Abstract
Oil and Gas have become an integral part of today’s global economy and a key component of
many national economies including Nigeria and the nature of institutional, legal and regulatory
framework tends to have significant economic, developmental, and strategic outcomes. Nigeria’s
Oil and Gas industry which has, for most of her independence been the mainstay of the economy,
has been operated in opaque manner resulting in the failure to be a significant contributor to
Nigeria’s development. The enactment of a new overarching law – the Petroleum Industry Act,
2021 (PIA) promises to give impetus towards a more virile industry. Central to the thriving of the
new law is a regulatory framework that would balance the often conflicting and mutually exclusive
interests of government, the investor and the consumer. To achieve this however, the institutional
design and architecture of the regulatory institutions must be woven in a fabric of independence:
independent from all the players in the value chain. This Paper seeks to undertake an evaluation
of the de jure independent status of the regulatory institutions in the PIA, and suggest pathways
for improvement towards global best practices.