Category: Nigeria

As the Islamist group Boko Haram intensifies attacks in northern Nigeria , former militants in the Niger River delta who once cut oil production by almost a third have become some of the government’s biggest supporters. Militant commanders like Government Ekpemupolo have gone from targeting Nigeria’s oil industry, riding around in speed boats with automatic weapons and explosives, to protecting it. He now runs the Global West Specialist Ltd. security company that has a $115 million contract with the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency. Ekpemupolo is one of a group of former militants, including Ebikabowei Victor Ben and Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who are prospering under the rule of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s first leader from the region that’s the heart of Africa ’s biggest oil industry. They form the backbone of support for Jonathan, 57, in the area as he seeks re-election in February, and have vowed to resist […]

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opinion The problem for Nigeria is that these refineries barely function; refining less than 24 per cent of their capacity if they work at all. They are aged and decrepit and in desperate need of maintenance. Vast sums have been spent on maintaining them but they still do not function although the contracting maintenance companies have done rather well out of these maintenance contracts. It defies belief but the Kaduna Refinery was designed to handle much heavier crude than is produced in Nigeria. For years, the refinery has actually imported large quantities of suitable paraffinic based crude oil from Venezuela, Kuwait, Oman or Saudi Arabia to be refined in Nigeria Periodically, as political pressures increased new refinery tenders were issued. The local Nigerian companies who won the tenders for this could not attract overseas firms willing to co-operate with them, nor have they been able to raise the capital […]

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Pastor Christian Lekoya Kpandei’s hand covered in oily mud, Bodo Creek, in 2011 (file photo). Photo: Amnesty International Abuja — The House of Representatives has directed Shell Nigerian Exploration Company (SNEPCo) to pay the sum of $3.6 billion or N604.832 billion for the damage caused by oil spill from its equipment failure almost four years ago in Bayelsa State The House Committee on Environment gave the directive during an investigative public hearing on Wednesday, citing the breakdown of an independent value analysis it adopted, which totalled N63.6 billion, payable for direct losses (irreversible damages) the community incurred. According to a breakdown of the damage, N103.192 billion is for loss of income, N85.785 billion is for water provision while N27.399,520,512 is for forestry and NTFP. For the indirect losses, SNEPCO is to pay N14.350 billion for health hazard; N8.089 million is for injurious affection while the sum of N302.416 billion […]

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Nigerian oil production up, with most exports headed to markets outside North America. (UPI/Shutterstock/James Jones Jr.) ABUJA, Nigeria, Nov. 24 (UPI) — The Nigerian oil export economy relies mainly on consumers outside North America, the state-controlled Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said Monday. "Four regions, namely Europe, South America, Asia and Africa, remain the major destinations of Nigerian crude and condensate export," the company said. Nigerian crude oil exports to the United States peaked in 2007 and have since steadily decreased to zero since shale oil production increased. The state oil company said exports of 2.26 million barrels per day in August, the last full month for which data are available, were 12.4 percent higher than the previous month . Overall, oil production rose 6.8 percent in August. Nigeria is among the largest African members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC, in its market report for November, said […]

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The Federal Government has said it plans to cut subsidies on petroleum products by half next year after sharp falls in global crude prices, spurred a reversal of its 2015 budget downwards. President Goodluck Jonathan submitted the revised budget figures to lawmakers last week, proposing to spend 458.68 billion naira ($2.59 bln) on petrol subsidy in 2015, down from 971.14 billion naira presented for 2014. It also assumed further cuts to petrol subsidies in 2016 to 408.68 billion naira and 371.18 billion naira for 2017. The Minister of finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has proposed lowering the assumed benchmark oil price for the 2015 budget to $73 per barrel from the $78 proposed in September, after global crude prices collapsed. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters last week that declines in the price of oil, which has lost almost 30 percent since July, would impact the […]

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Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on the Federal Government and the military to rise up to the task of ending the insurgency and wanton destruction of lives and properties in the country. The oil workers’ union also called on the military to live up to their expectations by duly performing their obligations of defending the country against any attack either internal or external. PENGASSAN, in a statement condemned the level of general insecurity, especially the killings of innocent citizens by the Boko Haram insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country. The body called on President Goodluck Jonathan to step up the political will to deal with the crisis. Condemning the bomb blast that killed 47 school children and injured 79 others in Potiskum, Yobe State recently, PENGASSAN President, Francis Johnson, said the federal government should use all the power within […]

