Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in London
signed the amended Deep Offshore Act.
“Today I signed into law the amended Deep Offshore Act.
Nigeria will now receive its fair, rightful and equitable share of income from
our own natural resources for the first time since 2003,” Buhari’s spokesman
Garba Shehu said in a statement.
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“In that year oil prices began a steep increase to double –
and at times – triple over the following decade.
“All this time Nigeria has failed to secure its equitable
share of the proceeds of oil production, for all attempts to amend the law on
the distribution of income have failed. That is, until today.
“Rapid reductions in the cost of exploration, extraction and
maintenance of oil fields had occurred over these 25 years, at the same time as
sales prices have risen.
“A combination of complicity by Nigerian politicians and
feet-dragging by oil companies has, for more than a quarter-century, conspired
to keep taxes to the barest minimum above $20 per barrel – even as now the
price is some three times the value.
“Today this changes. For the first time under our amended
law, 200 million Nigerians will start to receive a fair return on the surfeit
of resources of our lands. Increased income will allow for new hospitals,
schools, infrastructure and jobs.
“Today marks a new and beneficial relationship with our oil
company partners: one that benefits all – starting with the Nigerian people.”
The Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, was
with him when he signed the Act.
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