While Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is said to be withholding signing the country’s new petroleum bill into law over concerns that it strips the president of powers over the industry, a former manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) warns that Nigeria could lose its membership in OPEC if the bill becomes law. If the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) becomes law, it would contravene an OPEC text stipulating that governments need to own at least 55 percent of a country’s oil wealth if they want to exercise influence over it, Joseph Ellah, former Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Development Division at the NNPC, said in a new report, ‘Implication of the PIGB for Nigeria’, seen by Nigeria’s outlet The Guardian. The NNPC will float 40 percent of its stock on the local stock exchange once the President signs the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Nigerian media reported […]