Nigeria’s Oil Industry Threatened by Petroleum Industry Bill

Beside the fiscal interest that surround the proposal/opposition of this Bill, I am worried by the irreparable environmental damage done to the ecosystem by the activities of petroleum companies. Gas flaring have continued unabated over the years despite several legal frameworks to regulate oil exploitation in Nigeria. Today, we have oil spillages here and there and gas flaring in staggering proportion. I got scared when I discovered that Nigeria is the 2nd (with Russia as the 1st) largest contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer through emission of green House Gases. The fishing and farming occupation of the people of the Niger-Delta region are being destroyed in increasing proportions on daily basis. I feel that there is serious need for international cooperation in order to save our ecosystem. It is not all about the money that can be paid as revenue by the oil companies to the government of Nigeria or the host communities. The Federal Government and the Oil multinational companies should form a synergy to end this environmental terrorism. The other countries of the world must partner with Nigeria in this matter because the adverse effect will affect the other parts of world. This is a RED NOTICE to all environmental activists. Uncontrolled gas flaring is tantamount to ecocide.

according to the minter of petroleum, the bill will help Nigeria have better control of its natural resources, get more benefit and help develop other parts of the economy.
but from stating the obvious, the state of the economy in Nigeria is not as a result of low oil revenue profit or lack of fund, but rather of lack or proper management of the oil wealth, therefore regardless of an increased fiscal measures, the economy is neither here or there, until there is reform with the government monitoring scheme of the funds, restructure of governance, restructure of corporate governance in the NNPC, and yes it is necessary to ensure high profit from our natural resources, but when the Bill can potentially deter foreign investors,and not commercially viable, then there is need to ensure consistency in investment growth.
the IOCs can restructure their funding method by alternative project finance, whereby they operate under an EPC/TURNKEY contract, and as sponsors, they need to align their interest with the state and its financial bodies, make a move for a none recourse loan whereby they can seek to incorporate the local banks as lenders to the project, the government as secured off-takers with guarantees, and then subsequent syndicate loans from other government agencies within the country in which the government still stands as guarantee to such loans. by doing this, they lower risk in investing in such hostile market with large uncertainty of payments from the state. the IOCs need to involve the state and its economical entities to reinvest in their own county, there is money in Nigeria to actually execute such project, but where they keep depending on multinationals to develop their resources, the development will continue to stagger as the IOCs are there for profit.
Nigerian government need to engage its entrepreneurs, rich citizens who want to invest and have shares in the company, the IOCs should indigenous their companies, allowing Nigerians to have major share, that way, the wealth remains in the country, create more job opportunities, allow for small business to grow, train more people to be skilled enough to take over the oil industry after a while. we cannot depend on foreign investors when we do not bother to develop our human resources.