……….. AfDB], Prosper Africa back project 

Uganda’s $4.27billion, new refinery will produced diesel, petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas and heavy fuel oil. The establishment of the refinery is expected to save Uganda over $1 billion, the amount the country spends on importing petroleum products annually. The construction of the refinery had suffered several setbacks in the past.

Recently, the government of the East African country received the sum of $20 million from the Africa Finance Corporation for the construction of the country’s crude oil refinery. Other financiers to the refinery project include the African Development Bank (AfDB], Prosper Africa, a US government Initiative that unlocks opportunities to do business in Africa and another US-based firm, Trace and Development Agency (TDA)

They are also expected to put money into the multi-billion-dollar project. A report by the East African yesterday said this paves the way for the start of the $4.27 billion project. That AFC reportedly signed the financing deal on the sidelines of the Africa Oil Week in South Africa mid November.

“The meeting was very good for Uganda. We had several investors committing themselves to join the development of the refinery,” Uganda’s Energy minister, Irene Muloni told news medium in an interview. AFC managing director, Ammadou Wadda, AfDB president, Akinwunmi Adesinia, representatives from US-based Prosper Africa Initiative and Trace Development Agency attended the side event.

The Ugandan minister led a team of government officials and officials from Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium (AGRC) to the invite-only sideline meeting. The investors also agreed to hold a special meeting next year to discuss how to raise funds for the refinery. The refinery’s management is also expected to give potential investors details about the project and existing investment opportunities.

“AGRC and the financiers will work out the movement of the funds, but as for government we shall raise our share of the investment through debt and equity,” said Ms Muloni. Kenya has committed to take a 2.5% stake in the Tanzania refinery, while Tanzania wants 8%.

The report said however that the other East African countries are yet to commit on the shares that they will take. Uganda, which owns 40% equity in the refinery, invited EAC states to co-own it. It also said that Total E&P has also increased its stake in the refinery from 10% to 11.5%.

In March, Uganda’s energy ministry officials and AGRC leadership visited Milan, Italy, to review the final refinery configuration. AGRC is comprised of YAATRA, Saipem SpA, LionWorks Group and Baker Hughes General Electric. The consortium signed a Project Framework Agreement in April 2018 in Kampala. The PFA gave it greenlight to undertake all the pre-Final Investments Decision (FID) activities. These include risk mitigation measures, due diligence and coming up with equipment and components that produce the desired products and by-products.

The government of Uganda later opted for a private-public partnership to develop the refinery at estimated cost of $4.27 billion. AGRC agreed to these terms.  AGRC is also required to build product storage facilities and construct a 205km product pipeline from Hoima to Kampala to serve Burundi, Rwanda, eastern DR Congo, northern Tanzania and western Kenya.

There is also a plan to have a product pipeline going northwards to link with South Sudan. Ms Muloni said last week that acquisition of a 29-square-kilometre land for the refinery has been secured, and associated projects are 99% complete.

Chibisi Ohakah

Nigerian Bureau for Statistics (NBS) has said that Nigeria’s economic growth rose to an annual rate of 2.28% in the three months to the end of September after the production of its main export commodity, crude oil, rose to a more than three-year high, the statistics office said on Friday.

The economy also expanded by 0.17% in the previous quarter and 0.47% in the same period a year earlier. China Global Television Network (CGTN) noted on Friday that Nigerian has struggled to shake off the effects of a 2016 recession that ended the following year. Growth rates in Nigeria have been bouncing back this year, though from a low base, after the oil sector, which accounts for around two-thirds of government revenue and 90% of foreign exchange, shrugged off its negative performance in the first quarter, the agency said

Crude production in the third quarter stood at 2.04 million barrels per day, its highest since the first quarter of 2016, the statistics office said. Friday’s data release comes ahead of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s announcement of its main interest rate earlier on Tuesday and days after the NBS office said annual inflation was at a 17-month high in October.

Nigeria recorded the highest quarterly growth in September since the last quarter of 2018 as the oil sector rose 6.49%. The non-oil sector rose 1.85% during the period. Chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered, Razia Khan, welcomed the oil sector performance but added that it raises concerns that Nigeria could come under more pressure to adhere to its OPEC quota.

