The Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, says its has gotten to the final and exhaustive phase in its regulation development to support the upstream industry.
A 3 day stakeholder consultation forum on the draft regulations on petroleum industry Act is expected to bring to a conclusion, the commission’s consultation with stakeholders.
It is the 2nd Phase of the NUPRC Consultation with Stakeholders on the development of regulations as mandated by Section 216 of the PIA.
It is targeted at creating an enabling environment for growth and investments in the Upstream Oil & Gas industry in Nigeria by ensuring regulations and key policies necessitated by the PIA are developed and gazetted in time so that the industry operators can align their operations with the PIA provisions as quickly as possible.
In April 2022, during the 1st phase, six draft regulations were presented for discussion.
The inputs of the Stakeholders from that engagement were incorporated, in the draft regulations and forwarded to the Attorney General of the Federation for vetting, legislative standardization, and approval.
The NUPRC is holding yet another Stakeholder Consultation prior to finalizing the following draft regulations:
1. Acreage Management (Drilling & Production) Regulations
2. Upstream Petroleum Environmental Regulations
3. Upstream Petroleum Environmental Remediation Fund Regulations.
4. Upstream Petroleum Safety Regulations
5. Unitization Regulations
6. Upstream Petroleum Decommissioning & Abandonment Regulations
Theory and practice of administrative rule has shown that regulated, entities that are part of the process of regulation making, will comply to the guidelines reached by more than 90%.