Mele Kolo Kyari, the NNPC boss has asked the National Assembly to peg at 2.5 percent oil profit payable to host communities, according to the Petroleum Industry Bill.
While the House of Representatives in the version of the bill passed provides 5 percent to the communities, the Senate put it at 3 percent.
Both chambers are scheduled to meet this week to harmonise the two bills before it is passed for President Buhari’s signature.
But Kyari at a forum in Abuja on Monday, urged the National Assembly to lower the share of oil producing communities to 2.5 percent.
“It was a very, very considered proposal from the executive that we should make it 2.5%,” Kyari told an oil summit in Abuja, adding that it makes business sense and would be “sufficient to deliver value to these communities”.
He warned that too large a stake would drive big oil companies out of Nigeria, leaving a gap that local producers would struggle to fill.
“We are at the verge of losing them. That is the truth,” he said of the oil majors.
