President Muhammadu Buhari has described the Petroleum Industry Act (P.I.A) as his administration’s greatest achievement in the energy sector.
He made this statement while addressing participants at the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) on Monday at the Presidential Villa.
The P.I.A was signed into law in 2021, with the aim of overhauling the petroleum sector in Nigeria by providing a legal, governance, regulatory, and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry.
According to the President, his administration’s efforts to transform the energy sector were made possible by working closely with various stakeholders to dismantle some of the challenges plaguing the sector.
He added that the enactment of the P.I.A was revolutionary, and it led to the scrapping of existing agencies, which were replaced with new regulators
“The Petroleum Industry Act (P.I.A) remains our biggest achievement in the energy sector. For decades, we were told that because of the various vested interests, it would be near impossible to pass the Bill,” he said.
“But we made it happen. What we did with the P.I.A., you will all agree with me, was simply revolutionary. And we did not rest on our oars with the enactment of the Act.
“We moved swiftly into action, scrapped the existing agencies and replaced them with New Regulators; the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was immediately transformed to a limited liability, the NNPC Ltd with a new brand identity and it is on course to becoming the biggest, most capitalised and most profitable company in the whole of Africa.”
He also emphasised that the energy sector would remain a top priority of his administration until his last day in office, adding that his goal for economic diversification included promoting the gas sector as a viable means of transitioning from crude oil.
“Energy was and will remain a top priority of my administration till my last day in the office. That is the reason we paid close attention and birthed a lot of reforms in the sector,” he said.
“We embarked on all these reforms not just because it is good for the energy industry but because it is also good for the overall economy and our efforts, indeed, helped grow our economy and created a lot of jobs.
“In the natural gas sector, we made a lot of progress. The agenda was the gas revolution. We pushed for the diversification of Nigeria’s economy and drive industrialization through domestic gas utilisation. We officially declared natural gas as the transition fuel for Nigeria. We launched many initiatives to ensure that natural gas optimization and utilisation are a reality.”
 as his administration's greatest achievement in the energy sector.){kind=link}