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Victim of shale revolution, Nigeria stops exporting oil to US

Nigeria has become the first country to completely stop selling oil to the US due to the impact of the shale revolution – an astounding reversal as the African nation was only four years ago one of the top-5 oil suppliers to America. According to the US Department of Energy, Nigeria did not export a single barrel of crude to US-based refiners in July for the first time since records start in 1973. Preliminary data suggest the trend continued in August and September. Many oil producers have seen their exports to the US drop as domestic production rises thanks to the use of new technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. But Nigeria is the first to fully stop exporting crude. At its peak in February 2006, the US imported 1.3m b/d from Nigeria – equal to roughly one super-tanker the size of the Exxon Valdez […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigerian Oil Unions Halt Strike After Pension Dispute

Nigeria’s oil unions called off a four-day strike, averting a threat to exports from a nation whose shipments equate to about 2 percent of global demand. The Pengassan union that represents managers and blue-collar Nupeng oil union suspended industrial action after talks with Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. “The strike action embarked upon by Nupeng and Pengassan is hereby suspended,” according to a joint e-mailed statement today by the minister, labor leaders and NNPC. The strike started on Sept. 16 in a dispute over pensions and unions representing workers at NNPC. Nigeria is the continent’s largest oil producer and relies on the commodity for more than 70 percent of government revenue and 95 percent of foreign-exchange income. The West African nation pumped 2.3 million barrels a day of oil in August, the most since 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The strike didn’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria’s Power Woes Slow to Abate After Privatization

Award-winning Nigerian sculptor Olu Amoda took eight months to complete The Sunflower, a giant artwork of steel and metal spoons, in his studio in Lagos, Africa ’s biggest city, because of electricity shortages. Amoda could have finished the piece in several weeks if he lived in a country with a steady power supply, such as the U.S., where he has presented works at the New York Museum of Art and Design. But he lives in Nigeria , which produces a 10th of the amount generated in South Africa even though its population of 170 million is more than three times larger. Blackouts are a daily occurrence. “In some places people ask ‘how’s the weather’,” he said. “Here my friends ask, ‘how is electricity in your area’.” While the government last year sold its power distribution monopoly and the hydro- and natural gas-powered plants it ran to attract investment needed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria Oil Company Union Begin Strike That May Curb Exports

Workers at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., the country’s state-owned oil company, began an indefinite strike that may disrupt crude output from Africa ’s top producer and affect its domestic gasoline supplies, a union official said. “We have total shutdown at NNPC offices and all their subsidiaries, and that may affect the exports,” Babatunde Oke, a Lagos-based spokesman for both a managers’ union and a blue-collar workers’ union, said by phone today. “The refinery workers are also not working.” Staff operating flow stations that pump crude to export terminals are joining the action, meaning a protracted strike could disrupt cargoes, Oke said. Domestic gasoline supplies may also fall short as the workers protest pension terms at NNPC, he said. Union leaders should “exercise restraint,” the state-owned company said in a statement. Measures have been taken to reduce the pensions’ deficit to 85 billion naira ($520 million) currently from 298 billion […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria Mulls $20 Billion Offers to Sell Transmission Assets

Nigeria is considering offers of more than $20 billion for the assets of its national electricity transmission company as it struggles to provide adequate power to Africa ’s largest economy, Power Minister Chinedu Nebo said. The sale of state-owned Transmission Co. of Nigeria may start “in a few years,” Nebo said in a Sept. 12 interview with Bloomberg Television Africa in Abuja, the capital. The government will also focus on developing renewable energy projects to diversify its supply of electricity, he said. “The interest now for transmission is over $20 billion,” he said on Sept. 12. “People are coming from everywhere.” Transmission is the only segment of the power industry that the government still controls as it seeks to curb regular blackouts in Africa’s largest oil producer. The country generates about a 10th of the power that South Africa does even though its population of about 170 million is […]

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Nigerian oil workers start strike, oil exports at risk

Lagos (Platts)–16Sep2014/524 am EDT/924 GMT Oil workers in Nigeria started an indefinite strike Tuesday that could disrupt oil production and exports from the OPEC member, said officials of the unions and state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The unions took the action after failing to resolve a dispute over pensions and other issues. "Today, we have called our members out to begin an indefinite strike until management addresses our demand for a complete overhaul of the NNPC pension scheme, which in its present form is depriving our members of their full dues," a spokesman for the NNPC branch of Nupeng and Pengassan oil workers’ unions told Platts. NNPC’s headquarters in Abuja has been shut to workers and visitors, the union official said. Platts could not immediately confirm the situation in other NNPC offices, particularly in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. The union spokesman said that if NNPC management failed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigerian October program slow to clear as Europe remains awash with crude oil

London (Platts)–12Sep2014/909 am EDT/1309 GMT Nigerian October crude cargoes are selling very slowly due to tepid demand caused by an oversupply of light sweet crudes, trading sources said Friday. There was almost half of the October program or 30 odd cargoes still available which, sources said, was very long for this point in the trading cycle. "The structure is at a contango of 80 cents and differentials are correcting. Nigerian crudes have been slow to sell, despite better refining margins, as the Atlantic Basin was awash with material, especially light sweet crudes," a trader said. Sources said Nigerian crudes had been slow to sell despite better refining margins as the Atlantic Basin was inundated with too many crudes especially light sweet crudes. Article continues below… Crude Oil Marketwire delivers vital intelligence to help you make critical decisions. Delivered daily direct to your desktop, Crude Oil Marketwire provides detailed market […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple