By Gloria Ikibah
The House of Representatives has raised concerns that poor adherence to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and other relevant laws by both the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) is hindering effective management of the nation’s oil and gas assets.
This emerged during a resumed sitting of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Decommissioning and Abandonment, held on Monday at the National Assembly, where officials from the two regulatory bodies appeared to give updates. Each agency was represented by senior officials delegated by their respective Chief Executives. 
The NUPRC Chief Executive, Engr. Farouk Ahmed, delegated the Executive Commissioner for Development and Production Engineering, Enorense Amadasu, while the NMDPRA Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, was represented by Dr Mustafa Lamorde, Executive Director responsible for Health, Safety, Environment and Communities.
The committee was set up to examine how operators and regulators are complying with PIA requirements relating to the decommissioning and abandonment of oil and gas infrastructure.
The inquiry follows growing concern about a sizeable financial shortfall—estimated at around $20 billion—alongside environmental and fiscal risks posed by ageing facilities.
The investigation is looking closely at operators’ decommissioning plans, financial safeguards such as escrow arrangements, and the degree to which regulators have enforced the law to protect communities and the environment from unsafe or neglected assets.
In their presentations, representatives of both NUPRC and NMDPRA admitted that numerous factors have contributed to delays in enforcing decommissioning and abandonment regulations, despite the clear provisions set out in the PIA. They pointed to legal complications involving the Ministry of Justice, uncertainties around the Central Bank of Nigeria’s role, challenges linked to escrow accounts, and other operational hurdles holding back full implementation.
The NUPRC stated: “So, our response was clear that the NUPRC has strongly enforced the provisions of section 232 and 233 of the petroleum acts by the PIA 2021, which together with the subsidiary legislative market classes cease and cease to serve any decommissioning and abandonment plan for their assets and for which extensive engagements in the industry have been held to test ways of engagement in the industry to the extent that every field health plan approved by every field health plan that is submitted to the NUPRC now because they have approved, we also have to engage them for them to provide the plan.
“So it’s also important for us to understand that the D&A is actually, the D&A plan that we review then is actually for them to tell us what will happen at the end of the life cycle of the plan, just like you observed, such that at the end the environment will be restored back close to its original state”.
Earlier in his remark, Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Bassey Ekpenyong lamented the delays in implementing the PIA provisions and other extant laws.
“The regulation is a regulation that was approved in 2003. And I want to believe that as soon as you did that, you submitted it to the Minister of Justice”, he said.
