INVESTMENTS IN NIGERIA’S OIL SECTOR DECLINE TO N78B

Capital importation into Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has declined from the $200 million (N90 billion) from the second quarter of 2016 to $172 million (N78 billion) in 3rd quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). But this decline has been attributed to uncertainty in the country’s oil and gas sector occasioned by insecurity, delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and delay in meeting contractual obligations in the services industry.
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Experts Differ on Buhari’s Plan to Assume Role of Petroleum Minister

President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent declaration that he would oversee the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has stirred diverse reactions from experts in energy law and policy in the country.

Two of the experts, Prof. Yinka Omoriegbe and Jaji Ahmed who spoke recently in Abuja at the public presentation of a book, “Structuring of Innovative Finance Schemes for Petroleum Production in Nigeria: Legal and Tax”, written by Dr. Perisuo Dema shared their divided views on how the president’s decision would impact on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

 

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OIL INDUSTRY EXPERTS WARN OPERATORS ON FRAMING OF LEGAL AGREEMENTS

Experts in the oil and gas industry have advised Nigerian indigenous oil and gas firms wishing to go into partnerships, to be sure to employ the services of experienced lawyers and engineers to guide their transactions, in order to avoid conflicts and losses along the line

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EXXONMOBIL PROJECTS 2040 GLOBAL ENERGY OUTLOOK

ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest publicly traded multinational oil and gas companies, has projected that global energy demand will be in the range of 1200 Quadrillion (British Thermal Unit (BTUs), even as global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) approaches the $120 trillion mark with a global population of 9 billion people.

This was disclosed at the just concluded presentation of the ExxonMobil Energy Outlook Series titled: The Outlook for Energy: A view to 2040 in Nigeria at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. The platform was designed with the objective of broadening understanding of energy sector challenges and opportunities globally and in Nigeria and to project ExxonMobil’s investments in meeting global energy need with 2040 in view.

The session, examined the dynamics of population geometric growth, availability of energy resources, economic growth and the global desire for improved living standards. It also advocates new trends in energy utilisation with attendant effects on availability and distribution of electricity.

Discussions at the forum centred mainly on the current level of ExxonMobil’s investment in LNG in Nigeria, the place of shale gas in the energy mix and how it affects Nigeria and a revisit of coal in the energy mix and implication for Nigeria. The platform also provided the opportunity for industry lights to elucidate on global future energy requirements.

The one-day event attracted a total of 108 guests spanning the academia, manufacturing sector, financial services sector, energy, oil & gas, government, media and etc. Notable dignitaries at the event were Ben Akabueze, Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget; Prof. Ayo Ibidapo-Obe, Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Ikwo, Ebonyi State.

The session also had in attendance others like Opeyemi Agbaje, CEO, RTC Advisory Ltd and leading economic analyst and columnist; Dr. Enase Okonedo, Dean of the Lagos Business School; Austin Avuru, CEO of Seplat Petroleum, representatives of leading indigenous oil and gas company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange among others

EXXONMOBIL ENERGY OUTLOOK SERIES

L-R (IMG 0131): Amarauche Ezukanma, Power Sector Group, Zenith Bank Plc; Enyinnaya Onokala, Executive Director, Business Development, Mobil Producing Nigeria; and G.O Akinluyi, Chairman, Humanitex Nigeria Limited during the ExxonMobil Energy Outlook Series event in Lagos recently.

NIGERIA LAGS AFRICAN COUNTERPARTS IN REFINING CAPACITY

Despite its status as Africa’s top crude oil producer and exporter, Nigeria continues to trail other African countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya and South Africa in terms of refining capacity.

The World Oil and Gas Review 2014, released this week, shows Egypt as having the highest primary refining capacity in 2013 among the five countries, followed by Algeria and South Africa.

Read more @ The Punch

UAE EYES SHELL, BP, TOTAL PARTNERSHIP

United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said he hopes BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA have “a good chance to compete” for concessions in the nation’s biggest onshore deposits of crude oil.

The three companies, together with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Portugal’s Partex Oil & Gas, were partners with Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s largest emirate, in a joint-venture agreement that expired in January.

Read @ The Punch

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MOVES TO PASS PIB

There are fresh hopes that the troubled Petroleum Industry Bill may eventually be passed by both chambers of the National Assembly before the end of this year.

Stakeholders in the oil and gas industry are full of expectations that the bill will this time around be given accelerated consideration and subsequently passed into law when the legislators reconvene next Tuesday after their seven-week annual recess, which began on July 26, 2014.

