Category: Nigeria

press release Nigeria is facing its worst oil crisis in years, as the country is losing billions of dollars due to theft. In Southern Ijaw in Bayelsa State, Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh follows an oil theft arrest and the destruction of multiple illegal refineries for stolen crude. "Despite these efforts, oil theft in Nigeria is at its highest levels in five years since the government gave amnesty to former rebels in the area," she says. "The government says eight billion dollars in revenue were lost in ‘industrial-scale’ theft last year and multinational oil giants have started reducing their on-shore presence here, selling off fields as a result of the theft." She also speaks to illegal oil workers, who say they have no other potential form of income, and to activist Nengi James, who blames the government for not doing enough to secure the pipeline infrastructure and prosecute suspects. "Despite […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

Nigeria’s public treasury has continued to bleed as stakeholders trade blame over who is stealing oil in the country and what quantity is actually stolen. Oilprice.com, an online publication, reported last year that Nigeria was losing an estimated 400,000 barrels per day, citing figures attributed to Nigeria’s coordinating minister for the economy and finance minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The large volume of oil allegedly stolen on a daily basis last year was equivalent to a revenue loss of about $1.7 billion a month and $20.4 billion annually. This earned Africa’s largest economy the No. 1 position among countries most plagued by oil theft in the world ahead of Mexico, Iraq, Russia, and Indonesia. The amount lost by Nigeria annually was reported to be more than the country spent on education and healthcare combined. According to data provided by the chief of naval staff last week, daily oil theft in […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

NIGERIA’S oil export programme may have continued on the downward swing, as indications emerged that the nation would only export 1.83 million barrels per day in October. According to the loading schedules, Nigeria will export about 1.83bpd of crude oil in October, down from 1.94 million bpd exported in September. Traders said some Angolan crude grades have been cleared for October loading, while Nigerian cargoes appeared to be finding buyers more slowly. Nigeria’s Qua Iboe offers to be at dated Brent plus $2.00, unchanged. A trader said cargoes were likely to be sold at dated Brent plus $1 to plus $1.50. Sources however said that, about four Qua cargoes loading in October have traded, leaving as many as eight still looking for buyers. However, Brazil emerged the largest buyer of Nigeria’s crude oil, overtaking India that occupied the position in the first quarter of this year. The development followed […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

LONDON–Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday it had agreed to sell some of the oil blocks in Nigeria previously earmarked for disposal as the Anglo-Dutch oil group moves forward with its divestment program. Shell said last year it wanted to divest four oil licenses and a pipeline in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, where sabotage and oil theft has dogged oil companies working in the region. "We have signed sales and purchase agreements for some of the oil mining leases but not all that we are seeking to divest," a Shell spokesman said, without providing any details. The sale process "hasn’t yet concluded," the spokesman said. Shell remained committed to Nigeria where it plans to retains offshore production, he said. The divestment, if completed, would be part of $15 billion worth of assets Shell wants to sell by the end of 2015 as it seeks to focus on its more profitable […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 18, 2005 shows Shell’s major oil and gas terminal on Bonny Island in southern Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as the continent’s largest economy with a GDP of $453 billion in 2012, officials said on April 6, 2014. The figure is based on a long-overdue rebasing of Nigeria’s gross domestic product to reflect changes in the structure of production and consumption, and compares with South Africa’s 2012 result of $384 billion. AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI A Royal Dutch Shell -led consortium is close to selling several Nigerian oilfields for about $5bn to domestic buyers, as foreign companies retreat from sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest oil industry. The price tag for the four oilfields and a key pipeline co-owned by Shell, France’s Total and Eni of Italy has doubled since initial estimates towards the end of last year, highlighting the […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

The lubricants sub-sector is the salient but core area of the downstream industry and lifeblood of all oil-dependent machinery. With so much at stake, Chika Amanze-Nwachuku posits that ensuring that Continue Reading

A major oil spill has occurred at a Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, (SPDC), oil pipeline between the Santa-Barbara and Tego Rivers in Owuanga-Toru of Kula Kingdom in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. The cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained as at press time but the company is pushing for investigation and mitigation exercise. Shell has confirmed the spill, which members of the affected communities described as "massive." "On August 6, 2014, the SPDC JV observed a leak on a section of the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL) at Owangia community, Akuku-Toru LGA in Rivers State. "The impacted section has been shut down, preparatory to investigation into the cause of the leak and repairs. Some tools suspected to have been used for crude theft activities were recovered in the area," Shell Nigeria spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobor said. Community secretary of Owuanga-Toru Community, Alabo Fiola, […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), through a service provider, has let a contract to General Electric Co. to provide gas turbines to be used to generate a reliable, uninterrupted supply of power to NNPC’s refining complex in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, that would enable the complex to return to its full production capacity. GE will deliver three, 25-Mw, trailer-mounted TM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbines to GEL Utility Ltd., a subsidiary of independent power producer Genesis Electricity Ltd., with whom NNPC signed a 20-year power purchase agreement in November 2013 for the Port Harcourt refinery, GE said in an Aug. 4 news release. In addition to delivery of the gas turbines, whichwill provide both the baseload and backup power to support refining operations at Port Harcourt, the recent agreement also includes the future modernization of Nigeria’s other two existing refineries, GE said. The installation of the mobile gas […]

Click here to view full article at www.ogj.com

Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it started oil production from the first well at its deepwater Bonga North West development off the coast of Nigeria. "This is an excellent addition to our deep-water portfolio — a key growth theme for Shell’s world-wide upstream business," Andrew Brown , Shell’s director of international exploration and production, said in a statement . The entire Bonga prospect started oil and gas production in 2005 and was Nigeria’s first development in deep waters. Shell said the new start-up represents a significant step forward for the project. Oil from Bonga North West will be sent through a pipeline to a floating production, storage and offloading export facility near the Nigerian shore. At its peak, the facility is expected to process as much as 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Nigeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is the largest oil producer […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

Royal Dutch Shell reported Wednesday that its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, has started up oil production from the first well at the Bonga North West deep-water development off the country’s coast. Shell Upstream International Director Andrew Brown commented in a company statement: "This is an excellent addition to our deep-water portfolio – a key growth theme for Shell’s world-wide upstream business. It’s also good news for Nigeria, as it is a new source of oil revenues and strengthens Nigeria’s deep-water expertise, a key driver of economic development." The original Bonga project began producing oil and gas in 2005. It was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths of more than 3,250 feet. Bonga North West is the next step in the project’s development.  The Bonga project, which began producing oil and gas in 2005, was Nigeria’s first deep-water development in water depths over 1,000 metres. […]

Click here to view full article at www.rigzone.com