Abstract
The petroleum industries of most developing countries, especially petro-states like Nigeria and
have been gravely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. The industry wrestles with a dual-clefted
and unprecedented dilemma, that of an oil price war and a devastatingly acute Covid-19
impact. Moreover, other underlying issues, such as an abrupt decline in oil prices,
OPEC/Russia divergent views on oil prices and cuts as OPEC and allied countries, often in
the quest for stabilised oil prices, moved to cut down combined output by 9.7 million bpd. This
was inevitable due to the fact of oil demand/supply imbalance occurring simultaneously with
the declination and rapid drop in biochemicals, chemicals and fossil fuels use. This was
necessitated by global lockdowns, industrial bottlenecks or slowdowns, travel bans, including
other restrictions and interruptions accruing from COVID-19 implementation protocols.
Likewise, the industry is undeniably confronted with irrefutable challenges traversing:
environmental, economic, political, or technological demands to tailor oil exploration and
production activities in accordance with wide-ranging issues tied to the sustainable
development paradigm. Moreover, the core of these demands includes environmental
protection, (expressed via biodiversity preservation, GHG and CO2 mitigations), energy
security, typified by reliability of products supplies, their affordability and economic growth.
Post the Paris Agreement in 2015, which reiterates the imperative of the transition into a low
carbon economy, the industry is placed in the peculiar position of bracing up to current signals
regarding divestments of funds from the sector and tackling the relentless plunge in oil prices.
Due to these daunting challenges, creating a nexus between oil exploitation and sustainable
development becomes an inescapable exigency for a petro-state like Nigeria. The paper
delineates the points of commonality and divergence between the SDGs and the Nigerian
petroleum industry regulations by assessing their competence to deliver on the goal targets
across the sustainable development paradigm. Moreover, it examines Nigeria’s recent omnibus
petroleum legislation, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021. The paper conducts an
appraisal of this statute to determine its utility in ensuring a green economy in Nigeria via the
forging of synergies across the SDGs whilst eliminating potential tensions and trade-offs
across divergent goals to achieve a greener oil industry in a post-Covid Nigeria.