Abuja: Hope of early passage of the fiscal and host community aspects of the petroleum industry governance bill, PIGB, has been raised by the Senate Committee on Gas, which stated that the bill will go through second reading in two weeks’ time.
This is coming as Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Limited said its ongoing gas plant project is aimed at ending gas flaring. Giving the assurance of quick passage of the bill in Ovade Ogharefe, Delta State, during an oversight visit of the Senate Committee, to Pan Ocean gas plant, the Chairman, Bassey Akpan, said the Senate is out to correct the misgivings of the past.
“Time has come now that we are processing the petroleum industry governance bill, PIGB, for us as a people to collectively sit down and right the infractions and wrongs of the past. “We are surmounting most of the insurmountables.
Nobody believed that in the history of Nigeria, a section of the PIGB will be passed. It has sent signal that Nigeria is ready for business. It is no longer business as usual.
In the next two or three weeks, we should be doing the second reading of the fiscal and the host communities.
If your area of operation is safe, we can derive maximum benefits from your operations. This is to reassure our people in the Niger Delta, as well as every other oil producing communities that the host community bill will actually take into consideration, all the expected interests. We allay their fears.
By the grace of God, they have their representatives working with the Senate, looking at the PIGB.
They will definitely agree on the fiscal framework and the host community. Collectively, we will then seat down as a team and look at the issues involved.
We can assure Nigerians that whenever we are done, we will have only one version of the bill,” he said.
Also speaking, Operations Base Manager, Pan Ocean, Monday Ikhureigbe, said that the Senate visit was timely as the company is working towards ending gas flaring.
“The visit of the Senate Committee on Gas to Pan Ocean is necessary.
For us, we have been at the forefront of gas flare out in the country. This facility is a clean development mechanism based project where we agreed from the beginning that flares are out and we have all the processes.
