With the confirmation of the board members of the newly created Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has been scrapped, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said.
After the confirmation of the board members yesterday, Lawan said with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the confirmation of the nominees sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the new commission would take over the functions of the defunct DPR.
Lawan said the establishment of the commission would provide a foundation for the stabilisation of the petroleum industry in Nigeria.
He said, “The board has the enormous and huge responsibility of setting and establishing the commission as provided in the Petroleum Industry Act. They have the unenviable responsibility of ensuring that they commit themselves and work hard to provide the solid and stable foundation for that matter, that they don’t waste any time because time is of essence.
“The petroleum industry will go through a reform process and the process has already started. This commission is one of the huge arms of those reforms that will stabilise the petroleum industry in Nigeria.
“While the Senate confirms them, we expect nothing less than commitment and patriotism on their side,” he said.
Lawan said it is expected that the other regulatory authority for downstream and midstream will also be confirmed as soon as possible, so they also can start their work immediately.”
The nominees confirmed were Isa Ibrahim Modibbo as chairman; Engr Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive; Hassan Gambo, executive commissioner, Finance and Accounts and Ms Rose Ndong, executive commissioner, Exploration and Acreage Management.
The chairman of the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Albert Bassey Akpan, in his presentation, said that the nominees demonstrated sufficient knowledge of the workings of the petroleum industry, especially the upstream petroleum sector, as well as the economics of petroleum exploration and production.
He said the appointments satisfy the requirements of Sections 11 and 18 (1-5) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
