OGFZA takes over regulatory control of oil and gas free zones

THE Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA) has begun the process of implementing the provisions of its enabling law and the directives by the Federal Government ceding regulatory of all oil and gas free zones in the country to OGFZA.

This was contained in a letter written by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of OGFZA, Mr Umana Okon Umana to the Managing Director of Lagos Deep Offshore and Logistics Services Limited (LADOL) and his counterpart at the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone (SIIFZ).

Umana, in the letter dated 17 November, 2016 and a copy of which was made available to Saturday Tribune, said, “OGFZA has decided to carry out the full implementation of the law and gas and the Federal Government directives” which vest full control of the oil and gas free zones in the country in OGFZA.

He therefore informed the managements of LADOL and SIIFZ that “henceforth, their free zones will be licensed and regulated by OGFZA by virtue of the statutory provisions in Section 5(2) of the OGFZA Act and other relevant law as well as other directives of the government on the take-over of all oil and gas free zones in Nigeria.

He said the take-over would take effect from December 17, adding that the process was to give effect to Section 5(2) of the OGFZA Act which stated that “The Authority shall have power to take over and perform such other functions being hitherto performed by NEPZA as they relate to export of oil and gas from any of the Export Processing Zones established by Nigeria Processing Zone Act.

“Secondly, the take-over is, in part, an implementation of the Federal Government directive as contained in the Extraordinary Government Gazette No. 12 (vol. 101) of February 2014, entitled “free Zones (Monitoring & Regulations) Order 2014.”

“Section 1(a)(b) of the Gazetted Order states as follows: ‘As from the commencement of this Order, the Authority (OGFZA), in addition to its functions under the Act, shall be responsible for the: 9a) Licensing of all oil and gas free zones located within the Customs territory; and Publication of all operating standards to be observed in the Free Zone from time to time’.

THE OGFZA CEO also said “it should be noted that the Government White Paper on the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of the Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies of March 2014 upheld the autonomy of OGFZA and confirmed the mandate of OGFZA ‘to regulate Oil and Gas Free Zones in Nigeria’.

“In spite of the extant provisions of the law and government directives, compliance with respect to a number of oil and gas free zones was not forthcoming.

“Because of the non-compliance by a few oil and gas free zones, OGFZA, on 7 February, 2q008, sought the interpretation of the provisions of NEPZA Act and OGFZA Act from the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as to which of the two agencies was vested with the responsibility for regulating the Oil and Gas Free Zones in Nigeria”.

Following the interpretations, he said OGFZA had taken the step mentioned earlier to implement the law and the various directives of the Federal Government with regard to the regulatory control of the oil and gas free zones in the country, as stated in Section 4 of the OGFZA Act.