are yet given for a share sale. #NigeriaNeedsPIB

The PIB could also boost the amount of money companies pay to local communities and for environmental cleanups, introduce new dispute-resolution mechanisms between government and oil companies, and set up a midstream government infrastructure fund. #NigeriaNeedsPIB