As part of the efforts to reinvigorate the Nigerian oil and gas sector, especially upstream, Nigeria has negotiated a $15 billion investment deal with some India public sector companies for crude oil purchase. Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum, who is currently in India for a business visit, did the negotiation on behalf on the country
Vertex, an Upstream Nigerian independent funded by African
Capital Alliance (ACA), has taken 40% of First Hydrocarbon Nigeria FHN, in a
new shareholding structure of the latter. The company is one of two new equity
holders of FHN, buying into what used to be Afren’s 70% of FHN. The other
newcomer is the FHN Management, now holding 15%.
Iranian Oil Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, has stated that his country supports an oil price of $50-60 per barrel and any measure that would help stabilise the market, following a meeting held yesterday with the Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPCE), Mr. Mohammed Barkindo in Tehran.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with several Chinese firms for over $80 billion new investments, spanning five years, in the oil and gas industry covering pipelines, refineries, gas and power, facility refurbishments and upstream financing.
Nigeria is looking toward China to raise about $50 billion to upgrade and build new oil and gas infrastructure, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who is currently in the Asian country to hold an investment roadshow, has said.
The delay in the construction of the multibillion dollar upstream gas supply projects to feed Chevron’s Agura Power Plant, ExxonMobil’s Qua Iboe Power Plant and Total’s Obite Power Plant has delayed the projects, which were conceived by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as part of the efforts to monetise Nigeria’s gas resources, reduce flaring and boost electricity generation.
The International Energy Information Administration (IEA) has estimated that a yearly $630 billion worldwide upstream oil and gas investment is required to compensate for declining production at existing fields.
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into seven new divisions, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, announced on Tuesday at a press briefing in Abuja.
Nigerian companies operating in the upstream oil and gas industry have cried out on the severe impact of the sliding crude oil prices on their operation. 
The oil price crash is expected to slash capital expenditure on global oil exploration and production by 17 per cent this year, after a 24 per cent drop in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) medium-term outlook.
The report, which was an analysis on the impact of continued low oil prices on upstream oil and gas projects, stated that in the last six months of 2015 an additional 22 major projects and seven billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of commercial reserves have been deferred, on top of the 46 developments and 20 billion boe of reserves identified previously.
Oil and gas industry pressure is growing for governments to adjust upstream fiscal terms downwards in response to the current low oil price, a new report by Wood Mackenzie has shown.
As oil and gas industry operators adjust to the low oil price environment with exploration budget cuts in 2015 expected to average 30 per cent, a new report by Wood Mackenzie suggests that the cost of exploration in the sector will slump by 33 per cent by 2016.
The independent oil and gas companies may have been infringing on the nation’s petroleum regulations with the high level of defaults in payment of royalties and taxes on the operated oil fields.
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has fixed March 27, 2015 to hear the contempt proceedings initiated against Samsung Heavy Industry Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd, over their alleged disobedience of an order of the court that parties in the controversial floating production storage and offloading unit in Egina Field within OML 130 contract should maintain the status-quo.
The newly named Managing Director for Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, has assumed office, succeeding Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, who retired on Saturday after 36 years of service.