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Nigeria is planning spending cutbacks next year as falling oil prices eat into the government’s revenue, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. The minister will propose to lower expenditure by 6 percent to 4.66 trillion naira ($27 billion) in the 2015 budget by tightening rules on foreign travel and raising taxes on private jets and luxury cars, Okonjo-Iweala told reporters yesterday in the capital, Abuja. Those plans are based on a benchmark oil price of $73 a barrel, down from $77.5 in this year’s budget, she said. The government of Africa ’s biggest oil producer, which is preparing to hold elections on Feb. 14, earns about 70 percent of its income from crude oil, the price of which has slumped to a four-year low this month. The naira weakened to a record low last week, prompting the central bank to run down reserves in a bid to defend the currency. […]

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Abuja–The Federal Government, yesterday, warned that Nigeria, will from this November, begin to feel the impact of the declining price of crude oil in the global market. Speaking at the Institute for International Finance’s 2014 Africa Financial Summit in Lagos, hosted by Access Bank Plc, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy disclosed that event unfolding over the last couple of weeks have cast a shadow over the global economy, especially Nigeria and other African countries. She reiterated the fact that commodity prices are declining globally in the last couple of days, with the Bonny Light, Nigeria’s reference crude, trading at about $83 per barrel. This, she said, is assuming a disturbing dimension, especially as crude oil export accounts for about 83 per cent of Nigeria’s total export, as well as the fact that the country has to grapple with falling quantity. She said, […]

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Shell responds to scathing report from Amnesty International on oil spills in the Niger Delta. (File/UPI/Brian Kersey) Responding to an Amnesty International report, a Shell spokesman said Friday the company aims to compensate all Nigerians "genuinely affected" by oil spills. Amnesty in a report published Thursday said there is "irrefutable evidence" that Shell Petroleum Co. of Nigeria underestimated the amount of oil spilled in the Niger Delta in 2008 . Around 11,000 villagers from the Bodo community in the oil-rich Niger Delta filed suit in a London court against Shell last year, saying oil spills in the region devastated the regional fisheries industry . "Amnesty International firmly believes Shell knew the Bodo data were wrong," Amnesty’s director for global issues Audrey Gaughran said in a statement. "If it did not it was scandalously negligent — we repeatedly gave them evidence showing they had dramatically underestimated the spills." Shell had […]

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ByJosie Cox The Naira is being hit but it’s not alone, with the currencies of other major oil economies including Norway and Russia feeling the pain. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Here’s one oil economy that’s having a particularly rough ride. Nigeria, which is dependent on oil and natural gas for 96% of export revenues and 80% of government revenues, has been slammed hard by a slump prices over the last weeks and on Thursday hit yet another all-time low against the dollar – a veritable kick in the teeth for the central bank after it just last week intervened by selling dollars and buying the Naira after the dollar soared above 172 naira. The intervention initially triggered some respite, but today the dollar climbed above the previous peak, to above 173, traders said. The Naira’s drop puts Nigeria among the worst hit of the word’s oil producers, but the ruble, […]

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Abuja — Court documents presented by Amnesty International (AI) have exposed the fact that Shell repeatedly made false claims about the size and impact of two major oil spills at Bodo in the Niger Delta, allegedly in an attempt to minimise its compensation payments. AI said in a report yesterday that evidence that Shell underestimated the Bodo spills emerged in a United Kingdom (UK) legal action brought by 15,000 people whose livelihoods were devastated by oil pollution in 2008. The court action has forced Shell to finally admit the company had underplayed the true magnitude of at least two spills and the extent of damage caused. According to AI, the documents also showed that Shell had known for years that its pipelines in the Niger Delta were old and faulty. "The potential repercussions are that hundreds of thousands of people may have been denied or underpaid compensation based on […]

