FEC approves Nigeria draft oil bill

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved a final draft of the revised Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which will be sent to President Goodluck Jonathan before going to the National Assembly in a few days, the oil minister said. The Petroleum Industry Bill’s passage is needed to unblock billions of dollars of stalled investment into exploration and production, but it has been stuck for about five years as ministers and parliamentarians disagreed on details.
Federal Executive Council, FEC today approved the final draft of the new PIB. We expect that within the next few days Mister President will forward it to the national assembly,” Diezani Alison-Madueke told reporters at the presidential villa.
Industry participants say the PIB is needed to halt a decline in crude production in Nigeria. The bill includes plans to partly privatize and list the state oil company, tax oil company profits at 20 percent for deep offshore and 50 percent for shallow or onshore, and give the oil minister supervisory powers over all oil institutions