Category: West Africa

Nigeria’s central bank will meet with banking executives and currency dealers on Friday and will probably discuss foreign-exchange trading restrictions, people familiar with the matter said. While the agenda hasn’t been disclosed, officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria may consult about easing currency trading rules, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the meeting is private. Traders and bankers have called for a loosening of controls enforced by central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele to protect the currency of Africa’s biggest oil producer against a 40 percent slump in Brent crude prices in the past year. The naira has weakened 18 percent against the dollar in that period. Central bank spokesmen Ibrahim Mu’azu and Ugochukwu Okoroafor couldn’t immediately confirm whether a meeting is taking place when contacted by phone on Thursday.

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The federal government and the oil and gas producing companies may have lost an estimated $11.5billion to the drop in the price of Brent crude oil from $115 per barrel in June to $68.62 yesterday, THISDAY has learnt. With Nigeria producing about 2.4 million barrels per day and exporting 2.2 million barrels per day, the country may have lost as much as $11.5 billion between June and November this year, forcing the federal government to introduce a raft of measures to shore up its revenue in the face of dwindling earning from crude oil, its main revenue source. The situation may even become more dire should the slide persist. When THISDAY called the Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala late last night for confirmation of the amount lost so far, she said: “It is not a straight forward arithmetical issue. It is pretty late […]

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The Nigerian government should start selling off its stakes in oil joint ventures with foreign partners to ease the funding issues and leakage of cash due to corruption and waste which have impeded the country’s bid to increase production, oil industry auditors said Monday. The government through state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. holds an average 57% interest in joint ventures with Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and Eni, which account for about 90% of Nigeria’s 2 million b/d oil output. "This divestment will open the arrangement for private sector participation," auditor the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said. "Above all, it will reduce the corrupt practices, waste and other leakages associated with the management of the JVs over the years," the agency said, adding that the recommendation, following a review of the industry by stakeholders, aimed to assist the reform program of the new government. Article continues […]

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Nigeria’s crude oil production output for May, increased by 230,900 barrels per day (bpd), according to the monthly oil market report of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released on Wednesday. Specifically, the country’s production output, based on direct communication, rose from 1.650 million barrels per day in April to 1.881 million bpd in May. The country’s crude oil production output for April had earlier increased by 19,000 bpd, while the figure based on secondary sources, put the rise in April at 1.886 bpd from 1.867 bpd recorded in March According to the report, production by member countries in May rose by 24,000 barrels per day (bpd), due to increases in Iraq and Angola and record output in top exporter Saudi Arabia. OPEC said it expected that the world’s oversupply of crude oil to ease over the coming quarters. "The projections for market fundamentals indicate that the current […]

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Abuja — The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider making it a priority of his government to recover the $18.1 billion unremitted oil and gas funds from oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria. NEITI said that over $7.5 billion, which represents underpayments, under-assessment of taxes, royalties and rents as revealed by several independent audit reports of the agency, as well as $11.6 billion which represents outstanding total dividends arising from loans and interest repayments from the federal government’s investment in the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company were still outstanding. The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, stated in Abuja that while these monies were still outstanding, issues around their recoveries had not been adequately addressed in the past. A statement from the agency’s head of communications, Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed that NEITI had made this call to Buhari at […]

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There are indications that fuel marketers, may have agreed to distribute fuel brought in by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, after talking with the new administration last weekend. This is as many petrol stations in Lagos still sell above the official pump price of N87, as other cities are still suffering from shortages despite the end of a fuel distribution strike. After the negotiation last weekend, fuel is expected to become available not just at NNPC retail stations but those owned by major and independent marketers to reduce the queues of double-parked cars. Nigeria now depends wholly on swapping its crude for fuel imports, Obafemi Olawore, Executive Secretary for Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) said, as those waiting for subsidy payments are unable to secure commercial loans to bring in fresh supplies."At the moment we are unable to import because we don’t have the support from the […]

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Abuja — The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on President Muhamadu Buhari to increase local refining capacity before embarking on any deregulation process This is contained in a statement on Tuesday by PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, Mr Emmanuel Ojugbana. The union called on the president to ensure that the focus of deregulation policy was based on local production rather than importation. It said that if local refining was not increased to meet local demand for petroleum products, especially the premium motor spirit (petrol), removing subsidy on petroleum products would bring more hardship on Nigeria. It stated that removing subsidy while the country depended on importation of refined products would make prices of refined products to be out of the reach of the masses and would cause inflation. It said that importation of refined petroleum products was a major drain on the […]

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Abuja — Despite the assurances by stakeholders in the petroleum sector on the resolution of the crisis in the sector, fuel scarcity has persisted in Abuja with widespread sharp practices recorded across almost all the petrol stations. Of note is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, mega stations along the Kubwa Expressway, where some officials of the outlet connived with some policemen and security agents to frustrate motorists and heighten the suffering of Nigerians. Specifically, when Vanguard visited the petrol station, some policemen stationed outside the entrance were collecting N1,000 from some motorists and allowing them to enter into the petrol station through the exit gate, thereby, leaving other motorists who had queued for hours stranded. Only 9 out of 40 pumps dispensing Also, of the over 40 pumps in the station, only about nine were dispensing to motorists. Two of the pumps were selling to the hundreds of […]

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The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police to provide adequate protection for its members, to enable them sell fuel for 24 hours. Chief Chinedu Okoronkwo, IPMAN’s President, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja. Okoronkwo said the appeal had become necessary following the unions directive to its members to sell fuel for 24 hours to clear the queues that had persisted across the country. The president, who expressed concern over the queues, said the measure was to ease the scarcity and make the product available to motorists. "We were not part of the strike that gave birth to the scarcity but we have taken the measure because when the system is burnt all other parts of the body will be affected. "Major marketers, transporters, owners and drivers, in one way or […]

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ABUJA, Nigeria—Islamist terror group Boko Haram conducted a three-day spree of assaults that killed at least 42 people in northeast Nigeria, marking a grim beginning to the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari. The attacks began on Friday, when a bomb killed 10 people at a wedding in the town of Hawul, two residents said. The blast took place around the time Mr. Buhari was reciting his oath of office in the capital , Abuja, about 400 miles away. “Some of us managed to escape,” said Haruna Musa, who was at the wedding. The next day, a suicide bomber struck a market in Maiduguri, the largest city in northeast Nigeria, killing 16 people, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia said. Maiduguri has been the focus of Boko Haram’s terror campaign over the past six years, and Mr. Buhari on Friday said Nigeria’s top generals will be relocated there to […]

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