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Decline in the global price of oil is eroding Nigeria’s external reserves and increasing pressure on the country’s currency. THE Federal Government is at risk of losing part of its 2014 crude oil earnings of over $84 billion (N13.4 trillion) to the continuous decline in the prices of crude oil. Nigeria realized about $40 billion (N6.4 trillion) from crude oil export between January and June 2014, having earned N13.4 trillion in 2013. According to the United State Energy Information Administration (EIA), This revenue positioned Nigeria as the fourth highest earner among oil producing countries, after Saudi Arabia ($274 billion), Kuwait ($45 billion), and Iraq ($45 billion), during the same period. Already, members of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had its revenue slashed in the first half of this year due to the decline in the price of crude oil during the period. As at Monday this week, the cost […]

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Central bank rules to curb foreign-currency borrowing by Nigerian lenders threaten to halt Eurobond sales by banks in Africa ’s biggest oil producer as lower crude prices heighten risks to the naira. Banks will probably turn to rights offers and naira debt rather than selling dollar bonds, according to FBN Capital, the investment-banking unit of Nigeria ’s largest bank by assets, Lagos-based FBN Holdings Plc. (FBNH) Nigerian dollar notes lost 0.4 percent this month, compared with a 2.2 percent average return among 57 emerging markets tracked by Bloomberg indexes . Slumping oil prices are weighing on the outlook for Africa’s biggest economy, weakening the naira and eroding foreign-currency earnings. The central bank in a statement dated Oct. 24 capped the amount of borrowing banks can do in foreign currencies as percentages of shareholders’ funds. “The central bank rule will slow the issuance of dollar bonds,” Bunmi Asaolu, a banking […]

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Related Topics Nigeria Nigeria: Synagogue Victims Died of Crush Inju… Petroleum Nigeria: NASS, FG Disagree Over N1.2 Trillion… Ads by Google WORRIED about the slow growth of the downstream oil and gas sector due to what it considered as a result of the regulated regime in the industry, the Federal Government yesterday stressed the need to eliminate price subsidy and stimulate competition. Besides, the country’s downstream sector requires investments of about $20 billion (N3.2 trillion) yearly to support the sector. This came as the House of Representatives assured stakeholders that the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be passed into law before May 2015. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who spoke at the ongoing eighth oil trading expo in Lagos, said that to provide a competitive market environment and sustain supply, the downstream sector should be fully deregulated. According to her, more investments in the sector will […]

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The Federal Government, yesterday, raised an alarm over the decline in the global crude oil prices, saying that it is already putting in place stricter measures to cushion the effect of the drop on the Nigerian economy. "Nigeria has two to three months of rainy day savings to cushion it while contingencies are put in place should world oil prices continue to fall," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Co-ordinating Minister for Economy told the Financial Times. Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that should oil price dip below $78, the country would have to draw down on the Excess Crude Account (ECA). She said, "Our intention is not to run in there and raid it, but even if prices continue to go down we can survive sufficiently for two to three months. That is the time needed to get other measures in place. What you don’t want is a hard landing." "Our buffers are slimmer this […]

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The rising spate of insecurity in Bayelsa state heightened Friday as gunmen, suspected to be sea pirates, carried out attacks on barges and boats along the Nembe waterways in Bayelsa, abducting six oil workers and four policemen. The pirates also dispossessed the policemen of a gunboat and made away with the arms onboard. The attacks, according to witnesses, occurred separately on Friday causing fear and tension amongst coastal communities and boat operators as the security operatives appeared helpless and defeated. When contacted for comments, the spokesperson for Bayelsa police command, Alex Akhigbe, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said he was on official duty in Abuja and unaware of developments in Bayelsa. The state Police Commissioner, Valentine Ntomchukwu, claimed he was busy in a meeting. Witnesses however said the Police gunboat was escorting a barge operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) when it was attacked. The sea pirates, […]

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Lagos — The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has berated the federal government over what it described as its lackluster plan on how the country will deal with the fall in international price of crude oil. The Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had recently said the federal government has put in place contingency plans to deal with the dwindling price of crude oil. But speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Director-General of NECA, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, said government ought to flesh out such plans as well as explain the implications of the fall in the price of crude oil to Nigerians and how the nation would cope with the development. He warned that the country is prone to serious economic crisis if there are no concrete plans to deal with the situation and advised Nigerians to cut down on their skyrocketing expenses. He reasoned that […]

