Reps agreed to serve Shell’s interest on petroleum bill
By Ini Ekott
September 3, 2011 10:58AM
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A United States secret diplomatic cables made public recently by WikiLeaks provides evidence that Nigeria’s House of Representatives may have approved to represent the interest of international oil companies on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The latest classified American cables, posted on the anti-government secrecy campaigner’s website last week, contains evidence that officials of oil major, [size=18pt]Shell, secured assurances from the leadership of the House, that should the Senate pass an expected “bad bill”, the House would make necessary reviews in favour of the IOCs.[/size]

[size=15pt]One document quotes a top official of Shell as assuring the then US ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders in 2009, while appraising the crucial bill, that “We aren’t worried,” even if the senate passes an unfavourable version of the bill (as the company actually excepted), since “we are working with the House and the House appears to want to work with us.”[/size]

[s]But the House spokesperson at the time, Eseme Eyiboh, denied that such an allegiance or pledge ever existed, saying the claim by the Shell official was “illusory”.[/s]

[s]“The person making such allegation does not understand how the legislature works,” he said when reached on the phone. “For a bicameral legislature for that matter, if it does not work in the Senate, it cannot work in the House. It is not possible for either the House or the Senate to go anyway without the other following for a decision to be successful.”
[/s]
But the revelation by the secret files, which are part of 2,092 new releases on Nigeria by Wikileaks, offers a fresh insight into the strange under-workings of a lawmaking process that was, and still is, supposed to see through the voluminous bill that promises key reforms in the Nigeria’s lifeline - the oil sector. T[size=18pt]hey speak of an unsavoury partnership between those who make the law, and those targeted by the law[/size].

After three years at the National Assembly, the bill has just this July been recommitted for fresh debates and consideration by the lawmakers.

This came after the document, with more than 400 clauses, scaled the two compulsory readings and committee works at the House and the Senate, and the legislators promised not to repeat the stages reached by the sixth assembly as required by their internal rules.

Yet, with a new session and a needed amendment to that rule in place, both chambers have begun the processes anew, arguing that a constitution amendment would also be needed before such continuity could be implemented.

With the National Assembly’s decision to restart debate on the Bill, the document is towing a path made famous by the Freedom of Information Bill, as one of the most influenced federal bills that spent years on a path dominated by intrigue before becoming law.

Protecting interests

[size=15pt]Now, a fresh layer is added to the multi-tiered underplay that have attended the PIB, with the allegation that the House, under former speaker, Dimeji Bankole, may have brushed off the wishes of the Senate, and agreed to pass a version of the PIB that would be friendly to Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum and other IOCs.[/size]

[size=18pt]In demonstration of that faith, Ann Pickard, who was the Executive Vice President for Shell Companies in Africa, told then US ambassador, Ms. Sanders, at a meeting in Abuja in 2009, “we need to move quickly to obtain any necessary changes before it becomes law” in the anticipation that the bill would be passed before the end of that year (2009).[/size]

Still, such reversals by the two arms of the legislature with regard to the PIB hardly come strange in the history of the bill. Repeatedly, both arms have promised a speedy delivery of the bill since 2008, but each time, have turned in a fresh schedule for the bill.

Part of the factors for the delay, according to members, has been the multi-faceted interests working covertly to produce a relatively friendly version of the bill.

For instance, while southern and northern legislators have rowed over issues such as the deregulation of petroleum and the ownership of oil as stated by the bill, [color=#990000]oil multinationals have pressured lawmakers on subjects like gas flaring and requirements that they pay more royalties to the federal government.[/color]

The files released by Wikileaks did not state clearly whether or not the House leadership agreed to soften the bill on gas flaring by extending the effective date of a ban from the initial 2010. They, however, hinted at the confidence the oil companies had in believing that they would influence any outcome of the entire process to their favour. While the original PIB required an end to gas flaring by 2010, Ms. Pickard insisted that the industry would not be able to do that due to the lack of investment and security, the document quoted.

Immediate end to gas flaring would cost the company $4 billion, she said, and would force it to shut in oil production in fields where it was “uneconomic to end gas flaring”, and it would let others have the gas for free where it was economic to do so.

Ms. Picket met with the US ambassador on October, 20, 2009, according the document which was reported and sent to Washington by a US diplomatic staff.

[size=18pt]She told Ms. Sanders that “Unfortunately, we think the Senate will pass a bad bill”, but added that “it won’t really matter” since the House had agreed to work with them.[/size]

She also informed the ambassador that it would be helpful if the Embassy would “continue to deliver low-level messages of concern and call on the Speaker of the House to see where he stood on the bill”, assuring that there was “total alignment” among the International Oil Companies and with the Nigerian oil companies on the bill.


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May they all die and suffer in misery.

There is no way Dimeji isnt sleeping with these women.

There is no way!

Harvard-trained lawyer, what use is he in Nigeria ? He just went to Harvard but he's useless as an illiterate.