Category: West Africa

NIGERIA has started to witness the negative effect of shale oil exploration in the United Stated of America, USA, and other parts of the world, as Nigeria’s crude oil export to North America dropped by 91.31 per cent in one year. Specifically, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s, December 2013 Petroleum Information, disclosed that Nigeria exported 1.438 million barrels of crude oil to North America as at December 2013, down by 15.111 million barrels in December 2012. North America accounted for 22.19 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export by December 2012, but it dropped to 2.23 per cent by December 2013. Prior to the decline, the US was the highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude, purchasing 14.279 million barrels in December 2012, thereby, accounting for 19.15 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export and 86.28 per cent of total crude export to North America. By 2013 end, […]

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NIGERIA has started to witness the negative effect of shale oil exploration in the United Stated of America, USA, and other parts of the world, as Nigeria’s crude oil export to North America dropped by 91.31 per cent in one year. Specifically, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s, December 2013 Petroleum Information, disclosed that Nigeria exported 1.438 million barrels of crude oil to North America as at December 2013, down by 15.111 million barrels in December 2012. North America accounted for 22.19 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export by December 2012, but it dropped to 2.23 per cent by December 2013. Prior to the decline, the US was the highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude, purchasing 14.279 million barrels in December 2012, thereby, accounting for 19.15 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export and 86.28 per cent of total crude export to North America. By 2013 end, […]

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The man in the large SUV forces his way to the front of the line at the gas station, ignoring the blaring horns and threats of fisticuffs from drivers who have slept in their cars and waited for more than 12 hours for the scarce fuel. Raw anger and frayed tempers give way to resignation as the big man wins, waved in by fuel attendants, no doubt expecting a bribe. Nigeria, despite being Africa’s biggest petroleum producer, has been dogged by a fuel shortage for weeks. In this West African nation that does not only mean scarce gas to keep cars on the road. It means no diesel to run generators that are the lifeblood of industry in a country where frequent power cuts last hours. It means no kerosene for stoves used to cook meals by tens of millions of poor people. […]

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Nigeria overtook South Africa on Sunday to become Africa’s largest economy and 26th largest in the world after the government released updated figures that nearly doubled estimates for gross domestic product. As a result of the statistical revision, Nigerian GDP for 2013 was $509bn, 89 per cent larger than previously stated for last year. The change was made by bringing forward the base year for calculations to 2010 from 1990, when the structure of the economy was very different and services such as banking and telecoms had barely taken off. Companies ranging from Nestlé and Standard Bank to Heineken and MTB have already poured millions of dollars into Nigeria but foreign businessmen and analysts said the revision could serve as a catalyst for further investment. “The revision will have a psychological impact. It underlines to foreign investors that this country has a large consumer base. It validates the […]

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The nation’s pioneer crude oil refining plant, Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), has again been shut down. LEADERSHIP learnt that the plant was shut down last Friday following some operational challenges, especially at some of its strategic units. It was learnt that hitches with some major units, particularly Fluid Cracking Catalyst (FCC), regarded as heart of refining operation, Topping and Reforming units, made the shutdown of the plant inevitable. Findings showed, for instance, that Catalyst, a feedstock of FCC unit, was in short supply while there was a haulage crisis at Topping Unit (TU), whose fate was said to have impacted the Reforming Unit (RU). The latest development coincided with the vandalisation of the pipeline which conveys crude oil from the various fields of Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL) in Escravos to Warri and Kaduna refineries. The pipeline, known as System 2C, is reported to have been ruptured by […]

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THE history of crude oil production in Nigeria informs us that the Shell Oil Company was the first to discover oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria. The location was Oloibriri (now in Bayelsa State), and the year was 1956. Two years later, Nigeria’s first consignment of crude oil was exported from the Oloibiri oil fields. But what is not well advertised is the fact that gas flaring has been taking place in Nigeria since 1958. The ecological disaster and associated consequences of gas flaring in Nigeria have been well-documented, and do not constitute the main objective in this dispatch from America. As a Vanguard newspaper reporter, I once joined the Nigerian Navy on an exercise in Escravos. As we flew in their helicopter above the off-shore oil rigs at night, we could see what looked like a festival of a million tongues of fire in the ocean. Our Navy […]

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Some oil marketers on Monday threatened to embark on industrial strike following the shutdown of Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). The News Agency reports that NUPENG shutdown the NIPCO facilities on March 24. Mr Abidemi Agunbiade, Chairman, a concerned group of IPMAN, expressed worries over the looming fuel scarcity in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. Agunbiade said that the shutdown of the NIPCO had affected over 1,000 marketers who had paid money to load petrol. According to him, over 450 million litres of fuel imported to discharge into NIPCO depot are still on the high seas due to the shutdown of the company. "About four vessels are on the high seas including those of the NNPC. "The stranded vessels are paying demurrage of 15,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars on daily basis due to […]

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Another round of fuel scarcity is looming following plans by the leadership of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to shut its over 10,000 fuel stations across the country in protest of the closure of NIPCO by the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). NUPENG closed down the operations of the NIPCO Plc, a subsidiary of IPMAN, due to the ongoing leadership tussle rocking the association. The crisis began following a court ruling declaring Chief Lawson Obasi, former zonal chairman of IPMAN, south-east region, as president of the association. But the current IPMAN president, Aminu Abdulkadir, maintains that the association remains an indivisible entity, adding that anybody who claims to be a leader besides the elected officials is going against a court order which has not yet been vacated. Speaking through his special adviser, media, Mr Ezekwesili Maduagwuna, yesterday, Abdulkadir maintained that the involvement by […]

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The Management of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, SPDC, on Thursday said it had declared a force majeure on the lifting of crude from its Forcados facility in Warri, Delta State. The SPDC’s spokesperson, Precious Okolobo, in an email to PREMIUM TIMES, stated that the action was taken on Tuesday to allow for repairs on the 48-inch crude export pipeline. Mr. Okolobo noted that the subsea line was shut when a leak was discovered on March 4, leading to suspension of SPDC and third party crude oil exports through the terminal. A part of the mail read: "The SPDC Joint Venture declared force majeure on lifting of Forcados blend effective 0900hrs on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, due to ongoing repairs on the 48-inch crude export line at Forcados Terminal in the Western Niger Delta. The subsea line was shut when a leak was discovered on March 4, 2014, leading to […]

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Nigeria’s export of crude oil has suffered a major setback as Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) yesterday declared force majeure on the export of Forcados grade of crude oil after it had shut down the 400,000 barrels per day capacity Forcados export terminal in Delta State. The declaration of he force majeure has freed the oil giant from contractual obligations to its customers due to circumstances beyond its control. Shell and other third parties export crude oil from the Western Niger Delta through the Forcados terminal, which was once shut down on October 19, 2012, due to flooding and damage to the supply pipelines. However, the company resumed loadings at the terminal on November 21, 2012 and also lifted the force majeure declared on exports of Forcados grade of crude oil. Before yesterday’s declaration of force majeure on Forcados exports, the export terminal had earlier been shut down when […]

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