Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, has raised concern over the low compliance with decommissioning and abandonment (D&A) obligations in Nigeria’s petroleum industry. Tajudeen, represented by Hon. Salman Idris, said only about 20% of operators fully fund their D&A escrow accounts, creating a compliance gap of over $10 billion.
He made this known during the inauguration and investigative hearing on D&A compliance at the National Assembly in Abuja. The Ad-Hoc Committee is reviewing operators’ adherence to the Petroleum Industry Act and whether they have made adequate financial provisions. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen stated that weak enforcement and poor transparency expose communities and the environment to danger, noting that abandoned facilities, leaks and rusted pipelines force government to bear remediation costs.
Committee Chairman, Hon. Bassey Akiba, said Nigeria continues to suffer environmental and economic losses from decades-old abandoned oil and gas assets. The committee complained that representatives of the NUPRC and the NMDPRA appeared without signed authorization from their chief executives. Both agencies were asked to return on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, with their heads or properly authorized representatives. In another development, agricultural expert Segun Alabi, founder of DavidOrlah Nigeria Limited, said Nigeria loses between 30% and 50% of its annual agricultural production to spoilage, estimated at $9–$10 billion.
While addressing House of Representatives press corps, He called for investment in storage, cold chain systems, silos and processing plants to extend shelf life and boost value addition.
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