Category: Nigeria

Eni SpA said Friday it had shut down an export pipeline following a sabotage in the Niger Delta of Nigeria as community unrest adds to oil theft to rattle the oil industry in the restive African nation. "There was a shutdown of the pipeline, due to sabotage" in Bayelsa State, southern Nigeria, a spokesman The pipeline, called Tedidaba-Brass pipeline and operated by a local Eni joint-venture, normally carries the high-quality Brass grade for export. The Eni spokesman said the Italian company was losing 3,500 barrels […]

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Eni SpA said Friday it had shut down an export pipeline following a sabotage in the Niger Delta of Nigeria as community unrest adds to oil theft to rattle the oil industry in the restive African nation. "There was a shutdown of the pipeline, due to sabotage" in Bayelsa State, southern Nigeria, a spokesman The pipeline, called Tedidaba-Brass pipeline and operated by a local Eni joint-venture, normally carries the high-quality Brass grade for export. The Eni spokesman said the Italian company was losing 3,500 barrels […]

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The Nigerian government will not privatize its four ailing oil refineries, labor minister Chukwuemeka Wogu said Wednesday, prompting the country’s two powerful oil workers’ unions to declare that they have now dropped plans to embark on a nationwide strike intended to cripple crude oil production and exports. "The Federal Government is not selling the nation’s refineries," Wogu said in a statement issued after a meeting with the unions in Abuja. The government called the meeting after the unions had threatened to begin a strike this week aimed at forcing the government to reverse earlier announcements by two government agencies that Nigeria would commence the sale of the state-owned refineries by first quarter of this year. "After extensive deliberations on the situation with the refineries, the two parties agreed that…the unions shall not embark on any form of industrial action over the subject matter," Wogu […]

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The Nigerian government will not privatize its four ailing oil refineries, labor minister Chukwuemeka Wogu said Wednesday, prompting the country’s two powerful oil workers’ unions to declare that they have now dropped plans to embark on a nationwide strike intended to cripple crude oil production and exports. "The Federal Government is not selling the nation’s refineries," Wogu said in a statement issued after a meeting with the unions in Abuja. The government called the meeting after the unions had threatened to begin a strike this week aimed at forcing the government to reverse earlier announcements by two government agencies that Nigeria would commence the sale of the state-owned refineries by first quarter of this year. "After extensive deliberations on the situation with the refineries, the two parties agreed that…the unions shall not embark on any form of industrial action over the subject matter," Wogu […]

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The Nigerian government did not approve a plan to sell the country’s four ailing refineries, state media reported Friday quoting presidential spokesman Reuben Abati, contrary to earlier reports that the president had given the green light for the privatization of the plants. "The Federal Government will not sell the refineries. There is no presidential endorsement. Even the minister does not have the powers to sell government’s property," Abati was quoted as saying in state radio. Nigeria’s state privatization agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprise, on December 21 said it had received approval from President Goodluck Jonathan to proceed with the sale of the four state-owned refineries despite strong opposition and strike threats by the country’s powerful oil unions. "President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the commencement of the privatization of the nation’s four refineries by the BPE. This is in keeping with the [government] agenda, […]

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Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the launch of the privatization process of the country’s four oil refineries, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said Friday. The BPE listed the refineries as the Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd. I, Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd. II, Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company Ltd. and Warri Refining & Petrochemical Company Ltd. The refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels a day have worked well below their installed capacities for years due to poor maintenance. As a result, Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, relies on fuel imports to meet around 80% of its needs for gasoline, diesel and other petrochemicals. The two refineries in Port-Harcourt have a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels a day, Warri has a daily processing capacity of 125,000 barrels and Kaduna has a capacity of 110,000 barrels. Further details on […]

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Nigeria plans to spend 4.9 trillion naira ($30.96 billion) in 2014, little changed from this year, amid government expectations of reduced oil production. Budget proposals submitted by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to lawmakers today in Abuja on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan are based on an oil output of 2.39 million barrels a day and a price of $77.5 a barrel. The economy will expand 6.75 percent next year, faster than this year’s 6.5 percent estimate, with the budget deficit increasing to 1.9 percent of GDP from 1.2 percent this year. Africa’s biggest oil producer will use an exchange rate of 160 naira a dollar to calculate its expenditure, according to the minister. Oil output estimates for next year are 6 percent lower than the figure of 2.53 million barrels a day used for this year’s spending plan. In his medium-term expenditure proposals sent to lawmakers in September, Jonathan […]

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Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is facing the biggest test of his three years in office after reports the central bank questioned the lack of accounting for $50 billion in oil revenue and a former leader criticized him for failing to tackle corruption. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a stalwart of the ruling People’s Democratic Party , said in a letter to Jonathan this month that he has failed to tackle graft and security threats in Africa ’s biggest oil producer. He also accused him of widening a split between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south in a bid to retain power. Obasanjo’s criticism came after newspapers including Lagos-based ThisDay said Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Lamido Sanusi wrote Jonathan a letter alleging that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. is withholding more than three-quarters of oil revenue earned from January 2012 to July this year. The […]

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President Goodluck Jonathan is under growing pressure from top-level corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry, with the central bank asking what happened to $50 billion in missing oil revenues and his political mentor, former president Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo complaining about massive fraud in the industry. Meantime, massive oil theft in the Niger Delta, the southern region where Nigeria’s oil production is centered, is rising amid reports of growing politicization of militants who have been blamed for much of the theft in recent years. They have threatened to bring oil production to a halt by 2015 unless the government and foreign oil companies compensate impoverished villagers for massive environmental damage in the region and introduce more equitable sharing of oil revenue. The multifaceted oil issue is becoming a major problem for Jonathan, who hails from the Christian south himself, and is currently grappling with a […]

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President Goodluck Jonathan is under growing pressure from top-level corruption in Nigeria’s oil industry, with the central bank asking what happened to $50 billion in missing oil revenues and his political mentor, former president Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo complaining about massive fraud in the industry. Meantime, massive oil theft in the Niger Delta, the southern region where Nigeria’s oil production is centered, is rising amid reports of growing politicization of militants who have been blamed for much of the theft in recent years. They have threatened to bring oil production to a halt by 2015 unless the government and foreign oil companies compensate impoverished villagers for massive environmental damage in the region and introduce more equitable sharing of oil revenue. The multifaceted oil issue is becoming a major problem for Jonathan, who hails from the Christian south himself, and is currently grappling with a […]

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