FULL DOWNSTREAM DEREGULATION NECESSARY TO ATTRACT INVESTMENT

Deregulation will herald free market regime, where the forces of demand and supply will dictate price, and free government’s interference and price fixing. The stakeholders, which included the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu; Chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Limitd, Emmanuel Iheanacho; and former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Reginald Stanley, at different fora in Lagos emphised the need for quick deregulation of the subsector.

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NIGERIA TO END IMPORTATION OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS BY 2018 – MINISTER

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has said the Federal Government will ban the importation of refined petroleum products by 2018. A statement, made available to our correspondent in Abuja, disclosed that Onu said this in his country home Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State while addressing a meeting of stakeholders of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

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FG YET TO TAKE DECISION ON NNPC’S PUBLIC LISTING

The Federal Government has not taken a precise decision on the proposed listing of the stocks of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) or any other stock exchange. According to authoritative sources within the ministry of petroleum resources, the proposal to list the stocks of NNPC on the exchange after its restructuring as contained in a new draft national oil policy has not yet been approved by the government.

Readmore @ Thisday Online

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.
Readmore @ The Guardian Online

RECESSION: WE’RE PAYING FOR PAST MISTAKES, SAYS BUHARI

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday blamed the harsh economic situation currently faced by Nigerians on the mistakes the country made in the past. Buhari noted that though the country was blessed with numerous resources, it allowed herself to be confined to a mono economy by paying too much attention on petroleum to the detriment of viable cash crops like cocoa, groundnut, palm oil, palm kernel and hides and skin.

Readmore @ The Punch Online

NNPC not broke, despite huge debts – Kachikwu

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said, weekend, that despite losing N230billion annually from marketing and refining operations, the Corporation was not broke. It also disclosed that it owes over $6billion in cash call arrears.
 
NNPC insisted that there was no way the Corporation can be broke, given its assets base and equity holding in the petroleum industry.

Read more @ Vanguard Online

N133.5BN PENSION GAP UNSETTLES NNPC

The Federal Government’s hammer may soon come down hard on the board and management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over their shoddy handling of its N133.56 billion pension liabilities.

The Nation gathered that the industrial action embarked upon last week by petroleum industry workers caught the government unaware.

Read more @ The Nation

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.

Read more @ The Punch