Stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector have strongly opposed a legislative proposal seeking to establish a new commission solely responsible for decommissioning and abandonment of oil production facilities, describing it as unnecessary and duplicative.
Naijaonpoint reports that the opposition was voiced during a stakeholders’ meeting with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) on Thursday.
The interactive session featured representatives from key regulatory bodies, including the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Ministry of Environment, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).
Doguwa backs bill, Says New Agency Will Protect Communities
However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Alhassan Ado Doguwa, who presided over the session, defended the proposed legislation, tagged the National Commission for the Decommissioning of Oil and Gas Infrastructure (NC-DOGI) Bill.
Doguwa described the bill as a landmark legislative proposal intended to “ensure Nigeria meets globally accepted standards of decommissioning, while protecting host communities and the environment from the harmful effects of improper facility abandonment.”
“This Bill is not just another legislative initiative; it is a leadership Bill,” Doguwa declared.
“It will strengthen accountability in the oil sector and prevent ecological disasters that often arise from unregulated abandonment.”
NUPRC: No Need For A New Commission
But regulators and industry experts disagreed, warning that the bill could add bureaucratic bottlenecks and result in institutional overlap.
The Director of Production and Development at the NUPRC, Mark Emmanuel, insisted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) already provides robust legal backing for decommissioning processes.
“Sections 232 and 3 of the PIA have already made elaborate arrangements for decommissioning and abandonment,” Emmanuel said.
“It is the legal obligation of the licensee or lessee to fund, plan, and carry out decommissioning at the end of an oil field’s life cycle.”
Emmanuel further clarified that the funds set aside for this purpose are not treated as government revenue but are managed by the operating companies under the regulatory oversight of NUPRC.
“Creating a new agency now is premature and wasteful. Nigeria’s oil fields are mostly active. This is unlike the North Sea, where oil production is winding down,” he argued.
“We are in an expansion phase, not a decommissioning phase.”
Echoing NUPRC’s concerns, the Director of Environmental Assessment at the Ministry of Environment, Rofikat Odetoro, emphasized that decommissioning responsibilities are already covered under existing environmental laws and impact assessments.
“Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) already include decommissioning guidelines. The current regulatory setup, including NOSDRA and NESREA, is sufficient,” she said.
“What we need is better funding and enforcement, not new institutions.”
Odetoro cautioned lawmakers against establishing overlapping agencies that could create confusion and weaken regulatory efficiency.
Naijaonpoint reports that several other stakeholders at the meeting stressed the need for coordination rather than expansion of Nigeria’s regulatory framework.
They maintained that the focus should be on streamlining existing agencies to avoid duplicity and resource wastage.
“Rather than creating a new body, let’s harmonise the roles of NOSDRA, NESREA, and NUPRC,” Daily Trust quoted one participant as noting. “The PIA was designed to solve these issues. Let’s give it a chance to work.”
With concerns mounting across the industry, the fate of the NC-DOGI Bill remains uncertain as the House Committee continues its consultations.