The Senate has passed a bill seeking the establishment of the Bitumen Development Commission, marking a significant step toward regulating and tapping into Nigeria’s vast and largely untapped bitumen reserves.

The bill, sponsored by Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo South), was read for the third time and passed during plenary yesterday, following the presentation of a report by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development.

Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau Central), a member of the committee, while presenting the report, recommended the establishment of the commission as proposed by the bill’s sponsor, Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo South).

Plang informed the Senate that the committee, in accordance with legislative procedures, held a public hearing on the bill and received overwhelming support from critical stakeholders across the country.

The consensus, according to him, was that a regulatory body is urgently needed to oversee the exploration, exploitation, and production of Nigeria’s estimated 42 billion tonnes of bitumen deposits, the second-largest reserve in the world. He said: “Nigeria has the second-largest bitumen deposits in the world, nearly twice our oil reserves

“Yet, this strategic resource remains underexploited due to the absence of a proper legal framework. This bill corrects that gap.” In his remark, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, commended Ibrahim and the committee for what he described as a development-driven initiative.

“This is a significant step toward diversifying Nigeria’s economy and unlocking the vast potential of our mineral resources,” Akpabio stated. In a related development, the Senate also passed a bill mandating local processing of raw materials.

The bill, which is an amendment to the Raw Materials Research and Development Council Act, 2022, requires exporters to process at least 30 per cent of all raw materials locally before exporting.

The legislation, passed following the presentation of a report by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, aims to promote value addition, create jobs, and reduce the nation’s dependence on unprocessed raw exports.