The Senate announced the composition of a conference committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill following its passage last week by both Chambers of the National Assembly
The members of the conference committee as announced by President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan, include the Senate Leader Abdullahi Yahaya, who will serve as the chairman; Senators Mohammed Sabo representing North West; Albert Bassey Akpan – South-South; Danjuma Goje – North East; Opeyemi Bamidele – South West; Stella Oduah – South East and Gabriel Suswam – North Central.
The Senate President urged members of the conference committee to meet with their counterparts in the House of Representatives to enable the National Assembly to come up with a final document on the PIB for transmission to the Executive.
He said: “we hope that they will swing into action immediately so that we are able to have the final document of the PIB which we will transmit for the presidential assent.
The federal lawmakers broke the PIB jinx after a clause by clause consideration of the report of the Bill on an Act to Provide Legal, Governance, Regulatory and Fiscal Framework for the Petroleum Industry, the Development of Host Communities and for Related Matters, 2021 by the Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources -Downstream, Upstream and Gas.
The area of disagreement between the two chambers in the 319 clause report submitted by their various ad-hoc committees on the bill, is that while the Senate approved 3% operating costs for host communities, the House retained the 5% recommended by the joint committee.
RN