Follow Us on Google
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday in London, signed the Amended Deep Offshore Act, at an event witnessed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in Abuja. Garba quoted the President to have said during the signing of the agreement that: “Today is an important day for all Nigerians – but particularly the young generation.
“Today I signed into law the amended Deep Offshore Act. Nigeria will now receive its fair, rightful and equitable share of income from our own natural resources for the first time since 2003. In that year oil prices began a steep increase to double – and at times – triple over the following decade.
“All this time Nigeria failed to secure its equitable share of the proceeds of oil production, for all attempts to amend the law on the distribution of income failed. That is, until today. Rapid reductions in the cost of exploration, extraction and maintenance of oil fields had occurred over these 25 years, at the same time as sales prices have risen. A combination of complicity by Nigerian politicians and feet-dragging by oil companies have for more than a quarter-century, conspired to keep taxes to the barest minimum above $20 per barrel – even as now the price is some three times the value…”