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OIL LANDLORDS SEEK INCLUSION IN MANAGEMENT OF HOSTCOM FUND

UGHELLI—NATIONAL President, Association of Families of Oil and Gas Producing Communities, ASFOGAPCOM, Mr. Joseph Abinogun, has called on the Federal Government to include Oil and Gas landowners in the management of the proposed 10 percent Petroleum Host Communities Fund.

Abinogun, in a statement, also called on the Federal Government to give them the right to provide security and surveillance for oil and gas facilities in their areas.

Read more @ Vanguard

U.S. SHALE AMBITION ON, SAYS SHELL CEO

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden claims that despite a series of asset sales and costly write-downs, the oil giant is not abandoning the prospect of North American oil and gas shales.

Shell’s recent reappraisal resulted in a $2billion write-down in book value and plans for Shell to sell hundreds of thousand of US acres.

Read more @ The Nation

TOTAL BEMOANS HIGH COST OF OIL AND GAS PROJECTS IN NIGERIA

A French oil major, Total, has bemoaned the high cost of projects in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, identifying long contracting cycle, security and community issues as factors that prompt contractors to inflate the cost of projects in the country.

The company has also called on the federal government to ensure that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) reduces the duration for getting approvals for projects, saying the number of agencies involved in granting approvals for projects are also responsible for the high cost of projects due to the delay in getting approvals.

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OIL COMPANIES WANT PSC ARRANGEMENT FOR JV OPERATION

The long-standing inability of the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to fund its own share of joint venture (JV) projects with oil companies has prompted calls for an arrangement, similar to what obtains in production-sharing contracts for JV projects, to address the funding problem.

This is as NNPC’s inability to fulfil its financial obligation is affecting the activities of the partners and taking a toll on local contractors, as projects are being held up.

Nigeria’s oil and gas production structure is mainly split between JV with NNPC onshore and in shallow water, and production sharing contracts (PSC) in deepwater offshore.

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EFCC RECOVERS N5B FROM FUEL SUBSIDY SCAMMERS

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said it has so far recovered about N5 billion from persons and organisations indicted in the fuel subsidy probe, which began over two years ago.

Spokesman to the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren said in a statement Monday that while this amount has been recovered for the government, investigations are still ongoing on the 13 oil subsidy cases that are being prosecuted. These cases, according to him, involve individuals as well as corporate bodies.

Read more @ The Guardian

FLARING MUST BE UNATTRACTIVE FOR FULL FLARE OUT

To put an end to the recurring issue of gas flaring in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, the Federal Government should make the practice unprofitable by enforcing stringent penalties against defaulting companies.

This is the opinion of Mr. Moritz Abazie, the Managing Director of Strides Energy and Maritime Limited, an offshore oil and gas construction firm.

Read more @ Vanguard

GAS SHORTAGE PUTS PRESSURE ON FIRMS’ COST

President Goodluck Jonathan is scrambling to boost gas supply in the country as shortage of the fuel used to power most manufacturing plants hit companies’ costs amid crisis in the sector arising from government policies that seek to control prices.

Dangote Cement plc, Nigeria’s largest company and Africa’s biggest producer of the building material, said on Friday that first-half profit declined 11 percent as operating costs increased on gas supply challenges resulting in use of heavy oil for its plants.

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Seven Energy Boosts Power Generation with N90billion Uquo Gas Facility

Seven Energy International Limited, indigenous Nigerian integrated oil and gas development, production and gas Distribution Company today confirms that its N90billion Uquo Gas Processing Facility, in Esit Ekit, Akwa Ibom State has been commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan, bringing a major boost to Nigeria’s quest for a stable power supply.

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FG TASKS OIL INDUSTRY OPERATORS ON OIL SPILL

The Federal Government has urged oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria to partner with it towards eradicating oil spillage and its harmful effect on the environment.

The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Lawrencia Mallam, called for the partnership during the inauguration and handover ceremony of the Geographic Information System laboratory stationed at the headquarters of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency in Abuja.

She said operators in the sector must join hands with the government to ensure safe and cleaner environment.

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REBASING THE OIL & GAS SECTOR

By recalculating the way it reports Gross Domestic Product (GDP) using 2013 as base year, Nigeria found its economy had leaped by 89% to $510 billion from the 1990 figures. The change, occasioned by a simple mathematical/statistical calculation, is the good news.

In real terms, nothing may have changed for the “man in the street” and the overall economy; but for the oil and gas sector, a lot has changed since the country calculated its GDP 24 years ago...

Written by Adedayo Ojo
CEO Caritas Communications

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