Relevance Of Oil To Diminish By 2040 – Minister Of Petroleum—During the Monday briefing of the leadership of the National Assembly on the need for speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylvia declared that the days of crude oil as a driver of global economy, are numbered.
The Minister said there was a need to quickly put in place required laws for regulating the oil industry after 20 years was wasted going round it. The country needed to quickly pass the PIB to make the best of investments from the sector before 2040, he said.
A forecast that 50% loss in relevance of crude oil in the global market makes passing the PIB necessary as one of the central aims of the bill is to make Nigeria an attractive investment destination.
He said:
“It is quite unfortunate that since year 2000 when attempts were made to come up with draft copy of PIB, to 2007, 2009 and 2012 when draft bills were submitted to different sessions of the National Assembly by the executive arm of government without passage, up till 2018 when the legislators came up with one; that we are yet to put on ground required laws for effective regulation of the oil industry.
“Twenty years have been wasted in putting the laws in place for a sector that has 20 more years of full relevance going by forecasts already made.
“Forecasts in oil industry circles indicate that oil will play less and less role in the global economy.
“Specifically, by 2040, which is 20 years away, the relevance of oil in the global economy will reduce by 50%” he said.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said said earlier in the meeting that though the PIB seemed to be jinxed since 2007 and 2019, but the fresh effort will surely see the light of the day.
“We want to break the jinx and we shall break it with the latest bill forwarded to us by the executive arm of government”, he said.
