Legal Frameworks of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector

This work has shown that the Nigerian oil industry constitutes the 'life wire' of the Nigerian economy and its legal regime is as old as the discovery of oil itself in Nigeria. The sector has developed progressively from the regime of British imposed promulgations into the locally enacted laws and regulations. We have the Petroleum Act and its subsidiary regulations, the NNPC Act, the Associated Gas Re-injection Act, the Land Use Act and even the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria - the grundnorm.Nevertheless the existence of these laws and regulations, they are very much unable to battle with the ever-recurring challenges ravaging the crude oil sector. It is expected that if crucial steps are taken at amending some of the existing laws to suit the reality of the time coupled with appropriate implementation and enforcement mechanism, the Nigerian crude oil sector will be at its optimal level of enhancing more economic development and more revenue for the government. The legal regime of the Nigerian crude oil will be able to be in a head-to-head with the realities of the time and yield a better result for the country.