The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has rejected the proposed National Commission for Decommissioning of Oil and Gas Installations (NC-DOGI) Bill, 2024, arguing that the existing framework under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 already provides sufficient legal and institutional structures for managing decommissioning and abandonment (D&A) activities in the oil and gas sector.
The Commission made its position known on Thursday in Abuja through its Director, Emmanuel Macjaja, during a public hearing on the bill organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).
The bill seeks to establish an independent commission to coordinate the decommissioning, abandonment, and restoration of oil and gas facilities across the country. However, Macjaja maintained that the current regulatory arrangement under the PIA already covers these functions comprehensively.
“The present model assigns statutory responsibility for D&A planning, execution, and oversight to the NUPRC (upstream) and the NMDPRA (midstream and downstream),” he explained. “These agencies are equipped with the technical, operational, and regulatory capacity to manage late-life oilfield assets effectively, including approvals for cessation of production, D&A fund administration, programme evaluation, and execution monitoring.”
He warned that creating a new commission would duplicate existing functions, fragment regulatory oversight, and place unnecessary financial and institutional burdens on the federal government.
According to Macjaja, the PIA 2021 was the outcome of years of consultation and refinement, and it already assigns clear responsibilities for decommissioning and fund management—Sections 232 and 233 for NUPRC and corresponding provisions for the NMDPRA.
“Establishing another commission would undermine the principles of regulatory clarity and predictability that the PIA sought to achieve,” he said, adding that such duplication could negatively affect the government’s ease of doing business reforms.
Macjaja further cautioned that the proposed commission could lead to regulatory conflicts, delays in project approvals, increased transaction costs for investors, and weakened accountability in managing decommissioning funds.
He urged lawmakers to retain the current structure under the PIA, which, he said, already ensures effective oversight of decommissioning and abandonment activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
