By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, March 25 (Reuters) - Nigeria's parliament may pass
the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in April, the
country's minister of state for petroleum said on Thursday.
"The National Assembly has expressed the intent to pass the
PIB bill in April 2021," said Timipre Sylva, speaking to
reporters in the capital Abuja.
The measure, which is 20 years in the making, underpins
everything from oil exploration to gas pipelines and fuel
regulation and was sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the
senate in September.
The bill would change the structure of state oil company
NNPC, amend oil and gas taxes and revenue-sharing and create new
regulatory bodies, among other things, to make Nigeria's oil
sector more dynamic and efficient.
The laws governing Nigeria's oil and gas exploration have
not been fully updated since the 1960s because of the
contentious nature of any change to oil taxes, the terms of
exploration, and revenue-sharing.