Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, August 16, promulgated a long-awaited law to regulate the oil and gas sector in Africa’s largest crude-producing country.
Both houses of parliament passed the oil law in early July, more than a decade after the bill was first presented to parliamentarians. First submitted to deputies in 2008, the project has been debated and rewritten several times, due in particular to disagreements on its terms between the government and the major oil companies operating in the country, but also between the executive and previous assemblies. .
The head of state, recently returned to Nigeria after medical examinations in London, promulgated the law on Monday, the presidency said in a statement. A “Ceremony will take place on Wednesday”, when the president comes out of the isolation to which travelers returning from abroad are subjected as part of the procedures to fight against Covid-19.
A member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria struggles, despite gigantic reserves, to attract foreign investors to its oil sector, deemed corrupt, unproductive and endowed with dilapidated infrastructure after sixty years of operation , not to mention a worrying security situation.
This law aims to give a legal and fiscal framework to the Nigerian gas and oil sector, in particular through more regulated taxation, better redistribution of wealth and the transformation into a commercial company of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a reputable public company. to be the state slush fund.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa (210 million people), currently produces around 1.9 million barrels per day, making it the continent’s largest producer. Revenues from the energy sector represent the bulk of foreign exchange resources and about half of the state budget.