The current Petroleum Industry Bill under consideration at the National Assembly will empower the Upstream Regulatory Commission to carry out the functions which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, currently performs through the Frontier Exploration Services.
\leum Industry Bill indicates “Where data acquired and interpreted under a Petroleum Exploration License is, in the judgment of the Commission, requires testing and drilling of identifiable prospects and leads, and no commercial entity has publicly expressed an intention of testing or drilling such prospects, the Commission may engage the services of a competent person to drill or test such prospect and leads on a service fee basis”
This means that the Commission will perform the functions NNPC currently performs through its subsidiary, Frontier Exploration Services.
As stated in the Bill, “Where data acquired and interpreted under a Petroleum Exploration License is, in the judgment of the Commission, requires testing and drilling of identifiable prospects and leads, and no commercial entity has publicly expressed an intention of testing or drilling such prospects, the Commission may engage the services of a competent person to drill or test such prospect and leads on a service fee basis”.
The Bill that has passed first reading in the Nigerian Senate seeks to increase government’s revenue from oil and lay down a strengthened legal and regulatory framework for the Nigerian oil industry, which has suffered legislative delays and limited consideration from the executive, precluding its passage.
However, widespread fear has erupted, as a lot of people are afraid that NNPC will now remain dormant when the Bill is passed, but the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, recently debunked this, clarifying that the new PIB seeks to commercialize the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) rather than scrap it.