The IMF is urging Nigeria’s next government to accelerate reforms in the oil and gas sector to help counter limited future growth in crude production.Reforms are needed to help shield the economy from volatile oil prices and”limited”increases in production,the IMF said on 3 April.Government approval of the long-delayed petroleum industry governance bill is key.President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign the bill last year,effectively blocking a series of wide-ranging oil and gas legislation.These include revised fiscal terms and a greater share of revenues to communities in the Niger delta and other oil and gas areas to curb criminal and rebel attacks.Buhari cited concerns over how up to 10pc of the country’s oil revenue could be potentially diverted to a new oil and gas regulator named the NPRC.Legislators have been working on bill revisions but Buhari’s second term is scheduled to start next month after winning a controversial election in February.The governance bill aims to reform state-owned NNPC and transfer Abuja’s interests in offshore production-sharing contracts to a new government-owned assets management company.The NPRC will have power over the award of upstream licences,currently held by the president under his constitutional role as oil minister.And a 20pc share in NNPC would be allocated to a privatisation agency ahead of a public listing,likely to be on the Nigerian stock exchange.
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