The Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021: Environmental and Host Communities Challenges and Way Forward in the Niger Delta Region, Nigeria

The study has revealed that the Petroleum Industry Act 2021was a huge opportunity to the Nigerian state to provide adequate solutions to significance challenges in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and usher in a just energy transition for the Nigerian state. The Niger Delta is faced with degraded land, climate change problems, polluted water resources and contaminated air with resultant debilitating health crisis on people living in affected and impacted oil producing communities. There have been intra-and-inter community conflicts as results of oil explorations and violence conflicts between host communities and multinational oil companies operating in the region. In this paper we reviewed and analyzed the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 which is the current legislative framework for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria taking into cognizance the realities of environmental challenges and concerns of host communities in the Niger Delta region. Additionally, we analyzed 21 scholarly publications on the context and concept of historical and reoccurring environmental, social and political challenges posed by the oil industry in relation to the implementation of the PIA 2021. Continuous gas flaring, frontier exploration fund, oil field development plan and environmental remediation funds exclude climate change where identified as key environmental challenges the PIA fails to address. While lack of community awareness of PIA content, host community development trust and fund, PIA criminalized host communities and lack of framework for divestment in PIA were identified and examined as missed opportunities in the PIA against host communities’ agitations over the years for fair share of the benefits derived from the oil and gas sector. The PIA should be reviewed, create a unit responsible for low carbon emission in NNPC Ltd, human health and livelihood component should be integrated in the PIA and increase host communities’ development trust and fund from 3% to 10% were recommended as way forward.