Nigeria enacts new regulations in the face of declining oil production and environmental concerns

While Nigeria passed the long awaited PIA last year, the success or failure of the law is largely dependent on the regulations, which are expected to serve as the vehicles for driving the provisions of the law.

In May, the NUPRC issued six regulations, including the Nigerian Upstream Fee and Rent Regulations; Petroleum Licensing Round Regulations; Domestic Gas Delivery Obligations Regulations; Nigeria Conversion Regulations; Nigeria Royalty Regulations; and Nigeria Host Community (Commission) Regulations.

The new ones being considered by key players in the sector are: Acreage Management (Drilling & Production) Regulations, Upstream Petroleum Environmental Regulations, Upstream Petroleum Environmental Remediation Fund Regulations, Upstream Petroleum Safety Regulations, Unitization Regulations, Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning & Abandonment Regulations, and Frontier Exploration Fund Regulations.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement on the regulations, the Chief Executive Commission, NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, said engaging and aligning with stakeholders remained sacrosanct to creating an enabling environment for growth and investments in the segment.

“This can be seen in our efforts to ensure that regulations and key policies necessitated by the PIA are developed and gazetted as quickly as possible so that the industry operators can align their operations with the PIA provisions as quickly as possible,” he said.

Komolafe, who was represented by Executive Commissioner, Health, Safety, Environment, and Community, Tonlagha Roland John, said the process of formulating the identified regulations has been a rigorous and strenuous exercise, adding that they are products of critical thinking and evaluation and hard work by the Commission’s Regulation development Team and the Presidential implementation Committee on PIA.

“Despite this, however, the process is not complete until the stakeholders’ critical inputs are obtained, discussed, and incorporated, where necessary, into the regulations,” he stated.

According to Joseph Tolorunse, Head of Legal at NUPRC, the second phase of the regulations’ development remained a testament to the regulator’s vision and determination to implement the provisions of the PlA as soon as possible and to build vital structures and constructive relationships within the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

According to him, stakeholder input would enable the sector to meet projected objectives and best international standards.