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Nigeria: Nationwide Fuel Scarcity Looms As Key NNPC Depots Run Dry

In what seems a baptism of fire for President Muhammadu Buhari in his first week as Minister of Petroleum Resources, pockets of queues in filling stations in some major cities across the country appear to have stretched as the fuel scarcity worsened on Friday. In spite of assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, industry operators remain sceptical that these were ominous signs the country may be heading for a big mess in the run up to the coming yuletide season. The operators’ scepticism is fuelled by reports that stock of petroleum products at NNPC facilities across the country was grossly insufficient, with supply from local refineries incapable of supporting imports. The Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, DAPPMA, Olufemi Adewole, said on Saturday that all its members who own most of the products storage facilities across the country were fast running out of stock of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Exxon Mobil to drill offshore post-Ebola Liberia in 2017

A Exxon Mobil gas station is seen in Encinitas, California October 28, 2014. Exxon Mobil Corp said it plans to start drilling in Liberia in 2017, in what President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said was a sign of economic recovery after the Ebola epidemic. The West African country produces no oil but has awarded a number of exploration blocs offshore, following the examples of Gulf of Guinea neighbors Ghana and Nigeria. Exxon Mobil intends to start drilling late 2017, Steven Buck, its country manager for Liberia and Ivory Coast, said. The U.S. oil major signed for bloc 13 in 2003 but put the project on hold due to the Ebola epidemic. The worst known outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever killed 4,800 people in the country and deterred investors. Liberia was declared Ebola-free in September but Johnson Sirleaf has said it will take two years to regain its economic footing. "I […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigerian crude oil values plummeting on limited buying interest

The Nigerian crude oil market remains under pressure — many grades have lost around $1/b in value since the start of October — as an abundance of sweet crude and high freight rates have failed to excite interest from refinery buyers. With traders also saying Nigerian grades account for the bulk of the estimated 65 million barrels or so still unsold from November and December West African crude programs, flagship Qua Iboe hit a 10-month low Wednesday with smaller grade Escravos at a 6-1/2 year trough, Platts data showed. "There is a big overhang, with such cheap Urals and Azeri [Light in Europe] for instance, European refineries can take closer grades and that is clearly affecting WAF grades," one European refinery trader said. Qua Iboe was assessed Wednesday at Dated Brent plus $0.20/b, the lowest since January 13 and down from Dated Brent plus $1.25/b at the start of […]

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Tullow Cuts Upper End of Forecast for West African Oil Output

Tullow Oil Plc cut the upper end of its 2015 forecast for West African oil production after operations in Ghana were affected by a gas-compression fault earlier this year. Output from the region will be 66,000 to 67,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day this year, the London-based company said Wednesday in a statement. That compares with guidance for as much as 70,000 barrels a day in July. Exports from Ghana’s Jubilee project, Tullow’s largest producing field, were halted on July 3 for about a month for repairs to the floating production vessel. The company, like other energy producers around the world, has also suffered from a 40 percent slump in crude prices over the past year amid a global supply glut. Its shares have tumbled more than 50 percent in the period. Another major development off Ghana, the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme — or TEN — project, is on schedule to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigerian Crude Oil to Be Sold Directly to Refiners

Henceforth, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will sell crude oil directly to refiners and purchase refined oil products from them, a measure intended to cut out middlemen and curb graft from the oil sector. The spokesman of NNPC, Ohi Alegbe in a statement on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 said the move was "designed to enshrine transparency and eliminate the activities of middlemen in the crude oil exchange" that have characterized the hitherto swap scheme, Reuters reported. Associated Press further cited him as explaining that the decision was made after a screening of previously used and prequalified petroleum product importers revealed almost all the 34 international and 10 local companies were middleman businesses. NNPC had shortlisted 44 companies for the swap agreements for 2016, also called "offshore processing arrangements" (OPAs), but said most of them did not directly operate refineries, Reuters said. Getting oil products from such companies, NNPC […]

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Chevron: Production started at shared African oil field

