Nigeria NEWS

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.

A Bloomberg survey has revealed an increment in the crude output of OPEC owing to Saudi Arabia’s near-record production. Oil production of Saudi grew by 230,000 bpd to 10.65 MMbpd in July. The kingdom was joined by Nigeria and Iraq in offsetting losses from Venezuela, Iran, and Libya. The cartel all-in-all produced 32.6 MMbpd. Saudi held up to its promise of preventing crude prices from sabotaging the global economy.

British oil firm, Savannah Petroleum spudded a fourth well, located in Agadem Basin on Friday. Savannah has deployed Rig GW-215 on the Eridal-1 well to carry out the drilling activity till a depth of 2592 metres. The operations are part of Savannah’s current campaign in Nigeria. The Eridal-1 well drilling activities are expected for completion in a month.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has issued its monthly financial report. According to the report, the corporation has suffered a loss of N240,304,755,518 during the period of March 2017 and March 2018. The report attributed the loss to the under-recovered expenses in petrol import in the international market. NNPC commented on the report saying that they are trying to ensure continued petrol supply and active distribution across the country.

In an attempt to spread its social investments across Nigeria and to promote the study of science subjects among secondary school students, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, SNEPCo has donated four ultra-modern science labs to Erku Secondary Commercial School in Kwara State. The State Commissioner for Education and Human Capital of Kwara state has made an appeal to the parents and teachers to encourage the students to learn science and technologies.