. To enforce advance cargo declaration regime to check oil theft
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) says its harmonised regulations will become operational by June, to facilitate the issue of Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPL) to 2020 marginal field awardees.
The NUPRC said the harmonised regulations would soon be forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Justice for vetting before becoming operational.
The Commission Chief Executive (CCE), NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement with journalists.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, empowers the Commission to develop regulations that will give meaning and intent to the law, to ensure that all bottlenecks associated with regulatory processes are eliminated or minimised towards seamless upstream petroleum operations.
Therefore, the Commission in collaboration with the Presidential Steering Committee has developed some key regulations for the upstream petroleum sector in line with Section 216 (4) of the PIA, 2021.
Accordingly, the commission has incorporated into the Regulations the relevant issues of concerns raised during the working and plenary sessions to finalise the draft regulations.
The Commission had also organised a 3-day stakeholders’ consultation forum in April, for input from stakeholders before finalising the regulations, and also hosted the draft regulations for general review on its website.
The regulations included Conversion and Renewal (Oil Prospecting Licences and Oil Mining Leases) Regulations; Petroleum Licencing Round Regulations and Upstream Petroleum Fees and Rent Regulations.
Others are Petroleum Royalty Regulations; Domestic Gas Delivery Obligations Regulations and Petroleum Host Community (Upstream) Regulations.
Komolafe hinted that the final review of the regulations would be completed and become operational by the first week of June.
“Accordingly, the commission has incorporated into the Regulations the relevant issues of concerns raised during the working and plenary sessions to finalise the draft regulations,” he said.
He said in line with the PIA 2021, it had prepared Model Licences and Leases, and delineation of 57 areas of marginal Fields awarded following the 2020 Marginal Field Bid Round.
“These initiatives will facilitate issuance of petroleum prospecting Licence to the Marginal Field Awardees that formed Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) as required in the 2020 bid round guidelines.”
He said it would lead to the early Field Development Plan (FDP), and oil and gas production from the awarded marginal fields.
Advance cargo declaration
Komolafe also informed that the NUPRC has obtained necessary approvals to implement Advance Cargo Declaration regime in upstream petroleum operations, to curtail the export of stolen crude oil.
He said this will ensure that crude oil and gas cargoes exported from Nigeria will have a unique identifier that confirms all documentation as regards the exported consignment, and any cargo without this unique identifier cannot be legitimately taken out of the country.
He said in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive, it evolved additional initiatives to collaborate with oil companies (including NNPC) and the top echelon of Nigerian security forces to end the menace.
The CCE also said the Commission had commenced full-scale audit of crude oil theft and assessment of upstream assets integrity audit to establish actual crude oil theft figures in the upstream petroleum industry.
This followed the recent controversial figures on theft volumes thrown up by some industry operators, which impacted negatively on the Federation revenue. “This is very important as the nation derives its royalty from net crude oil receipts,” he said.
Similarly, he said in line with its statutory duties as a regulator, the Commission obtained necessary approvals to ensure the installation of metering equipment (LACT Units) in the upstream sector, using original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), to check potential manipulation of figures that could result in revenue short-changing.
In line with Section 314 of the PIA, 2021, he said NUPRC had successfully implemented the delineation of staff between the Commission and the Midstream/Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (MDPRA).
The Commission had commenced full-scale audit of crude oil theft and assessment of upstream assets integrity audit to establish actual crude oil theft figures in the upstream petroleum industry.
Subsequently, the Commission has commenced manpower audit, job mapping and capacity building programmes tailored towards optimisation of human capital.
“The Commission has completed the unbundling of Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) from legacy DPR and implemented automation of the business workflow processes.
“The processes are the Revenue Ledger and Information System (RLIS) portal for companies to submit all local and foreign royalty payment and National balance of payment portal for reporting inward and outward direct investment associated with crude oil export.
“Others are Development of Asset Management Web Portal (AMWP) for Marginal Fields and petroleum facilities and e-library – providing access to all internal resources, including checklists, SOPs, templates and reference materials,’’ Komolafe said.
The CCE, however, said the Commission was deliberate in identifying and approving new projects and new field developments, to help boost national oil production.
“We will continue to work with all stakeholders on the strategic areas and we will, without prejudice to the mid and long-term strategies.
“We will continue to implement some immediate (short term) oil gain strategies in the light of current realities of the upward trend in international crude oil prices,” he said. (NAN)