Fresh questions, concerns, and uncertainty have deepened at the oil and gas agencies affected in the wake of President Bola Tinubu’s new executive order directing immediate reallocation of oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account for onward distribution among the three tiers of government.
News men gathered yesterday that the directive, which effectively halts the retention of certain internally generated revenues by agencies in the sector, has sparked deep concerns within the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, and the board and management of the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund.
The uncertainty, according to industry operators and experts, centres on the absence of a clearly defined alternative funding model for the NUPRC to meet its statutory obligations following the reallocation of oil and gas royalties to the Federation Account.
They also rejected a possible solution of conventional budgetary funding and approval through the National Assembly, insisting that such a move would undermine NUPRC’s operational independence and efficiency.
They noted that relying on annual budget approvals and capital releases from the Ministry of Finance could expose the regulator to bureaucratic delays, political pressures, and funding uncertainties that may weaken its ability to carry out core oversight, monitoring, and enforcement functions in the upstream sector.
