President Muhammadu Buhari has intensified efforts to ensure the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill , the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said yesterday, explaining that there are ongoing talks with the National Assembly for the federal lawmakers to consider suspending their annual recess to expedite the passage of the bill.
The minister added that he has been in touch with the lawmakers who had assured him that the bill will not stay in the National Assembly more than six months from the time they receive the draft before its passage into law. “In the coming few days, we will be requesting the National Assembly to specially reconvene to look at the PIB, which may as well take some weeks before its passage.”
“The proposed PIB framework shall be based on the core principles of clarity, dynamism, neutrality, open access and fiscal rules of general application.