Long overdue government legislation must come into place in Nigeria if the country hopes to reform its oil industry to make it more accessible for international players and win back investment.  The Nigerian Senate is expected to finally pass legislation known as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), originally presented in 2008, to change how energy assets are operated and funded following pressure from Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s oil-drilling unit.
Bayo Ojulari, managing director at Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co. explained that “For every month and every week that we delay, the investment fund is moving somewhere else,” further, “We’ve got the commitment that it will come up in June. We’ve heard that before and we are waiting to see.”
Africa’s biggest oil-producing country, with an estimated 37 billion barrels of oil, has been criticized for failing to pass the PIB for so long, leaving international companies facing regulatory uncertainty. This is surprising for a country that relies on oil for around 80 percent of its earnings, churning out around 2 million bpd of crude, with the potential of producing nearer to 4 million bpd. 
The reform would make the NNPC, the Nigerian oil and gas sector’s regulator, a private limited liability company, deregulating much of the sector, reducing taxes, and making Nigerian oil generally more attractive to investors. 
Criticism over the delay dates back to 2016 when the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) published a report titled The Urgency of a New Petroleum Sector Law, where the group estimated that Nigeria had lost over $400 billion from not passing the 2008 law. 
Nigeria’s Senate President Ahmad Lawan stated last week, “our expectation is that we’ll pass the PIB within the month of June”. But some wonder if this move is too little too late.