By Emma Ogbuehi
President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021 into law. This was contained in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Monday.
According to the statement, the President assented to the Bill in his determination to fulfill his constitutional duty. He signed the Bill from home owing to a five- day quarantine in compliance to the stipulations by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after returning from London on Friday August 13.
The ceremonial part of the Act will be done on Wednesday after the days of mandatory isolation would have been fulfilled.
The Senate had passed the Bill on July 15, 2021 while the House of Representatives did same on July 16, amidst controversies that the new legislation contained gray areas that cause frictions in the oil industry. Part of the contentious areas of the Act, is the three percent allotted to host oil communities and the uncertain explanation of who qualify as host communities.
