70% OF ONSHORE OIL OUTPUT SHUT IN, FG RESUMES PAYMENTS TO MILITANTS

As the federal government resumed cash payments to militants in the Niger Delta, it was revealed on Tuesday that up to 70 per cent of oil and gas production from traditional onshore and shallow water terrain has been locked in due to the attacks on oil infrastructure in the region.

 

This was just as the Managing Director/CEO of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Mr. Austin Avuru, warned that the crisis in the Niger Delta has interrupted major reforms in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, which were initiated a few years ago to increase oil and gas production for the attainment of 15,000MW of electricity and also boost economic development nationwide.

 

Read more @ Thisdaylive

‘INDIGENOUS FIRMS HAVE CAPACITY FOR ONSHORE OIL REFINING’

Indigenous oil firms have the capacity to build and operate onshore oil refineries in the country, the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), has said.

Chairman of PETAN, Bank Anthony Okoroafor, stated this in a paper titled: “Exploring Nigerian Content in the Development of Modular Refineries made available to The Guardian on Wednesday.

Read more @ The Guardian

NIGERIA ’LL STILL MAKE PROFIT ON OIL AT $20, SAYS KACHIKWU

Although the price of oil may at present be as low as $22 per barrel, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, says Nigeria’s case is not hopeless.
 
He says Nigeria would still make profit even if oil drops to $20 as cost of producing a barrel of crude oil has been put at an average of $13 per barrel onshore.
 
 Read more @ Guardian Online

NNPC/CHEVRON JV WINS REUTERS AWARD FOR BEST OIL DEAL

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Venture (JV) partner, Chevron Nigeria Limited, have clinched the prestigious Thomson Reuters/PFI Magazine “Africa and Middle East Oil Deal of the Year Award 2015.”

NNPC in a statement wednesday stated that the award was in recognition of the novel $1.2 billion multi-year drilling financing package for 36 offshore/onshore oil wells under the NNPC/CNL Joint Venture initiated under the Accelerated Upstream Financing Programme executed at a signing-ceremony in London in September, 2015.

 

Read more @ Thisdaylive

ENI CONTEMPLATING ASSETS SALES ONSHORE AMID OIL PRICE DROP

Another  gale of oil block divestment may hit Nigeria  very soon, as Eni SpA, Italy’s largest oil company, is considering selling part or all of its onshore Nigerian operations as it seeks to divest peripheral businesses amid a drop in oil prices, people familiar with the matter say.

If  this happens, analysts say it would  boost local capacities of Nigeria in the  upstream sector  of the oil and gas industry

Read more @ Businessday online

AGIP BEGINS $5BN ONSHORE ASSETS SALE IN NIGERIA

 
Italy’s largest oil company, Eni SpA, has joined Shell and Chevron in the sale spree of its onshore assets in Nigeria. It was gathered that the company’s subsidiary in Nigeria, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) has already set a target of $5 billion that it would realise from the sale of the onshore assets it operates in Nigeria.

“Nigerian Agip Oil Company, which operates under a joint-venture agreement with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and ConocoPhillips, is already at the second critical stage of the sale,” a source disclosed.

Read more @ New Telegraph

INSECURITY, OFFSHORE ATTRACTION CAUSE IOCS DIVESTMENTS

The sale of onshore assets by International Oil Companies operating in Nigeria, including Shell and Chevron, has been largely triggered by security risk and the increasing shift by the oil majors towards the offshore region, industry experts have said.

 

The growing onshore risks have over the last few years prompted a number of IOCs to expand their footprint on the offshore region, where lies huge untapped potential with less risks.

 

Read more @ Punch Online

TOTAL COMPLETES $1BN NIGERIAN ASSET SALE

French oil major, Total, has completed the divestment of its stakes in three onshore Nigerian oil blocks, with sale proceeds amounting to over $1bn.

 

The divested assets are Oil Mining Leases 18, 24 and 29, the company said, adding that its interest in OML 29 was sold to Aiteo Eastern E&P, a Nigerian company, for $569m.

 

Read more @ PunchOnline

FG LOSES REVENUE TO NON-RENEWAL OF OIL LICENCES

The delay in the renewal of expired onshore and shallow-water licences held by International Oil Companies is said to be denying the Federal Government additional revenue at a time that its resources are fast shrinking.

 

The IOCs have, however, continued to produce from the Oil Mining Licences, some of which expired seven years ago.

 

Red more @ Punch Online

OIL & GAS IN EAST AFRICA: THE STRIDES OF A NEW FRONTIER

As the conversation continues about the commercial viability of discoveries in East Africa, the nations that will soon join the league of oil producers in Africa continue to fan their optimism. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are top of the list among hopefuls. However, the dynamics of East Africa’s geology and geography is somewhat complex. British firm Tullow’s discovery in Kenya is onshore. Despite uncertainties about the economics of production, full production might take many more years. The peculiar challenges presented by the geography of East Africa are best illustrated by juxtaposition with Ghana’s emergence as an oil producing country.

Read more @ SweetCrude Reports

BRASS LNG SHAREHOLDERS EYE PREFERRED BIDDER FOR ONSHORE WORKS

As a step ahead of the Final Investment Decision (FID) of the multibillion dollar Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Bayelsa State, the shareholders now eye a preferred bidder for the onshore works.

Speaking in Lagos at a recent dinner in honour of the newly-constituted pre-Front End Engineering Design (FEED) team from Italy’s Eni, after the visitors and other shareholders had undertaken a tour of the project site at Brass Island in Bayelsa State, the Chairman of Brass LNG, Dr. Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, told the visitors that what was between the shareholders and the FID was the choice of preferred bidder for the onshore works.

 

Read more @ Thisday Live

IOCs TO DIVEST 250,000BPD WORTH OF EQUITY IN 2015

Nigeria may not have seen the end of divestments in the oil and gas sector going by the findings of PricewaterhouseCoopers’, PwC, a management and advisory services firm.

The firm disclosed this in its review of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria in 2014. It estimated that by the end of 2015, the International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in Nigeria would have sold at least 250,000 barrels per day worth of equity in onshore and shallow water producing assets in the Niger Delta region.

 

Read more @ Vanguard

NIGERIAN BANKS RAISED $2.5BN TO FUND ACQUISITION OF SHELL OIL BLOCKS

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, has stated that his bank and some other Nigerian banks accounted for about $2.5 billion used by some Nigerian independent firms to acquire assets during the recent divestment of onshore assets by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).

This is coming as the federal government has warned that indigenous companies that were awarded marginal oil fields in 2003 but have not developed the fields would forfeit the assets by March 2015.

Read more @ Thisday Live

TOTAL ADDS 2.2B BARRELS TO COUNTRY’S OIL PRODUCTION

TOTAL Upstream Companies in Nigeria have added over 2.2 billion barrels to Nigeria’s crude oil production in the last 47 years.

The company, which has been involved in activities in the last 50 years, has over five producing fields onshore and offshore Nigeria

Read more @ The Guardian.

SHELL SIGNS SALES AGREEMENTS FOR NIGERIAN ASSETS

Royal Dutch Shell has signed sales agreements for all the Nigerian oil assets it put up for sale following a 2013 review as part of its cost-cutting drive. The assets include Shell’s 30 percent stake in oil mining leases (OML) 18, 24, 25, 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL).

Shell has opted to move away from Nigerian onshore oil production, which is plagued by massive oil theft, security problems and oil spills and is also becoming a major source of legal liabilities.

Read more @ Businessday