The non-oil sector is showing signs of recovery but is inadequate for Nigeria’s potential, Khan said. “Given the hoped-for faster passage of the 2020 budget, and efforts to boost private sector credit, we expect more of a recovery to emerge all-round in 2020,” Khan said.

CBN has been trying to boost growth by forcing commercial banks to lend to stimulate the economy but it has also kept benchmark interest rates high and liquidity tight in a bid to support the currency and wade off inflation.

The apex bank has forecast growth of 3% for 2019 while the IMF expects the year to finish off at 2.3%.

By Chibisi Ohakah

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have set up a joint committee to deepen collaboration in order to promote transparency in the oil and gas industry.

Officials of NEITI and the NNPC said the collaboration, named NEITI-NNPC Joint Committee on Mainstreaming and Remedial Issues, is part of efforts to further deepen the robust history of collaboration that both organisations had enjoyed over the years in oil and gas monitoring and management.

The executive secretary of NEITI, Mr. Waziri Adio, stated that the inauguration of the joint committee, which held last weekend, was in consonance with the key objective of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which is to bring stakeholders together to reconcile issues, stressing that EITI was not about hostility.

He said that besides resolving outstanding of payments, the joint committee would also be responsible for collating information required for NEITI reports. He commended management of the national oil company for their commitment to transparency in the operations of the Corporation and urged them to sustain the tempo.

On his part, the group managing director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, said the partnership is in keeping with the Transparency, Accountability, and Performance Excellence (TAPE) agenda of the Mallam Mele Kyari-led management of the corporation. He said NNPC was in complete sync with the activities of NEITI because it was the right of the over 200 million Nigerians who are the shareholders of the corporation to know everything about the operations of their company.

He explained that most of the misunderstanding that had arisen from previous NEITI reports were as a result of miscommunication and charged members of the joint committee to be open and objective in their approach to the task before them.

“You need to be clear on the task before you. There are issues that have come up in various NEITI reports over the years which required being reconciled. We want you to be frank and practical in resolving these issues”, the GMD charged members of the committee.

Responding on behalf of the NNPC team in the joint committee, the team lead, Mr. Mohammed Aliyu, said they would strive to bring their problem-solving skills to bear on their assignment.

NEITI’s technical director and head of the agency’s team in the joint committee, Dr. Dieter Ahmed Bassi, said the team would be guided by the understanding that there are no two sides, but only one side which is the Nigerian side.

By Chibisi Ohakah

A widely known South African insurer, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), a member of the Alternative Investments unit of the Old Mutual Group, the South African insurance company, is now an owner of a piece of a grid length, natural gas pipeline in Nigeria. This followed the conclusion of the takeover of Seven Energy assets.

As part of the transaction completion, Africa Oil + Gas Report said last Friday that AIIM acquired 20% interests in Seven Uquo Gas Limited (SUGL), which in turn holds a 40% participating interest in the Uquo field located in South East Nigeria and Accugas, a midstream business, comprising the 200mmscf/d Uquo gas processing facility, and a 260kilometre gas pipeline network.

The report said AIIM promptly paid $54million as cash consideration to Savannah for that 20% share. The Old Mutual Alternative Investments is said to be one of the largest private alternative investment managers in Africa, with over $4.2billion under management in infrastructure assets, private equity and impact funding, according to its website. Its investment approach, it avers, goes “Beyond the Obvious” and “enables us to uncover opportunities others may overlook”.

AIIM says it has committed over $1.8billion in equity investments over the last 19 years. It says its experience spans a range of infrastructure asset classes including toll roads, renewable energy, power generation, ports and communication infrastructure assets.

The company has established local offices in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire and its website says it is currently managing investments with operations spanning 17 countries across East, West and Southern Africa.

By Chibisi Ohakah

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja overruled the application for adjournment of trial by a British national, James Nolan, who is one two Britons implicated in the sensational $9.6billion oil deal judgment against Nigeria by the Irish company, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID). His compatriot, Adam Quinn is currently at large.

Mr. Nolan made the application for adjournment on the grounds of the inability of his counsel to prepare for his defence. But while overruling the application, the presiding judge, Justice Okon Abang, ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, to call his first witness.

