The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva says the National Assembly will pass the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB) which is currently before it by April 2021.
The Minister said on Thursday at the weekly presidential ministerial media briefing at the State House in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Sylva said the bill will not suffer any setback, going by all indications from the leadership of the National Assembly.
He explained that if the nation must diversify, it must go in the direction of gas.
He stressed the importance of Nigeria to move away from Oil to gas, adding that the 20-year old PIB would attract a lot of investments to the gas sector.
On the issue of functional refineries particularly the Port Harcourt refinery, Sylva faulted Senator Dino Melaye’s analysis of the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.
According to the Minister, Melaye is no expert on refinery and should, therefore, not impress his views on an area he is not conversant with.
Few weeks ago, the federal government approved the sum of $1.5billion to repair the Port Harcourt refinery in Rivers state, several analysts say this will add to the nation’s debt burden.
But Sylva said the Buhari-led federal government does not intend to borrow all the funds to rehabilitate the refinery which he said would be functional in 18 months.
The Minister said a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)- Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd(NPDC) – and others would contribute the money to be used for the project
He added that , $200 million will come from NNPC’s internally generating revenue sources, while the Federal appropriation will put in about $800 million and the remaining fund would come from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
The Port Harcourt refinery which has the capacity to refine 200,000 barrel of crude oil per day, as mot refined a drop of oil since September 2020.
