Some oil and gas industry experts have advised the federal government to properly implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and transparency in future marginal fields licensing bids.

The experts gave the advice in separate interviews on Tuesday in Lagos against the just concluded 2020/2021 marginal fields bid.

Ayodele Oni said the just concluded 2020/2021 bid was a brilliant idea by the government to raise funds and alleged that the exercise was conducted in secrecy and that many complained that the process was not transparent.

He, however, said there were some positives in the sense that several bidders could come up with funds to buy the assets, and there were newer and better rules.

“Other than those, the defunct Department of Petroleum (DPR) did not do a great job,” he said.

On the success of the bid, he said apart from the government raising funds through the exercise, it involved more indigenous players and had the potential to increase production.

However, he said the exercise brought together strange bedfellows and lacked sufficient transparency.

Mr Oni identified other challenges, including claims of corruption, inordinate delays and the list of preferred bidders, which was never issued publicly.

“The PIA should be properly implemented, and transparency should be entrenched in the next bid round,” said Mr Oni.

Joe Nwakwue, an oil and gas consultant, said it was too soon to make an informed assessment of the just concluded 2020/2021 marginal fields licensing bid.

Mr Nwakwue noted that from the detailed study of prior exercises, awarding assets to multiple parties posed many challenges.

He said one was constrained to observe the relatively high signature bonuses paid, noting that it might make it difficult for the awardees to raise funds for field development.

Mr Nwakwue, also the former chairman of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigerian Council, stressed that completing the award process in such an uncertain environment was a plus, but challenges of funding and technical capacity persisted.

“Awards to multiple parties except where they jointly bid should be avoided. We also need to be very clear on the objective of the licensing round; are we raising money or giving blocks to parties that have what it takes to develop and monetise the assets,” stated Mr Nwakwue.

(NAN)