“The law specifically repeals the DPR Act, the Petroleum Inspectorate Act, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Act and the PPPRA Act. It is very clear that those agencies do not exist anymore.”
Four weeks after the Platforms Africa exclusive news on the scrapping of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has officially confirmed the report.
Mr. Sylva also noted, in confirmation of the Platforms Africa report published on September 22, that the two new agencies NPRA and NURC, had now taken over the functions of the DPR, PPPRA and PEF as their Chief executives have automatically been relieved of their various appointments.
In the report headlined; “EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria scraps DPR, PPPRA, Names new Oil regulators, Mgt, Boards,” written by Team Lead, Platforms Africa, Adeola Yusuf, the leading energy-ficused pan-African newspaper published a letter it exclusively obtained with, which President Muhammadu Buhari appointed the heads of the two regulatory agencies that were created following the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (READ THE REPORT HERE).
“The Nigerian President has, in the letter to the Senate, nominated Mr. Gbenga Komolafe as the Chief Executive Officer of the Upstream Regulatory Commission. Komolafe is to serve for a period of five years. The position is also renewable once for another five years according to the Act,” the report read.
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Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed at a forum in Abuja that with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act, the NPRA and NURC had now taken over the functions of the DPR, PPPRA and PEF while the job securityt for staff at the three agencies is guaranteed.
“The law states that all the assets and even the staff of the DPR are to be invested on the commission and also in the authority. So that means the DPR doesn’t exist anymore and, of course, the law specifically repeals the DPR Act, the Petroleum Inspectorate Act, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Act and the PPPRA Act. It is very clear that those agencies do not exist anymore.” The Minister stated.
Sylva, however, explained that despite the sack of the CEO’s, the law also provides for the staff and the jobs in those agencies to be protected.
“But I’m sure that that doesn’t cover, unfortunately, the chief executives, who were on political appointments,” he noted.
The Minister also said the process for aligning the workers of the defunct agencies with the new regulatory bodies had already commenced, as the staff had to be rationalised.
In his words; “The authority has its staff coming from the defunct PEF, PPPRA and DPR. The commission has staff coming over from DPR and the process is going on for the next few weeks.”
He further stated that with the passage of the PIA into law, after spending over 20 years in the process, the coast was now clear for investors to fully invest in Nigeria’s oil sector.
