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Nigeria's controversial Petroleum Industry Bill has moved another step closer to coming to fruition after it was passed to parliament.

president Goodluck Jonathan has viewed the latest draft of the Bill which was sent to him a week ago by Nigeria's cabinet after approval, reports indicates.

"I am happy to announce to you that this morning, Mr president forwarded the Petroleum Industry Bill to the national assembly", said Diezani Alison-Madueke, the current petroleum minister at the presidential villa on Wednesday, 18th of July.  The PIB has been making painfully slow progress through Nigeria's governing systems in the past few years, something on which a drop in oil production has been blamed.  Industry participants say the Bill is needed to halt a decline in crude production in Nigeria.

The Bill includes plans to partly privatize and list the state oil company, tax oil company profits at 20% for deep offshore and 50% for shallow or onshore, and give the oil minister supervisory powers over all oil institutions.
Industry experts have said that the tax terms in the latest bill are more favourable to foreign oil companies like Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total than previous drafts.  The Bill would also lead to an overhaul of the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) .

What do you think about the new draft? Will local participation eventually take the lead in place of the majors? Discuss.

Source: Upstream