The Senate has passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The bill was passed after the lawmakers considered the report of the Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas Resources on Thursday.
The passage of the bill as also a sequel to a closed door meeting with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari..
The meeting lasted for almost two hours.
The duo appeared before the Senate to provide the lawmakers with technical details of the legislation as well as provide clarification where needed.
In the approved bill, the Senate approved a funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPC’s profit from oil and gas for frontier basins. This fund is for oil exploration in frontier states.
The passage of the bill was preceded by disagreement and division among the lawmakers.
‘Chaos’
The lawmakers had started the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill when some lawmakers began to raise concerns in Clause 240.