Nigeria NEWS

In an unfortunate event on Sunday, 15 people died in a gas explosion in Lagos, injuring many more and destroying around 50 buildings. State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said that the blast happened due to a truck that "hit gas bottles stacked up in a gas processing plant. National emergency services spokesman told AFP, "15 bodies have been recovered now. So many people have been injured," .

Nigerian oil and gas firm, Seplat has concluded its £382m purchase of Aberdeen-based company Eland Oil & Gas. First announced in October of 2019, Seplat's acquisition of Eland had to get approval from 75% of Eland shareholders. Eland’s chief executive George Maxwell and chief financial officer Ron Bain will stay at the company during the transition period.

The state oil company of Nigeria, NNPC has informed that following the tender lead, 15 companies have won the right to swap the nation’s crude oil for fuels. Currently, Nigeria is solely reliant on imported fuel. The firm also said that the comapnies that have won are a consortium of 15 companies including Vitol [VITOLV.UL], Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL], oil major BP and local downstream companies.

Malaysian process equipment manufacturer, KNM Group Bhd has landed two contracts worth a combined sum of about RM27.71mil through its subsidiaries. As part of the first contract, the firm will supply air cooler heat exchangers to the Petroleum Refinery and Polypropylene Plant in Nigeria. The second contract will see the firm delivering replacement heat exchangers to Khor Al Zubair’s gas processing plant in Iraq.

A lawsuit which was filed in 2016 by Nigeria, accused many companies of exporting a total of 57 million barrels of crude oil to the United States between 2011 and 2014. The names of the companies also included Eni and Petrobras. However, on Wednesday the Nigerian court ruled out all the claims of the involvement of the subsidiaries of Eni and Petrobras for illegally exporting crude oil to the US.

Senior executives at Shell and Eni are now facing additional corruption allegations over a Nigerian oil deal. In a London lawsuit hearing, Nigerian government asserted about the involvement of executives, including CEOs, into over $1 billion in bribery payments. The years-long dispute over exploration rights to OPL 245 has made it to courtrooms all across Europe. Nigeria has separately prosecuted JP Morgan Chase for transferring payments for the deal.

The acquisition of one of the biggest oil fields in the West African country in 2011 has now been surrounded by controversy. A court in Nigeria has ordered the arrest of two former ministers and others allegedly connected with the deal's illegal payments. Parties to the transaction, Shell and Eni are accused of settling the dispute over the oil field in an unlawful manner.

The Group MD of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mr Baru abbounced that no new gas projects will be approved without zero gas flare modalities. He also assured HOSTCOM of the benefit from the exploration of the nation's hydrocarbon resources by partnering with other host communities. Further, he said, “We will continue to dialogue with the bodies so as to create enabling operating environment for the business and for the communities”.

The CEO of Total, Pouyanne, informed that the company is expected to formally approve the Ikike project in Nigeria in the upcoming months. The energy major holds the largest proven reserves in Africa and is one of the strongest player in the continent. Pouyanne also said, “There is a huge potential in Nigeria, it is probably the most prolific country in West Africa in terms of oil and gas”.

Supermajor Total has informed about initiating production from the Egina field, offshore Nigeria. Egina field is estimated to produce 200,000 bopd. The field is being developed using Total’s largest ever Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit. A 30% reduction in the drilling time per well has allowed Total to achieve the startup approximately 10% less than the initial budget.

Nigerian state-owned NNPC yesterday released the September 2018 edition of the Monthly Financial and Operations Report, indicating a trading surplus of ₦9.85billion for the month. This is a major improvement from the ₦3.90 billion deficit NNPC reported in August. The report indicates that the increment is attributable to higher revenue by the NNPC’s upstream division, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).

Nigerian government has accused energy super major Shell and Italy’s Eni for a 2011 oilfield deal. The government has filed a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the energy giants in a commercial court in London on Thursday. Shell and Eni’s former and current officials are also involved in the ongoing corruption trial in Milan where OPL 245 oilfield is a pressing matter.

For strategic re-engineering of its subsidiaries, NNPC announced that NIDAS Shipping Services will return into the shipment business after seven years. NIDAS will be involved in the international shipment of crude oil and petroleum products. The re-entry of NIDAS will help in value addition to the corporation and ensure multiple income streams. NIDAS established a chartering and operation desk in its UK office as a first step to regain its market position.

Polish state-owned, PKN Orlen’s CEO has said that the firm is expecting its first-ever Nigerian oil shipment next month. A batch of 130,000 tonnes of Nigerian oil is scheduled to arrive in Poland, in November. Poland’s biggest refiner, PKN Orlen imports most of the crude oil from Russia through pipelines. The firm signed a long-term agreement with Saudi Aramco in 2016, in its bid to reduce reliance on Russian supplies.

The oil giant, ExxonMobil raised a concern regarding the blockade at Nigerian oil facilities by previous employees. According to the company, these actions have put the country’s crude oil production at risk. Exxon’s subsidiary, Mobil Producing Nigeria informed that the company’s production is almost 550,000 bpd and added that "continued denial of access to production facilities could impact the company's ability to safely continue production operations".

French supermajor, Total is planning to elevate oil production in Nigeria by 200,000 bpd, by the end of 2018. The company is focusing on the development of the Egina Deep project to achieve the target. Total, reportedly, accounts for 15 percent of Nigeria’s total oil production currently. The French oil firm remains committed to its projects in Nigeria, despite the challenging environment in the African nation.

Reports coming from Nigerian media are claiming that the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is going public. President of Nigeria will soon be signing the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, which aims at making the corruption-ridden state company profitable. The oil firm will reportedly float 40% stocks on the local stock exchange. NNPC will be separated into two firms - the Nigerian Petroleum Company and the Nigerian Petroleum Assets Management Company.

Chevron Nigeria Limited received a 21 days-ultimatum from the Niger Delta militants to re-classify all VTP5/OTP2 and VTP6 trainees. The militants have declared “Operation Black September” for all Chevron Facilities in the Niger Delta. The rebel group also gave the Federal Government 21 days to implement all of PANDEF’s 16-Point Agenda and all IOCs to vacate the region.