Joseph Bakare
Policy Alert, has challenged the Federal Government to make public the identity of the 2020 marginal field awardees.
Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organization, operating in the oil and gas sector urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), to demonstrate transparency in its management of the 2020 marginal field licence, currently being brought to a close by the Commission.
The groups Executive Director, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, stated that stakeholders were concerned “over the opacity that has marked the implementation of the round up until now.”
The group raised transparency concerns after the Federal Government last week, said it was bringing the bid round to a close after raising about N174 billion as about 33 awardees were unable to make payment.
According to extant regulations, marginal fields are developed where existing oil fields have been left undeveloped for at least 10 years. The law provided that such fields could be farmed out to independent and indigenous companies in collaboration with leaseholders, mainly International Oil Companies. But the PIA has changed the concept.
In the past 21 years, about 87 of such fields have been developed, including the 57 currently being finalised by the Federal Government.
Bolton-Akpan noted that since the Nigerian government had made serious commitments on anti-corruption and extractive sector transparency at the level of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), it remained critical to honour the pledge.
“It is crucial that the bid round is made to conform with these global standards as well as with the transparency and accountability provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021. We are particularly keen on seeing how the Commission will align its work on the bid round with recent contract transparency and beneficial ownership reforms,” he said.
Policy Alert had, in 2020, highlighted some of the weaknesses in the Bid Round Guidelines. But with the PIA 2021, the regulators and companies have now come under relatively more progressive obligations as it relates to contract disclosure, beneficial ownership transparency, community development and environmental management.
Bolton-Akpan also noted that the new requirements could enable the bid round to become a veritable instrument for boosting Nigeria’s oil-derived receipts and improving the development of oil-producing communities.
He said: “We are excited that the Commission has announced transitional mechanisms to align the round with the PIA 2021 but our expectation is that it will do so in a manner that is open, engaging and non-discriminatory.”