National Assembly urged to prioritise passage of Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB).

Executive Secretary of the Nigeria National Summit Group, NNSG, Mr Tony Uranta, yesterday, urged the Senate in the just inaugurated 8th Assembly to make passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, one of its first priorities.
Mr Uranta, in a statement, called for the quick passage of PIB by the Senate, saying: “The PIB was introduced to the National Assembly since 2007.”
Uranta, who is also the Secretary General of United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy, UNDEDSS, added: “It is disheartening that the PIB which sought to establish a legal, fiscal and regulatory framework for the petroleum industry was not given priority passage by the 7th Assembly.

“To sanitise the oil and gas sector and make it equitable and workable, curbing corruption by giving teeth to existing laws in the petroleum industry, the PIB should no longer be delayed.”
According to him, there was no justification for the past Assembly to have failed in passing a bill that would have put an end to the recurring crisis in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
Urging the Senate to remove the clause in the bill, interpreting host communities to mean the entire nation, he said: “There is no way the entire nation will be host community in the oil and gas sector. Every region has its endowments even in the mining sector. Host communities must be interpreted to be those producing the oil and gas in the country.”