Benue State University, Makurdi

The Impact of the Provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act on Host Communities and Frontier Basin in Nigeria

Hadiza Mohammed Isa* and Hope Lifted Haruna**

Abstract

Crude oil is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, with over 90% of its foreign exchange earnings from the sector, yet it remains difficult for the country to regulate its production, transportation and sales, despite series of legislation. There are allegations of the connivance of multinational oil companies with government officials in the sector, to truncate the efforts of the Federal Government, to exterminate gas flaring in compliance with the International Conventions for Sustainability of the Ecosystem. The oil industry is faced with lack of transparency, accountability, political issues, and lack of adherence to international standard. The need to address these obstacles has, brought about the enactment of the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act. Yet, some of these problems still linger within the oil and gas industry because of the way the latest Act was couched. The finding on this article is that, the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 aimed at addressing the challenges in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, which includes lack of transparency and accountability. However, the imprecision of the wordings in the provisions of the Act and ambiguity, touching on vital issues relevant to the objective of the Act such as, definition of who are host communities, frontier basin exploration, not covered under the Act creates another challenge on its implementation. It is therefore recommended that meaning of host community and the frontier basin be incorporated in the outcome of the activity of the technical review committee set up by the present regime. The research method adopted, is the doctrinal method.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE (CLICK)