The government of Nigeria has officially announced that the Department of Petroleum (DPR), the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) have been scrapped.
This development came after the take-off of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) after the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The announcement was made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, while talking during the inauguration of the boards of the NURC and NMDPRA in Abuja.
The Honourable Minister said that staff of the scrapped agencies would have their jobs secured, while their Chief Executive Officers had been relieved of their appointments.
Ha also explained that with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act, the NPRA and NURC had taken over the DPR, PPPRA and PEF.
While responding to a question on what would become of DPR after the inauguration of the board of NURC, Sylva said that it was now a matter of law.
He said: “The law states that all the assets and even the staff of the DPR are to be invested on the commission and also in the authority. So that means the DPR doesn’t exist anymore.
“And, of course, the law specifically repeals the DPR Act, the Petroleum Inspectorate Act, the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Act and the PPPRA Act. The law specifically repeals them. It is very clear that those agencies do not exist anymore.”
While talking about what would happen to the chief executives and employees of DPR, PEF and PPPRA, Sylva said: “The law also provides for the staff and the jobs in those agencies to be protected.
“But I’m sure that that doesn’t cover, unfortunately, the chief executives, who were on political appointments.”
