THISDAY ONLINE NEWSBankole: We’ll Tamper with Oil Reform Bill
From Chika Amanze-Nwachuku in Singapore
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the comprehensive bill proposed by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to reform the oil and gas sector, may not have a smooth passage at the National Assembly.
The bill is already mired in controversy as its passage is being stalled following accusations that the federal lawmakers were being lobbied by foreign oil companies not to pass the bill in its present form.
Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, while allaying the fears expressed by operators in the sector that the bill would impede inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and indigenous participation in the industry, said any aspect of the bill that could hamper investments “will be removed”.
Bankole also assured operators that the oil sector reforms bill would go through normal legislative processes and that all stakeholders including foreign and indigenous operators would be given an opportunity during the public hearing to make their inputs.
Industry operators had accused the Federal Govern-ment of pursuing the reform in a manner that could hamper inflow of FDI and discourage private sector participation.
They also said some aspects of the reform bill were unclear and subject to multiple interpretations that could eliminate the rights of operators, especially in the area of international arbitration.
Specifically, indigenous operators had faulted what they described as multiple taxation in the third version of the bill, saying if the bill is passed as it is, their operations would be adversely affected.
Besides, the indigenous companies picked holes in the bill, which suggested that all the revenues accruing from crude oil sales must be domiciled in Nigeria banks, saying such a clause would hinder them from obtaining credit facilities from foreign banks.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, had last week, in an apparent swipe at the foreign oil companies’ opposition to the bill, said Nigeria would not allow foreigners to write the laws of the country for the citizens.
The international oil companies had been crying out that they were not properly consulted and that their interests should have been better reflected in the new legislation.
They were reported to have taken some Nigerian lawmakers to Ghana on a retreat in what was interpreted as an attempt to stall or water down the bill.
But Lukman declared: “We consulted extensively. What we didn’t do and couldn’t have done was to let somebody else write the law for Nigeria… It is not possible to please each and every stakeholder. Some will benefit more than others.”
The Speaker, who dismissed those fears at the inauguration of Allied Energy’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel (Armada Perdana), in Singapore at the weekend, pledged the lawmakers’ determination to ensure that all issues raised in the bill are properly addressed.
He assured them that the House would continue to provide enabling laws that would encourage foreign and indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry, pointing out that “with enabling laws and the current reforms, investment will thrive in Nigeria”.
He said the lawmakers had already passed some laws such as the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparent Initiative (NEITI) and other anti-corruption bills to not only protect investments in Nigeria but to encourage large scale investment to boost Nigerian economy.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, commended Allied Energy for the feat and urged more local participation in the industry.
He said the Federal Government was committed to creating enabling environment for business to thrive in Nigeria and called on potential foreign investors to come and explore the abundant resources in the country.
The FPSO constructed by Malasia-based Company, Bumi Armada, has a storage capacity of one million barrels of processed oil with water and gas injection capabilities included in the top side.
The Managing Director of Allied Energy Corporation, Dr. Kase Lawal, said the FPSO would enable the company and its joint venture partners, Agip to begin production from its Oyo Field in the deep offshore. He said the field with proven oil reserve of 50,000,000 barrels would achieve first oil in the fourth quarter of this year.
Nigerian News
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UPDATE 1-Nigeria proposes 2010 budget based on $50/bbl oil
ABUJA, July 22 (Reuters) - Nigeria has proposed that its 2010 budget be based on an oil price of $50 per barrel and oil output of 4 million barrels per day, the oil minister said on Wednesday.
President Umaru Yar'Adua's cabinet approved the general framework for the 2010 budget and will spend the next few months working out the details on how public funds will be used next year.
Ministers declined to disclose the total amount proposed for the 2010 budget, which must receive final approval from parliament.
"We hinge the 2010 budget on an oil production projection of 4 million bpd with a benchmark of $50 expecting that peace has returned in the Niger Delta region following the amnesty programme," Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The cabinet also proposed that the budget deficit increase to 3.28
LINK
Nigeria: NBA Endorses Digital Rules of Court
Adelanwa Bamgboye
Lagos — The digital rules of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, and the civil procedure rules of the Federal High Court and the High Courts of 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been endorsed by the Nigerian Bar Association.
President of the Association Oluwarotimi Akeredolu while presenting the digital rules yesterday at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Lagos said the nation's judicial system was defective as there was no uniform rules for all the states of the federation.
According to him, all the Chief Judges of the 36 states should hold a meeting to resolve the issue.
He said the 'easy law digital rules of court" would no doubt ease and simplify legal practice.
According to the NBA President, to digitalize the civil procedure rules of Nigerian courts is not only significant and commendable for its timing but also for the potential it has to leap-frog legal practice from the stone age of manual techniques to the dawn of a new era.
Professor Itse Sagay in his address described the easylaw digital law as a revolution in legal practice and a great leap forward.
The easylaw digital rules of court, a product of iven-IT Limited in partnership with the law firm of Itse Sagay and Co, is a digital compilation of all rules of court in one user-friendly, easily searchable CD-ROM.
LINK
Nearly 300 killed in Nigeria religious clashes
by Aminu Abubakar
KANO – Three days of Muslim-Christian clashes in the Nigerian city of Jos have left around 300 people dead, clerics and a paramedic said Tuesday, as troops were deployed to control the unrest.
Authorities placed the central city under a 24-hour curfew amid reports of continuing armed clashes, with terrified residents saying they could hear gunshots and smoke was billowing from parts of the Plateau State capital.
Nigeria's Vice President Goodluck Jonathan sent in troops and ordered security chiefs to "proceed to Jos immediately to assess the situation and advise on further steps," his office said.
All flights to the city were suspended, aviation sources said.