The Irish engineering company, (P&ID), had secured the award against Nigeria following the non-execution of a 20-year gas and supply processing agreement (GSPA) the company had with the federal government. The arraignment of the two British nationals is coming weeks after two P&ID directors were convicted over the deal. The defendants, both directors of Goidel Resources Ltd, a Designated Non-Financial Institution (DNFI) and ICIL Ltd, were arraigned on a 16-count charge bordering on money laundering.

News Agency of Nigeria noted in a report that the court decision came after the federal government said it has started implementing enhanced strategies geared towards setting aside the entire P&ID liability and possible nullification of the contract. The revelation, which was contained in a statement by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), is coming five days to the November 25 deadline for Nigeria to deposit the sum of $250 million before her appeal against the judgment can be heard.

Malami’s special assistant on media and public relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu, and made available to reporters in Abuja, said contrary to reports, under the new strategy, no lawyers were replaced, but more lawyers with specialized skills both locally and internationally were engaged to support the existing capacity and initiate fresh suits with a view to achieve the desired result.

Earlier, the EFCC’s counsel had told Justice Abang that since the matter was slated for trial, the anti-graft agency was ready to commence the trial. The lawyer told the court that he was in the court with two witnesses. However, Nolan’s Counsel, Paul Erokoro, (SAN), told the court that he had already briefed the prosecution about the difficulty he faced in preparing for the trial. He said Nolan was being held at Kuje Correctional Centre where they were allowed access to him twice a week.

According to him, and on each visit, we are allowed only 15 minutes. The lawyer attributed this to the fact that there were lots of persons awaiting trial at the correctional center who all needed to be visited by their counsel and families. He said it was disheartening that all these persons received their visitors at once without any privacy, besides the time constraint.

“Again, the visitors are supervised by prison officers. So the time for proper communication is not there,” Erokoro said. He lamented that the development had made it difficult for him to prepare for the trial. Erokoro also hinted that his application for bail variation for Nolan was before the court. He urged Justice Abang to grant the request. However, Justice Abang dismissed the prayer for adjournment and ordered the EFCC to present the first witness, one Mr. Agunbiade Adewale Akinseye, an account officer with a new generation bank.

Malami had described the P&ID contract as a well-organized scam “consciously, deliberately and intentionally orchestrated by some dubious and well-placed Nigerian government officials at the time with some shrewd foreign collaborators to defraud Nigeria and inflict heavy economic and financial loss on Nigeria and its people”

By Chibisi Ohakah

…… Sylva, Dangote Applaud NNPC for Consistency

The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has explained that the NNPC National Science Quiz Competition, which was concluded yesterday in Abuja, is targeted at encouraging students in the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related subjects.

The 19^th edition of the event came to an electrifying end on Thursday with the representative of Ogun State emerging the overall winner of the annual NNPC flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Master Samuel Oluwatobi Ojo, a student of Apt Scholars Universal College, Ota, Ogun State came atop in the competition in which 18 participants squared up. He finished with 75 marks ahead of Master Mbazu Chinonso of Ebonyi State who emerged second-place winner and Master Great Ugochukwu of Abia State who had completed the race in third place position.

The event which was witnessed by President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, also had in attendance the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Muhammed, Deputy Governor of Taraba State, Hon. Haruna Manu, representatives of the governors of Akwa Ibom and Benue states, among other top stakeholders.

This year’s edition of the grand finale of the NNPC National Science Quiz Competition had contestants tested in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and NNPC general knowledge

Chief Sylva in his remarks commended NNPC for sustaining the competition through the last two decades and for bringing innovation to it, year-in-year out while urging other agencies in the ministry of petroleum resources to emulate the NNCP example. The minister explained that corporate organisations need to give back to communities, noting that it is in their enlighten self-interest to do so.

“It gives companies the license to operate. In the oil and gas industry in particular, giving back to the communities is imperative to get the support of the local community and guarantee smooth exploration and production activities,’’ he said.

Group managing director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, said that NNPC would not only sustain the sponsorship of the annual national quiz contest but would constantly seek innovative measures to

President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, in his remark noted that since its inception, the NNPC National Science Quiz Competition had groomed a set of next generation of scientists and young leaders of thought set to be at the vanguard of innovation and industrial growth.

