The Petroleum Activities Bill 2023
On 20 June 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources released the draft Petroleum Activities Bill 2023 for public comment, with a 14-day period for doing so. Considering the importance of having a modern and up-to-date legislation for the oil and gas sector, this is too short a period for a comprehensive review to be carried out of the Bill. Additionally, if passed into law, the Bill will replace the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act of 1986 which was promulgated at a time when there was no evidence of discovery of petroleum products in commercial quantities. We trust that the Authorities will see it fit to extend the deadline for comment by at least another 14 days.
In today’s article, we begin a discussion of the contents of the Petroleum Activities Bill 2023 whose main purpose is to provide for exploration, production, storage, and transportation of petroleum via pipelines and to incorporate rights over subsoil geological pore space.