Leaders of both sides and a paramedic issued death tolls that put the number of dead in fighting, which erupted Sunday in a mainly Christian area and spread, at nearly 300 but there was no official confirmation.
The clashes were sparked by a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said.
"As of yesterday I had 50 dead," the secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Chung Dabo, told AFP. Another 15 people were killed on Tuesday in the neighboring town of Bukuru, he said.
Muslim leader Balarabe Dawud said 192 bodies were brought to the city's central mosque on Tuesday. On Monday he gave a death toll of 26.
Dawud, head of the mosque, said at least 800 people had been wounded, 90 of whom had been taken to military hospitals with serious injuries.
The mosque had run out of medical supplies, he said. "Even neighborhood private clinics are full with the injured."
Mosque employee Mohammed Shittu told AFP "the mosque is full with the injured and the dead."
Clashes in Bukuru on Tuesday left another five people dead, according to Maryam Mohammed, a paramedic working at the clinic there.
"As I am speaking to you now, fighting is ongoing although soldiers have been deployed. So far we have 50 injured and now five dead," she told AFP.
The Red Cross said more than 100 people were seriously injured and around 3,000 people had been displaced.
Announcing the extension of a weekend curfew, state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong told AFP: "All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace."
Christian resident David Maiyaki said the clashes had gone on despite the curfew.
"We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us," he told AFP by phone.
"From here I can hear gunshots and see burning buildings from a neighborhood in the northern part of the city," said another resident, Ibrahim Mudi. "It seems that Jos north is completely on fire," he said.
Sunday's fighting had been confined to the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwon area but spread, the army said.
Jos, situated between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian south, has in recent years been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.
The vice president slammed the latest outburst of violence and said the government was "determined find a permanent solution to the Jos crisis," his office said.
"This is one crisis too many and the Federal Government finds it most unacceptable, retrogressive and capable of further sundering the bonds of unity in our country," it said in a statement.
Jonathan met with his security chiefs to review the situation, it said, adding: "They are also to put in place comprehensive security strategies to ensure that these constant eruptions do not happen again."
In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in two days of fighting in Jos triggered by a rumor that a mainly Muslim party had lost a local election to a Christian-dominated party.
At least 800 people were killed in nearby Borno State last July when security forces put down an insurrection by a Muslim fundamentalist sect.
In December, around 70 were killed in clashes between security forces and members of another radical sect in Bauchi State.
by Aminu Abubakar
KANO – Three days of Muslim-Christian clashes in the Nigerian city of Jos have left around 300 people dead, clerics and a paramedic said Tuesday, as troops were deployed to control the unrest.
Authorities placed the central city under a 24-hour curfew amid reports of continuing armed clashes, with terrified residents saying they could hear gunshots and smoke was billowing from parts of the Plateau State capital.
Nigeria's Vice President Goodluck Jonathan sent in troops and ordered security chiefs to "proceed to Jos immediately to assess the situation and advise on further steps," his office said.
All flights to the city were suspended, aviation sources said.
Leaders of both sides and a paramedic issued death tolls that put the number of dead in fighting, which erupted Sunday in a mainly Christian area and spread, at nearly 300 but there was no official confirmation.
The clashes were sparked by a dispute over the building of a mosque, residents said.
"As of yesterday I had 50 dead," the secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Chung Dabo, told AFP. Another 15 people were killed on Tuesday in the neighboring town of Bukuru, he said.
Muslim leader Balarabe Dawud said 192 bodies were brought to the city's central mosque on Tuesday. On Monday he gave a death toll of 26.
Dawud, head of the mosque, said at least 800 people had been wounded, 90 of whom had been taken to military hospitals with serious injuries.
The mosque had run out of medical supplies, he said. "Even neighborhood private clinics are full with the injured."
Mosque employee Mohammed Shittu told AFP "the mosque is full with the injured and the dead."
Clashes in Bukuru on Tuesday left another five people dead, according to Maryam Mohammed, a paramedic working at the clinic there.
"As I am speaking to you now, fighting is ongoing although soldiers have been deployed. So far we have 50 injured and now five dead," she told AFP.
The Red Cross said more than 100 people were seriously injured and around 3,000 people had been displaced.
Announcing the extension of a weekend curfew, state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong told AFP: "All residents are hereby directed to stay indoors as security agents work towards restoring peace."
Christian resident David Maiyaki said the clashes had gone on despite the curfew.
"We woke up to new fighting this morning. As I am talking to you we are indoors, but there is burning and gunshots all around us," he told AFP by phone.
"From here I can hear gunshots and see burning buildings from a neighborhood in the northern part of the city," said another resident, Ibrahim Mudi. "It seems that Jos north is completely on fire," he said.
Sunday's fighting had been confined to the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwon area but spread, the army said.
Jos, situated between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian south, has in recent years been a hotbed of religious violence in Nigeria, whose 150 million people are divided almost equally between followers of the two faiths.
The vice president slammed the latest outburst of violence and said the government was "determined find a permanent solution to the Jos crisis," his office said.
"This is one crisis too many and the Federal Government finds it most unacceptable, retrogressive and capable of further sundering the bonds of unity in our country," it said in a statement.
Jonathan met with his security chiefs to review the situation, it said, adding: "They are also to put in place comprehensive security strategies to ensure that these constant eruptions do not happen again."
In November 2008, hundreds of people were killed in two days of fighting in Jos triggered by a rumor that a mainly Muslim party had lost a local election to a Christian-dominated party.
At least 800 people were killed in nearby Borno State last July when security forces put down an insurrection by a Muslim fundamentalist sect.
In December, around 70 were killed in clashes between security forces and members of another radical sect in Bauchi State.
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