Dangote said that by engaging these youths in the competition through the years, NNPC was living up to its expectations, defining a noble path for the future well-being of the participating youths. “I can only encourage the corporation not to rest on its oars on this laudable initiative and others through which the company impacts on its publics across the country’’ he said.

On behalf of the other winners, Master Ojo commended NNPC for providing the platform which has enabled teeming youths like him to achieve their dreams and academic ambitions, and implored the national oil company to keep the flag-flying so that young Nigerians would continue to find succor in the annual quiz contest.

By Chibisi Ohakah

TGS-PetroData is to commence a regional Multi beam and Seafloor Sampling (MB&SS) Programme, covering 80,000 square kilometres of both allocated and non-allocated blocks from offshore to deep offshore Niger-Delta, in December 2019, oilgasreport said yesterday

The new survey will capture 200 core locations and provide crucial de-risking of the petroleum system, “to help better inform exploration and appraisal decision making”, says Wole Shebioba, chief executive officer of PetroData.

Originally a data warehouse company, PetroData, went into partnership, six years ago, with TGS, the Norwegian player and global specialist in multi client data acquisition and marketing. The union gave birth a joint venture, TGS-PetroData Services Ltd.

Oilgasreport said there is a further plan to acquire two dimensional (2D) regional well tie data; that is tying most of the deep water wells in Nigeria with 2D seismic lines. And there is also a regional reprocessing project. “We have extensive 2D seismic data which was acquired between 1998/1999 by Veritas. We have almost completed the reprocessing of the data” Shebioba explains..

“With these three packages, I believe that we are ready for the proposed licensing round by the government”, Shebioba anticipates. “When it takes place, there is going to be at least new data for investors to see. But of course, you know that we are doing all these in partnership with the DPR”.

TGS-PetroData had a roadshow around Nigeria with the reprocessed data on projects NG02 survey and NGRE19 survey. It presented it to the companies it thinks might be interested, especially the five majors who operate in Nigeria (ExxonMobil, TOTAL, Shell, Chevron, ENI (Agip).

Shonibare said the whole idea data is for de-risking a prospect and so, the more data you have the more confident you are about where you want to drill and the likelihood of getting oil. “So companies and the people that understand the business of exploration have all kinds of data, as much as you can get”.

There’s nothing like too much data, argues Shebioba. ”When a data you have here is saying this and another you have is not consistent with that, you would have another one that would tell you to confirm what the first one is saying.

“You are confirming and confirming and confirming until you are absolutely sure. Because you have all kinds of data, you can de-risk and say yes, what I am seeing is correct or not. But, we lack data in Nigeria, we lack new data and everybody have been shouting that there have not been investment in new exploration in the country “.

By Chibisi Ohakah

………….Inaugurates State-of-the-Art Diagnostics Lab

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the NNPC Medical Services Ltd (NMSL), has established a state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory. Officials said the move is part of the national oil effort to curb medical tourism and capital flight. The establishment would be capable of detecting most of the endemic diseases for which many Nigerians have been travelling abroad to seek medical care.

Speaking at the inauguration of the diagnostics laboratory Wednesday in Abuja, the Managing Director of NMSL, Dr. Musa Shaibu, said the installation of the diagnostics laboratory was part of NMSL’s commitment to providing efficient commercial medical services to NNPC staff and members of the public.

Dr. Shaibu stated that the facility was a practical demonstration of NMSL’s vision of adding value to the wellbeing of not just the NNPC workforce but also to members of the Nigerian public. He said the establishment of the laboratory would make NMSL to be completely independent and cut cost in terms of referrals to other diagnostic laboratories in Abuja.

On her part, the Manager of NNPC Diagnostic Laboratory, Bishop Brigid Udoh, stated that the molecular special laboratory would also focus on DNA and genotyping services to see Nigerians stay healthy. The NNPC Molecular Specialist, Kelvin Agimogim, explained that the facility has the capacity to provide kanotyping, agrogenomics, and pre-implantation of pregnancy or IVF procedures, adding that it also has facilities to carry out investigation detection and quantification of HIV 1 and 2, Hepatitis A, B, C, genotyping and paternity test amongst others.

