Nigeria’s federal lawmakers on Thursday postponed a joint investigative hearing into President Bola Tinubu’s new executive order on oil and gas revenue remittances after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, requested additional time to prepare his response.
The session, convened by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Petroleum Resources and Gas, was designed to examine the president’s directive requiring the direct payment of oil and gas proceeds into the Federation Account.
However, shortly after proceedings began, Lokpobiri told the joint panel that he had been notified of the hearing only a day earlier and had not yet gathered the necessary documentation to properly address the issues raised. He said he attended the session out of respect for the National Assembly but asked that it be rescheduled to allow him and his team adequate time to study the matter.
The request was put to a voice vote by the co-chairman of the joint committee, Senator Agom Jarigbe (APC, Cross River North), who also heads the Senate Committee on Gas. Lawmakers supported the postponement, and the minister was assured that a new date would be communicated.
Among those present at the hearing were the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan.
In a related development, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sani Musa, revealed at a separate meeting that President Tinubu is preparing to forward proposed amendments to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to the National Assembly. According to him, the changes would align the law with current economic realities and support efforts to improve government revenue. He cautioned that the executive order alone might not automatically translate into increased earnings, as Nigeria has yet to reach its revenue targets.
On Wednesday, President Tinubu signed the executive order directing that royalty oil, tax oil, profit oil, profit gas, and other revenues due under various petroleum contracts be paid directly into the Federation Account. The directive also abolished the 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund created under the PIA and ended the 30 per cent management fee on profit oil and profit gas previously retained by NNPCL.
The presidency said the order, anchored on Sections 5 and 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), is intended to protect oil and gas revenues, reduce excessive deductions, and restore full constitutional allocations to federal, state, and local governments.
The move has drawn criticism from stakeholders in the industry. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) rejected the directive, describing it as a troubling development that could weaken the Petroleum Industry Act and discourage investment. Its president, Festus Osifo, called for the immediate withdrawal of the order during a press briefing.
The Petroleum Industry Act, enacted in 2021 after years of stalled reform attempts, was designed to overhaul the governance, fiscal, and regulatory framework of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. Among other provisions, it commercialised NNPCL as a limited liability company, established new regulatory agencies for upstream and midstream/downstream operations, restructured revenue allocation mechanisms, and introduced host community development initiatives.