Chevron says start of oil production in field straddling the borders of the Congo and Angola could serve as a model in a region prone to territorial disputes. Image courtesy of Chevron. SAN RAMON, Calif., Nov. 3 (UPI) — Chevron said the development of oil reserves straddling the maritime border of the Republics of Congo and Angola could serve as a model for Africa. Chevron’s subsidiary in the region announced it started oil and gas production from the Lianzi field in a unified offshore economic zone straddling the borders of Congo and Angola. The project is the first in the region to start operations for Chevron and the first cross-border development in Africa. "As the first offshore energy development spanning national boundaries in the Central Africa region, Lianzi represents a unique cooperative approach to share offshore resources and may serve as a model for the development of similar cross-border […]

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Nigeria: Shell ‘Blatantly Lied’ About Niger Delta Pollution – Amnesty International

Multi-national oil company, Shell, lied when it claimed it had cleaned up heavily polluted areas of the Niger Delta, Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) said in a new report published on Tuesday. The report titled, "Clean it up: Shell’s false claims about oil spills in the Niger Delta", documents ongoing contamination at four oil spill sites that Shell said it had cleaned up years ago. Amnesty said the report was published to mark the 20th anniversary of the execution of the environmental activist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Mr. Saro-Wiwa, who campaigned relentlessly against damage caused to the Ogoni area of Rivers State, was executed by the Sani Abacha junta on November 10, 1995. "By inadequately cleaning up the pollution from its pipelines and wells, Shell is leaving thousands of women, men and children exposed to contaminated land, water and air, in some […]

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Africa’s Biggest Economy Defying Currency Critics Chokes Growth

Nigeria’s economy is growing at the slowest pace this decade as oil prices drop. Companies are complaining they can’t get the dollars they need to do business. And trading in the naira has long since dried up. There are many good reasons why Godwin Emefiele, who runs the central bank of Africa’s biggest economy, should lift currency controls and let the naira depreciate. One of the things holding him back is politics. Devaluing the naira may give opposition parties the opportunity to claim that Emefiele’s main supporter, President Muhammadu Buhari, has lost control of the economy. With his backing, the policy chief will be able to resist his critics into 2016 before the worsening economic slump eventually forces him to capitulate, according to Standard Chartered Plc and Bank of America Corp. “They could probably hold out for at least six months, maybe even a year,” said Ayodele Salami, chief […]

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Angola: Why Luanda’s Residents Are Asking – Where Did All the Oil Riches Go?

A few years ago, Luanda, the capital of Angola, was on every ambitious investor’s lips . With large infrastructure and housing projects rapidly changing its appearance, the city seemed to be leaving behind the country’s 27-year civil war. But hopes for renewal are slowly dissipating as the price of the commodity on which Angola’s future was being constructed – oil – steadily declines. Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer. It is one of the countries that have been hardest hit by the fall in oil prices. The oil crash forced Angola to slash its 2015 budget by US$17 billion (a 25% reduction ). Construction companies are having difficulties paying their workers, and the Angolan central bank has devalued the currency , the kwanza. Construction threatens to screech to a halt. The fantasy built on oil is crumbling, showing that its benefits were barely felt outside privileged sites of elite […]

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Nigeria: Country’s Crude Oil Prices Dip to Two Months Low

The prices of Nigeria’s crude oil grades have recorded significant decline over the last two weeks, fuelling concerns over the ability of the country to meet its revenue target and fund its budget. This was even as shipping companies have started hiking their price for the lifting of crude oil from Nigeria. Meanwhile, the call, weekend, by Lamido Sanusi, Emir of Kano and immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the removal of fuel subsidy has continued to draw reactions from stakeholders and industry experts. 5Data obtained, weekend, from Platts, a global energy information service, revealed that Nigeria’s crude oil grades had, over the last two weeks, dropped between 60 cents and 40 cents, the lowest in two months. According to the report, Nigeria’s flagship crude oil grade, Qua Iboe, was assessed at a premium to Dated Brent of $0.65 per barrel, the lowest since […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple