THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY ACT 2021 AND QUEST FOR STRICTER ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION IN NIGERIA’S ENERGY SECTOR

Abstract

As Nigeria continues to rely on her rich oil and gas deposits for economic survival, the environmental impact ofthe decades of continuous exploitation of these resources continues to stare her in the face. While several lawshad been put in place to address the environmental threats posed by oil and gas (O&G) operation, thegovernment has been continually accused of laxity and poor resilience in enforcing these laws in the face of theunhelpful conduct of the multinational oil companies (MNOCs). However, with the passage of the much awaitedPetroleum Industry Act (PIA), many stakeholders are hopeful that many of the wrongs in the sector including asrelated to environment will be addressed by the new legal regime. Therefore, this paper examines the PIA with aview to seeing how much it may help the nation depart from the old culture of regulatory laxity that has left somuch environmental disaster in the Niger Delta region. Adopting the doctrinal research approach, the writersanalysed both primary and secondary data. The paper found that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has relevantprovisions aimed at safeguarding the environment. Apart from merging all the previous legislations regulatingthe industry (including as related to the environment), the Act makes some novel prescriptions that have thepotential to redefine the landscape of environmental regulation in the Nigeria’s O&G sector. However, it wasfurther found that the PIA introduced little or nothing new towards strengthening the mechanism forimplementation of the law which was the major reason the previous laws were poorly implemented. Similarly,the Act appears to have failed in some instances to prescribe strict penalties for violation of environmental rulesthus making little or no departure from the previous laws that seemed to have been too lenient on offenders. Thepaper concluded that Nigeria, as against countries like Norway, has been less than decisive, and at best, hasbeen lukewarm in legally regulating O&G operations to secure her environment. It was recommended that thegovernment should strengthen the agencies charged with enforcement of environmental regulations in the O&Gsector including by improving their technical and human resources capacity while efforts should also be madeto rid these agencies of corruption and shield them from political interference for optimal performance.