FG gazettes five regulations to guide stakeholder operations in upstream petroleum industry

The federal government through the ministry of Justice has approved and gazetted five out of the 13 regulations to guide stakeholder operations in the upstream petroleum industry as it the aligns with the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act.

Gbenga Komolafe, Commission Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, (NUPRC) made this known while speaking at the third Phase of stakeholders consultative forum on draft regulations in Abuja on Monday.

Komolafe who was represented by Habib Nuhu, executive commissioner, development & production, NUPRC said the gazetted regulations are the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Host Community Development Trust regulations, Royalty Regulations, Domestic Gas Delivery Obligation Regulations, Nigeria Conversion & Renewal (Licence and Lease) Regulations and Petroleum Licensing Round Regulations.

“The remaining six have been finalized and ready for gazetting; our commitment to create an enabling environment for growth and investments in the Upstream Oil & Gas industry in Nigeria has steered our focus towards working with all stakeholders. This can be seen in our efforts to ensure that regulations and key policies necessitated by the PIA are developed and gazetted timely so that the industry operators can align their operations with the PIA provisions as quickly as possible,” he said.

The other six yet to be gazetted are Upstream Petroleum Fees and Rents Regulations, Upstream Decommissioning and Abandonment Regulations, Unitization Regulations, Acreage Management (Drilling & Production) Regulations, Frontier Exploration Fund Administration Regulations, Upstream Environmental Remediation Fund Regulations, Upstream Petroleum Safety Regulations and upstream Petroleum Environmental Regulations.

Speaking to the Upstream Petroleum Measurement Regulation and the Advance Cargo Declaration Regulations which was the focus point at the meeting, Executive Commissioner, Economic Relation and Strategic planning Kelechi Ofoegbu, said that the Upstream Petroleum sector has overtime suffered lack of accountability and transparency as such activities are masked in a haze.

Hence he said, the commission sought to infuse transparency and accountability as mandated by the PIA and these regulations are a way to operationalize the PIA and improve the transparency profile of the industry

“These regulations are designed to improve the transparency profile of upstream petroleum industry and it will guide operators in accounting for hydrocarbons produced so there is no confusion on what arrives at the terminal,” he said.

He said just like Discos have meters that shows consumption, in the oil and gas industry, the regulator will take control of ensuring that hydrocarbons are accounted for in a standardised manner through the use of a Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) instrument.

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“For People that have LACT already, OEMS will be licensed by the commission to prove that those LACTS are properly calibrated and given the right measurement and where there are new assets coming on stream, the regulator will take charge of the process and give them the LACT machines provided through licensed OEMS to ensure that there is a standardised line of sight from production operations to the regulator which is similar to what happens with the Discos,” he said.

Similarly, Ofuegbu said the advance carbon declaration regulation is supposed to infuse clarity and transparency in the loading process, which will address issues around crude oil theft.

He said these regulations are meant to give the capacity to know about every vessel loading crude on Nigeria’s shores, with knowledge of where it is coming from, where it is going, the quantity loaded, the refineries that will refine it, among other crucial information.

“the measurements regulation and the advanced regulation are supposed to be E- integrated so that every Nigerian would have that view of the same thing that we regulators sees and that the transparency that this commission wants to give to Nigerians,” he said.