An industry source said the new law places emphasis on multiple taxes without taking cognisance of the difficult operating environment in Nigeria.

The source told The Guardian that the oil multi-nationals, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Agip, had not issued a concrete new investment plan that would lead to new oil discovery in the country.

According to the source, what oil companies are doing right now is to sustain existing production which does not add to the growth of the industry while new areas are pushed forward.

He added that even some of the contracts due for review by the government under the joint venture operations and Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) were pending as result of issues raised by the stakeholders in the PIB currently before the National Assembly.

The source added that no company was talking of new investment now because the decision to do that would depend on opportunities other countries offer and how the new PIB would address all the issues raised by stakeholders.

But an executive director of one of the foreign oil producing companies, who spoke with The Guardian on grounds of anonymity, said it was natural for oil companies to review their operations based on the new oil and gas laws that would come into being. He added that even when there was a change of government, the investing public world have to slow down on their new investment until they were able to determine the direction of the new administration .

According to the director, that oil companies are reviewing their portfolio does not mean that they will be leaving Nigeria, rather, what they are doing is to look at other options where their money will bring more returns and try to reduce their risk level based on the new fiscal regime.

"Some of the companies get their money from abroad and for you to put one dollar investment, you need to look at the investment climate and what the country has to offer," he said.

He said even gas projects that were meant for power generation that were initially delayed by crisis in the Niger Delta could not proceed further because some critical issues in the PIB were not in conformity with the Gas Master plan.

Shell has maintained that the price of gas as currently constituted does not guarantee major new investment.

"Existing gas projects, such as NLNG and WAGP, will become empty over time, resulting in significant contractual penalties and loss of revenue", Shell Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu, said.

The source added that notwithstanding the above issues, companies were looking at buying into existing portfolio rather than going into new areas with respect to deep-water oil blocks.

"The world is a global village and fund has no barrier but everybody is now reviewing where to put their money. If I put my money in country A, will I get more return than putting it in Nigeria? And from what is happening around us today, many of us think that investment climate in places like Angola, Gabon, and the Gulf of Guinea can fetch such returns, so why wasting time in Nigeria?" a senior officer with an American oil producing firm asked.

To the local players in the sector, the issue of local content in terms of service delivery, oil and gas production have experienced a sharp decline in their production within six to three years of production start-up and the new PIB has not made provision for the local players to have access to those leases that are not within the hold of the multi-nationals.

He said it was therefore important for the PIB to create a new fiscal regime that moderates the effect of these geological realties.

Before now, two gas export projects, Brass and OK LNG, have consistently been slowed down due to government's decision to address supply of natural gas for domestic market.

Other projects that have been delayed but their conditions worsened by the controversy over PIB are Bonga South/West Aparo, Bonga North/West, Bosi and Bosi North which were initially designed to accelerate Nigeria's desire to achieve 40 billion barrels reserve and four million barrels per day production level.

"Some of the projects were initially deferred due to the need to ensure due diligence in concept selection with the sole aim of reducing development cost of these identified projects and improve profitability for the Federal Government", the source added.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had explained that some of these projects, including Bonga SW/Aparo projects, were initially slated to be on stream by second quarters of 2012 but has now been shifted to 2014 based on the current plan.