At long last, the Federal Government of Nigeria has scrapped the three corruption-ridden agencies in the oil gas industry – the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board (PEF), and Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
This the government said is in line with the provisions in the recently signed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). New agencies – the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Authority had taken over the functions of the defunct agencies.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, confirmed this during the inauguration of the boards of the new agencies in Abuja. According to him, while workers of the three agencies would be protected, their chief executives had automatically been relieved of their appointments.
The new management team comprises Engr Gbenga Komolafe, now the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and Engr Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority.
Experts in the oil sector, often blamed DPR’s poor regulatory oversight as the major challenge in the industry. They welcomed the decision to have two regulatory agencies for the oil sector, describing it as a turning point for the Petroleum Industry.
Meanwhile, Sylva has charged the new chief executives to be up and doing in their respective duties to ensure “smoother, fuller actualisation of the PIA.”
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, had on August 16, signed the PIA to replace the obsolete Petroleum Act of 1969, after decades of failed attempts by successive administrations to enact the law.