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A person holds up a sign as local clergy, activists and and community leaders protest for the safe return of the 276 abducted schoolgirls outside the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the UN Nigeria has reached a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram and secured a deal for the release of 219 schoolgirls held by the extremist group for more than six months, military and presidency officials claimed on Friday. No details of the agreement, announced in the capital Abuja, have emerged and Boko Haram has yet to confirm the deal. However, Nigerian newspapers and websites have been reporting that fresh negotiations between presidency and military officials and representatives of the terrorist group have been taking place in recent days. The talks allegedly also involved neighbouring Chad and Cameroon. More On this topic Buhari enters Nigerian presidency race Nigeria claims success against Boko Haram Boko Haram targets Nigerian forces More […]

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Home | News & Analysis | Latest News Headlines | Nigeria proposes $78/b oil price benchmark for 2015 budget Lagos (Platts)–16Oct2014/747 am EDT/1147 GMT Nigeria is proposing an oil price benchmark of $78/barrel for the purposes of revenue calculations in its 2015 budget, according to a government paper seen Thursday, amid concerns over falling oil prices in the international market. The 2015 oil price benchmark, which is slightly higher than the $77.50/b price for the current 2014 budget, was contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework sent by President Goodluck Jonathan to parliament. The oil production target was set at 2.278 million b/d, lower than the 2.38 million b/d of oil output assumed for 2014, as the government admitted that crude oil theft still posed a major threat to aims to increase oil production. "Our [oil price] proposal is also driven by the need to be cautious in our […]

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Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell a productive Nigerian oil block to a consortium led by oil-trading firm Taleveras Group, say two people familiar with the matter.  Nigeria’s Taleveras Continue Reading

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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The ongoing strike action embarked upon by workers in the oil sector has cut off gas supply to five power generating plants across the country, thereby putting the country at Continue Reading

Effect of ongoing nationwide strike by the oil workers was recorded on Thursday in Abuja as long queues by motorists for petrol were seen at many filling stations in the Continue Reading

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, on Thursday in Abuja urged Nigerians not to panic over the current fuel scarcity in the country.  Wogu made the call Continue Reading

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 […]

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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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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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(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 […]

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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, […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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First the U.S. shale-oil boom took away Nigeria ’s biggest crude-export market. Now Africa ’s biggest economy is depending on American fuel to power its vehicles and planes. The CHART OF THE DAY shows how U.S. imports of Nigerian crude have almost converged with American sales of refined-petroleum cargoes like gasoline and kerosene shipped in the opposite direction. The U.S. gets less than 2 percent of its oil from Nigeria, compared with 7 percent in 2011, Energy Department data show. Nigeria imported more than half of its fuels from America at times in 2013, from less than a fifth three years ago, according to IHS Inc., a consulting firm. Surging oil output in the U.S., most of it banned from export under decades-old laws, hands refiners on the Gulf Coast inexpensive feedstock to process into cargoes such as gasoline for sale overseas. Nigeria’s growing dependence highlights its […]

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Nigeria will be losing about N342.4 million ($2.14 million) daily, as Italian oil firm, Eni, yesterday, shut down its 20,000 barrels per day crude oil pipeline in Nigeria. The shut down, according to the company, is due to sabotage on the pipeline, which had led to the interruption of 4,000 barrels a day it gets from its 20 per cent share in Nigerian Agip Oil Company. Wall Street Journal reported that Eni’s disclosure confirmed information from a local activist, who stated that pipeline had been blown up late Sunday. The activist had previously said Eni’s local operation is in a dispute with former security contractors on the project, a claim Eni spokesman failed to confirm or deny. "Uncertainty coming from places like Libya and Iraq has been offset by the fact. Physical cargoes of oil in the Atlantic Basin, Nigeria for one, remain well supplied," Dominick Chirichella, analyst at […]

