Draft of Nigeria oil bill nears completion

Goodluck: long delayed Nigeria oil bill almost finalised

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News Wires

 24 May 2012 18:35 GMT

A new draft of Nigeria's long delayed oil bill, whose passage is needed to unblock billions of dollars of stalled investment into exploration and production, will be finalised this week, sources close to the matter said on Thursday.

A copy of the 200-page Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) obtained by Reuters includes plans to partly privatise and list the state oil firm, tax oil company profits at 20% for deep offshore and 50% for shallow or onshore, and give the oil minister supervisory powers over all institutions in the industry.

Current oil firm profit taxes are not published. A spokesman for Nigeria's leading operator Shell said he did not know what current tax rates were, Reuters reported.

The PIB has been years in the making and the delays have caused uncertainty over…

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