President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021 into law.

The president signed the bill while working from home in line with COVID-19 protocol, according to Mr. Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman in a statement.

He said the president is in a five day quarantine as required by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 after returning from London on Aug. 13, noting that Buhari assented to the Bill on Monday Aug. 16, in his determination to fulfill his constitutional duty.

“The ceremonial part of the new legislation will be done on Wednesday, after the days of mandatory isolation would have been fulfilled,” he added.

The Petroleum Industry Act provides legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry, the development of host communities, and related matters.

The Senate had passed the Bill on July 15, 2021, while the House of Representatives did same on July 16, thus ending a long wait since early 2000s, and notching another high for the Buhari administration.

The bill has been in the works since the early 2000s, but the sensitivity of potential changes affecting Nigeria’s key source of revenue and foreign exchange has undermined all previous attempts at an overhaul.

Major fuel marketers and other stakeholders had been alarmed by a provision which they say could give Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, an effective monopoly on fuel sales in Nigeria while the communities where oil and gas is produced had pressed for a larger share of oil money.