PIA is Nigeria’s second biggest achievement in energy sector, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari says the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is the second biggest achievement of Nigeria’s energy sector. 

The act was signed into law in August 2021. 

Buhari spoke on Monday at the presidential villa while declaring open the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES).

Represented by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), the president highlighted the feats of his administration in the energy sector, noting that he had documented them properly for the future.

“Our perspectives have provided the incoming government the tools to guide Nigerians’ energy future. I enjoin industry stakeholders to give the incoming administration the support and cooperation I received from you,” he said.

“We ensured there’s an adaptive framework for the indigenous companies to take advantage of the investment by the international oil companies. 

“This has ensured that the indigenous companies grew there capacity tremendously and they are now considered for about five per cent of national oil and gas production which has led to an increase from two per cent in 2010.”

Buhari, who is also the petroleum minister, said energy will remain the top priority of his administration till his last day in office.

“The first task we combated is the issue of funding and sanitising the oil and gas sector; we then proceeded to exit the federal government from joint registrar cash go-funding,” Buhari said. 

“This freed the federal government from the shoes of funding the oil sector.

“The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) remains our second biggest achievement in energy sector. For decades, we were told that because of various vested interest it would be nearly impossible to pass the bill but we made it happen.” 

KYARI: WE ARE INVESTING IN CRITICAL GAS PROJECTS 

In his speech at the event, Mele Kyari, NNPC’s group chief executive officer, said the company is investing in critical projects such as the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline and the OB3 gas interconnector to support five billion standard cubic feet per day (bscf/d) of domestic gas utilisation.

He said the national oil company is also investing in five gigawatts of power generating capacity by developing power plant projects along the AKK pipeline corridor and across the country to complement the existing ones.

“In addition to our existing upstream activities, we are also deepening exploration activities of the nation’s frontier basins using the best industry standards and technologies which are already yielding results such as the Kolmani discovery,” he said.