Passage of PIB won’t go beyond June –Petroleum minister

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, assured that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly will be passed into law before the end of June.

Sylva gave the assurance at an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja, yesterday.

“I want to tell you that PIB is fully on course and we are very happy because we have focused on that for a long time and we had many meetings with the National assembly and stakeholders. Today, I believe that we are all basically satisfied with where we are. The National Assembly has given a timeline, they actually gave April. We are hopeful that between now and June, they will pass the PIB. I don’t think we are faraway with the passage of the PIB,’’ he said.

On the issue of subsidy, the minister said that the common man is worse hit, but usually fights government anytime it is said it would be removed.

“People are ready to take all kinds of risk to transfer products to places like Benin Republic. So, when the prices are at par, it might help to reduce some of these risks,’’ he said.

He said until Nigeria bridges the price differentials in the pump price of petrol, people would continue to take all risks to smuggle the product.