Category: West Africa

LONDON (Reuters) – The victory of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria’s presidential election could mark a turning point toward genuine democracy for the country, improving the image and moral standing of Africa’s troubled giant. The defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has run Africa’s most populous nation since it returned to civilian rule in 1999, was the first time a Nigerian head of state lost power to an opposition challenger through the ballot box. "It’s not the result that we wanted but it’s a good day for Nigeria if we show the world we can run a credible election," said a minister in Jonathan’s government, who did not wish to be named because others in the PDP were angry about the result. Jonathan telephoned Buhari on Tuesday to congratulate him on winning this weekend’s election, a spokesman for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) said. […]

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ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian opposition contender Muhammadu Buhari, an ex-general who first won power three decades ago in a military coup, closed in on a historic election victory on Tuesday, maintaining a hefty lead in the vote count in Africa’s most populous nation. According to a Reuters tally collated from 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the 72-year-old Buhari had more than 14 million votes, testament to the faith Nigerians have put in him as a born-again democrat intent on cleaning up Nigeria’s corrupt politics. Buhari’s support compared to 11 million for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose five years at the helm of the richest country in Africa have been plagued by corruption scandals and an insurgency by Islamist Boko Haram militants. One of Jonathan’s big support bases in the oil-producing Niger Delta is yet to report but the gap is so large that most analysts said it was impossible to […]

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French oil giant Total said Monday that it has sold its stake in a Nigerian oil field to a local company for $569 million (523 million euros). Total’s sale of its share in the onshore Oil Mining Lease 29 to Aiteo Eastern E&P comes after the French group made two similar divestments in Nigeria. The three transactions reached a sum of $1 billion. "These transactions … reduce our exposure to non-operated blocks onshore Nigeria, and allow us to focus on our core, operated developments," said Patrick de La Chevardiere, Total’s Chief Financial Officer. The group added that the divestment is "in line with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s aim of developing Nigerian companies in the sector". Energy groups have been slashing their investments in a bid to shore up earnings, as crude prices have collapsed by about 60 percent since June.

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KANO, Nigeria — The most sharply contested election in Nigeria ’s post-independence history wound down to a tense conclusion on Saturday amid fears that a polarized electorate would clash regardless of the outcome in a country split on religious, ethnic and sectional lines. There appeared to be little middle ground between partisans of the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan , a Christian from the south hated in the north for mismanaging a bloody Islamist insurgency at steep cost, and his challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, a northerner and a belated democratic convert whose Muslim faith and authoritarian past are feared in the south. Voters on Saturday morning crowded around registration stations here in the north’s largest city, a packed metropolis of more than five million, as hitches in the process added to the tension. Election officials were more than two hours late in some places, and malfunctioning electronic […]

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The value of Nigeria’s external reserves, which has been on the downswing in the past few weeks, fell below the $30 billion mark to $29.865 billion as at March 25, 2015, according to latest Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) figures. THISDAY’s findings show that the current level of the foreign reserves, which is derived mainly from the proceeds of crude oil earnings, has fallen by 13.4 per cent or $4.628 billion this year, compared with the $34.493 billion it stood at the beginning of the year. This has been attributed to the significant reduction in forex inflow into the country occasioned by the sustained low crude oil prices. Oil prices however rallied for a second straight day on Thursday after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies began air strikes in Yemen, sparking fears of a bigger Middle East battle that could disrupt world crude supplies. Brent crude was […]

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Royal Dutch Shell unloads more assets in the Niger Delta region to national energy companies in Nigeria. File Photo UPI/Maryam Rahmanian. The Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell said it made further progress in its divestment strategy by selling Niger Delta assets from $1.7 billion. Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria said it completed the sale of oil mining lease 29 and the 62-mile long Nembe Creek pipeline to Aiteo Eastern E&P Co., a Nigerian company. "This divestment is part of the strategic review of SPDC’s onshore portfolio and is in line with the federal government of Nigeria’s aim of developing Nigerian companies in the country’s upstream oil and gas business," the Dutch supermajor said in a Wednesday statement. Shell last week sold its stake in oil mining lease 30 to a separate rival for $737 million. Divested fields produced around 43,000 barrels of oil per day for Shell […]

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Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC) has completed its assignment of interest in oil mining lease 29 (OML 29) and the Nembe Creek trunk line (NCTL) and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta to Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd. for $1.7 billion. OML 29 covers 983 sq km and includes Nembe, Santa Barbara, and Okoroba fields and related facilities. NCTL, which was commissioned in 2010, is a 100-km, 600,000-b/d system that transports oil to the Bonny crude oil terminal (BCOT). BCOT is not part of the transaction and will remain owned and operated by the SPDC joint venture. Among the divested assets are flow stations, associated gas systems, and oil and gas pipelines within the OML. The divested fields produced 43,000 boe/d during 2014. Total E&P Nigeria Ltd. and Nigerian Agip Oil Co. Ltd. also have assigned their respective 10% and 5% interests in the lease, […]

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Despite United States’ refusal to import crude oil from Nigeria due to its shale boom, the country exported 2.05 million bpd of crude oil and condensate to Europe and India in 2014. The United States traditionally had been the largest importer of Nigerian oil until the last few years. It changed from being the largest importer of Nigerian oil in 2012 to the 10th largest in 2014. India is now the largest importer of Nigeria’s oil, purchasing about 370,000 bpd or 18 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude exports in 2014. The International Energy Information Administration (IEA), in its 2015 report on Nigeria oil and gas sector, stated that Europe continued to be the largest-regional importer of Nigerian oil, importing slightly more than 900,000 bblpd or 45 per cent of the exports in 2014. According to the report, the United States typically imported between nine per cent and 11 […]

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ENLARGE Fuel drums in Lagos, Nigeria, in an area where illegally refined oil is traded, seen in a 2013 photo. Photo: Benoit Faucon/The Wall Street Journal THE NIGER DELTA, Nigeria—Oil is so cheap these days that for people around here, it isn’t even worth stealing anymore. Just months ago, villagers regularly took hacksaws to pipelines, transforming their homeland of rivulets winding through bayou forests into a calamity for global oil giants and environmentalists. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude spurted daily into buckets, jerrycans and drums that were loaded into canoes. Some got cooked in makeshift refineries fashioned from metal cylinders built along riverbanks. But now, with prices low, the risk of getting busted by Nigeria’s navy now outweighs the get-rich rewards of sabotaging pipelines, stealing oil and smuggling vast quantities of it onto international markets. Indeed, some of these thieves have reverted to plunking fish traps in […]

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(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s on Friday because of falling oil prices and rising political risks before delayed elections due next week in the West African country. The foreign and local currency long-term rating was cut one level to B+, four levels below investment grade. The outlook was changed to stable. “The decline in oil prices in the last seven months has significantly affected Nigeria’s external position and external vulnerability,” S&P said in a statement. “The tightly contested general elections may pose risks to Nigeria’s external position and the implementation of what we view as the government’s ambitious fiscal consolidation plans, while the Boko Haram group continues to disrupt the northeast.” Africa’s largest economy, which derives 90 percent of export earnings and 70 percent of government revenue from oil, is struggling with Brent crude prices having halved since June. The International Monetary Fund […]

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