The Nigerian Senate on Thursday passed the first part of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) after 17 year of debate.

Changed to The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), the bill has been passed to take care of the governance aspect of the PIB.

Below are key benefits of the PIGB, as enumerated by NAN:

1. It will create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations
2. Enhance exploitation and exploration of petroleum resources in Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians
3. Optimize domestic gas supplies, especially for power generation and industrial development
4. Encourage investment in Nigerian petroleum industry
5. Optimize government revenue
6. Establish profit-driven oil entities
7. Deregulate and liberalize the downstream petroleum sector
8. Create efficient and effective regulatory agencies
9. Promote the development of Nigerian content in the oil industry
10. Protect health, safety and the environment in petroleum operations.
11. PIB will lead to the establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Investment Pact Scheme will ensure that components of industry equipment can be manufactured locally