By Nsa Gill, Calabar

The Chairman of the Cross River Caucus in the National Assembly, Senator Gershom Bassey representing Cross River South Senatorial District has assured that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will benefit his home state in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Speaking with The Nation in Calabar, the lawmaker who is a member of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream sector allayed the fears being nursed in some quarters that Cross River State may lose out due to the new the provisions in the PIB.

On the controversial percentage share to host communities as captured in the PIB, Senator Bassey said 5% or more is the recommendation he stood for just like the Deputy Senate President who is a son of the Niger Delta.

“We are awaiting the decision of the conference of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the PIB, but we expect 5% or more,” he maintained.

He noted that Cross River State is regarded as a non-oil producing state but with lot of oil pipelines that traverse across the nooks and crannies of the state, the definition of the host community is now expanded to include communities where pipelines are channeled.

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“The thinking was that if host communities and places where pipelines pass through have an interest in the security of that pipeline then they will ensure that those pipelines are secured. And of course, the security of pipelines goes to the revenues that come into our country, so that was the reason why the host communities were defined the way they were defined,” Bassey noted.

On the aspect of the 30% of oil and gas profits to fund oil exploration activities in Frontier Basins, he explained that the frontier basins as considered in the PIB, covers all the eleven Frontier Basin development authorities in Nigeria.

According to him, “One thing we did in the PIB was to ensure that the word frontier is defined holistically to include all the Frontier Basins in Nigeria. This means Cross River Basin frontier that covers Cross River and parts of Akwa Ibom State, benefits.”

“That means that any money for Frontier exploration will be properly distributed to all the Basins in the country. For instance, you cannot have exploration going on in one frontier Basin and none in the others. It may not be even, but there must be some level of assignment of funding to all Basins.”

Bassey said; “the PIB is not perfect but as we go along, it will be fine-tuned so I give kudos to the country, the Senate, House of Representatives and the National Assembly for passing a PIB bill which will ensure investments in Nigeria. This bill will continue to be perfected as it is used.”

The lawmaker also gave his view on the status of Cross River State being regarded as a non-Oil Producing state following a Supreme Court judgment in a case which saw Cross River State losing 76 oil wells to a neighboring state.

He hinted that he was looking at how the law on the Onshore and Offshore dichotomy can be amended to reflect the fact that Cross River State is a littoral state and therefore not land locked.

He also said that the other option that can be considered to help Cross River State out from her present difficulty being wrongly regarded as a land locked and non-littoral state is to get an expert legal advice.

“The State can see if there is a way to approach the Supreme Court with fresh facts because I know that Cross River is not land locked. The State is surrounded by water and we cannot be non-littoral state,” he argued.