By Chibisi Ohakah

……seeks re-orientation of Nigerian undergraduates to enable innovation, use of emerging technologies

Energy giant, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has called for the right investment climate in Nigeria, to enable the expansion of the country’s petroleum landscape, increase oil production from the current average of 2.3 million b/d to 3 million b/d and boost the country’s proven oil reserves to about 40 billion barrels through further exploration and appraisal.

Speaking at the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists’ (NAPE) 37th annual International Conference and Exhibition, the country chairman of Shell companies in Nigeria, and managing director, SPDC, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said the right investment climate would also include strengthening our regulatory bodies, giving priorities to research and further enabling the industry’s financials.

“I believe that where the investment climate is right, digitalization and deployment of emerging technologies will enable incremental value creation over the coming years. I believe that if we appropriately apply the valuable information and lessons from this conference, our industry will experience a giant leap in transformation. It will support our aspiration of expanding Nigeria’s petroleum landscape, he said,” he said

Represented by Shell general manager, exploration, Mr. Dan Agbaire, the managing director also outlined the re-orientating the thinking of undergraduates in Nigerian universities as one of the critical actions to challenge them on the use of emerging technologies to enable innovation and allow the actualization of the Nigeria’s aspiration of expanding the petroleum landscape through digitalization, innovation and emerging technologies.

He told the NAPE Conference that Shell has collaborations with the academia in Nigeria and now has two successful centers of excellence that promote the emergence of industry-ready graduates at university level. According to him, Shell’s Centre of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Benin established in 2012, while the Rivers State University Centre of Excellence in Marine and Offshore Engineering was established in 2017.

These, he said, came along with SPDC’s six Professorial Chairs and the Sabbatical & Internship programmes in key areas, which grow skills within Nigerian universities for the industry.

Okunbor informed that every year, since 1980, 10 Nigerian professors and 25 research interns commence one-year research programmes in SPDC and share their findings with SPDC in fields such as biodiversity, petroleum engineering, geophysics, impact assessment, community health and oil and gas exploration, contributing to providing critical industry input into higher education in Nigeria.

“In Shell, digitalization is more than technology. It is also about people and ensuring more agile ways of working. We employ leading data scientists who unlock value from the vast amounts of data that Shell has access to in a responsible manner whilst maintaining customer trust. Across all our businesses, we look for opportunities where we can replicate and use this at any scale.

“We look to use applicable standard technologies (unless there is a competitive advantage to building proprietary solutions) to change the way we search for and produce oil and gas, design wells, provide energy, or buy goods and services”, he said.

The Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has commenced the publication of details of its petroleum products supplies nationwide. The move, the management said yesterday, is to further deepen the culture of transparency in the system.

The publishing of the details of the petroleum products supplies nationwide would be in addition to the Corporation’s existing Monthly Financial and Operations Reports, the group managing director, Mallam Mele Kyari said.

At a meeting between a delegation of the Media Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries (MITEI) led by its National Coordinator, Mr. Bassey Udo, at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, Kyari said the Corporation intends to be more transparent to its stakeholders. “We will do more than you can ever imagine in terms of transparency. We will not just publish our financial records, we will be publishing more things that Nigerians need to know, particularly details of petroleum products supply and distribution which is an area most people don’t understand”, he assured

He said the corporation stood to gain more in terms of reputation and goodwill from being transparent, noting that trust in business requires corresponding responsibility of accountability to all stakeholders.

“You lose nothing by being accountable and transparent, and the combination of the two will enable you have a good relationship with your stakeholders and ultimately lead you to excellent performance”, he said. Kyari further explained that his relationship with MITEI was based on the principle of “common good” since the objective of the group aligns with the core values of the corporation.

Earlier in his remarks, the National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Bassey Udo, commended the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) initiative of the GMD as a visionary move to reposition the oil and gas sector. He expressed delight that the NNPC boss, within the short period of his appointment, had started walking the talk by taking bold decisions towards realizing his promises to the nation and citizens.

Udo said the group’s visit was informed by the consistent and remarkable track record the GMD has maintained since his days as the Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD).  He listed some of the actions of the current NNPC leadership that endeared the Corporation to the group to include: Publication of the DSDP contract winners, refineries rehabilitation efforts, signing of Key Performance Indicators by top management, and the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) initiative. 

By Chibisi Ohakah