PIA’ll create cordial host community relationship, development trust fund – Sylva

The Federal Government says the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has addressed the relationship with host communities with the creation of the Host Community Development Trust Fund (HCDTF).

Sylva said this at the PIA session of the ongoing fifth Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2022) on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said the Fund would foster sustainable prosperity and economic benefits from petroleum to host communities.

The minister said the fund would also provide direct social economic benefits and enhance peaceful and harmonious coexistence between oil companies and host communities.

He said a new dawn was ushered into Nigeria’s oil and gas industry the day President Muhammadu Buhari signed the PIB into law.

Before this landmark Act, he said Nigeria’s petroleum industry was governed by the Petroleum Act of 1969 and other obsolete legislation.

Sylva said the President never concealed his desire toward creating a more conducive environment for the growth of the sector and addressing legitimate grievances of communities most impacted by extractive industries.

He said the PIB was introduced over two decades ago but despite the controversies and the difficulties, the Buhari administration believed that its concept, objectives and long-term goals remained impeccable.

“While the country was waiting for the PIA, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry lost about 50 billion dollars worth of investments.”

“In fact, between 2015 and 2019, KPMG states that “only four per cent of the 70 billion dollars investment inflows into Africa’s oil and gas industry came to Nigeria even though the country is the continent’s biggest producer and the largest reserves.”

“It is a no brainer, therefore, to see that the absence of the legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the industry contributed to the huge loss Nigeria has witnessed,” he said.

Sylva noted that the President had assured multinational oil companies and global oil industry investment community of adequate protection for their business interest in Nigeria.

“It is crucial for all stakeholders as well as all arms of government to embrace the common desire to make the PIA and its intended brief of sanitising the oil industry a reality,” he added