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LONDON—Italian oil giant Eni SpA said on Wednesday it had shut off some crude production following sabotage on a Nigerian pipeline, in a reminder oil- supply disruption risks continue beyond hot spots such as Libya and Iraq. An Eni spokesman said a pipeline it operates in the central part of Nigeria’s Niger Delta had been shut, leading to the interruption of 4,000 barrels a day it gets from its 20% share in Nigerian Agip Oil Co. That implies an overall disruption of 20,000 barrels a day form the affected part of the whole venture. Eni’s disclosure confirmed information from a local activist, who said the pipeline had been blown up late Sunday. The activist has previously said Eni’s local operation is in a dispute with former security contractors on the project. The Eni spokesman didn’t confirm or deny the dispute. Though the disruption is small, it comes at a […]

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Nigeria LNG Ltd Wednesday said it was gradually losing global LNG market share due to a delay in the expansion of the six train Bonny LNG plant in the Niger Delta. The Bonny plant produces 22 million mt/year of LNG, but plans to build a seventh train and increase output to 30 million mt/year, initially from 2010, have failed to materialize. "NLNG used to be the 10th-largest supplier but it is gradually losing the market to international competitors who have continued to expand their businesses. It is therefore imperative that NLNG increases its production in order not to lose more market share," the company’s general manager in charge of production, Chima Isilebo, said in a statement. NNPC holds a 49% interest in the Bonny plant alongside Shell (25.6%), Total (15%) and Eni (10.4%). The delay in building the seventh train has cost Nigeria $2.5 billion/year in potential revenue, as […]

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Shell has opened talks with leaders of the Nembe community in the Niger Delta to stave off potential unrest that could disrupt the company’s operations, a Shell spokesman said Thursday. The talks come after the Nembe community in Brass Local Government Area of southern Bayelsa State Wednesday issued a 30-day ultimatum to Shell to shut down its operations for failing to abide by the terms of a General Memorandum of Understanding reached between the two parties last year. "We held discussions with the board [of the Nembe city development foundation] at Yenagoa on July 22 and are continuing to jointly explore ways of resolving the issues at stake," Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo said. He said Shell is committed to the development of host communities in the Niger Delta. The Nembe community is host to Shell-operated Nembe Creek pipeline, which can carry 150,000 b/d of crude feeding directly into the […]

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Visit This Day (Lagos) Scarcity of aviation fuel known as Jet A1, has paralysed flight operations in Nigeria, leading to delays and cancellation of flights. The non-availability of the product which started few days ago, is forcing passengers to wait as long as seven hours before being airlifted, while flights to some destinations were cancelled due to the inability of the airlines to source the product. This had given rise to increase in fares, which might double by weekend if the scarcity continues as the largest Nigerian operator, Arik Air, has started merging its flights in order to ensure that passengers are taken to their destinations. A source from one of the domestic airlines said although the scarcity had started biting hard, the airline’s management has good relationship with its vendors so the scarcity would not disrupted its flights. But that depends on the size of the fleet because […]

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Visit This Day (Lagos) Scarcity of aviation fuel known as Jet A1, has paralysed flight operations in Nigeria, leading to delays and cancellation of flights. The non-availability of the product which started few days ago, is forcing passengers to wait as long as seven hours before being airlifted, while flights to some destinations were cancelled due to the inability of the airlines to source the product. This had given rise to increase in fares, which might double by weekend if the scarcity continues as the largest Nigerian operator, Arik Air, has started merging its flights in order to ensure that passengers are taken to their destinations. A source from one of the domestic airlines said although the scarcity had started biting hard, the airline’s management has good relationship with its vendors so the scarcity would not disrupted its flights. But that depends on the size of the fleet because […]

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Nigeria has been listed as the country with the highest incidents of crude oil theft in the world, according to data released by Oilprice.com. According to the website, with as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil stolen daily, Nigeria is ranked worse than Mexico, Iraq, Russia and Indonesia on the top five countries most plagued by oil theft. The report put Nigeria’s losses to crude theft at $1.7 billion, about N272 billion per month, representing 7.7 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP. The report said: “This represents 7.7 percent of Nigeria’s GDP vanishing, or more than the country spends on education and healthcare. “These numbers paint a harsh picture about the inability of the Nigerian government and the multinational oil companies in Niger Delta, to do anything about this rampant theft. “With oil theft hitting record levels in 2013, the G8 has been reminded of its 2000 […]

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