The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has warned that regulatory uncertainty, overlapping mandates and lengthy approval processes could undermine fresh investment and slow production growth in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
The PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, raised the concerns on Wednesday at the fifth PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit 2026 in Abuja, where government officials, regulators, operators and labour leaders examined ways to strengthen stability and attract investment into the sector.
The summit, themed, “Strengthening Regulatory Frameworks as a Catalyst for Stability and Growth in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry,” came against the backdrop of renewed efforts by the Federal Government to increase crude oil production, attract investment and deepen domestic refining and gas development.
Osifo said the capital-intensive nature of the petroleum industry made regulatory certainty critical to investors making long-term commitments.
He said the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, had represented a major step in reforming the sector, but subsequent changes to the regulatory framework, including the movement of some fiscal provisions from the PIA to the Nigeria Revenue Act and the use of executive orders, had created uncertainty.
