Oil prices hit 18-month high on Tuesday, the first trading day of 2017, buoyed by hopes that a deal between Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members to cut production, which kicked in on Sunday, will drain a global supply glut.

Benchmark Brent sweet crude jumped more than two per cent to a high of 58.37 dollars, up 1.55 dollars a barrel, the highest since July 2015.

U.S. light crude oil hit an 18-month high of 55.24 dollars up 1.52 dollars a barrel, also its highest since July 2015.

January 1, 2016, marked the official start of a deal agreed by OPEC and other non-OPEC exporters such as Russia to reduce output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

“First signals suggest the OPEC and non-OPEC production cuts are raising hopes that the global oil oversupply will diminish,” said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. in Amsterdam, Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, agreed:

“Markets will be looking for anecdotal evidence for production cuts,” he said.

Libya and Nigeria were exempted by OPEC from the output cuts. The North African nation has increased its production to 685, 000 bpd from about 600, 0000 bpd in December, an official of the National Oil Corporation said last week.

Nigeria’s crude oil output also increased by 252, 800 bpd in January up from 1.697 million bpd in December, to 1.949 million bpd due to reduced attacks on oil installations and facilities by militants.

Dirisu Yakubu with additional information from The Nation

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has advised Nigerian youths, especially those from the oil-producing communities, to be involved actively in the oil and gas industry.

NCDMB’s General Manager, Zonal Coordination and Board’s Projects, Dr. Ginah O. Ginah gave the advice at the youth sensitization and enlightenment workshop held in Akure and Owo local government areas for the youth in the central and northern senatorial districts of Ondo State.

The participants were taught the fundamental mandates of the NCDMB and its activities, relevant skills in the oil and gas industry and how to acquire them.

He added that they are to promote the development and utilization of in-country capabilities for industrialization of Nigeria through effective implementation of the Nigerian content act.

He noted that the board is working on how to ensure more Nigerians, particularly youths from the Niger Delta region engage in relevant skills that will make them become employable in the industry.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday released names of 39 bidders for the sale and purchase of Nigerian crude for 2017/2018.  Announcing the results on its Website, the Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the contract would run for one year effective from Jan. 1 for
consecutive 12 circles of crude oil allocation.  The list comprises 39 winners with 18 Nigerian companies, 11 International Traders, five foreign refineries, three National Oil Companies (NOCs) and two NNPC trading arms.

It said all the contracts were for 32,000 barrels per day except Duke Oil Ltd, an oil trading arm of the NNPC, which shall be for 90,000 barrels per day.  It would be recall that during the bid opening on Nov. 26, 2016, the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr Maikanti Baru, assured the public that NNPC would ensure due
process, transparency and fairness in the selection process.

Also, a total of 224 bids were submitted by companies seeking to purchase and lift Nigerian crude oil grades for the period 2017/2018.  The indigenous beneficiaries are Oando, Sahara Energy, MRS Oil and Gas, AA Rano, Bono,
Masters Energy, Eterna Oil and Gas, Cassiva Energy, Hyde Energy and Brittania U.  Others are NorthWest Petroleum, Optima Energy, AMG Petroenergy, Arkiren Oil and Gas Limited, Shoreline Limited, Entourage Oil,
Setana Energy and Prudent Energy.

The international beneficiaries are Trafigura, ENOC Trading, BP Trading, TOTAL Trading, UCL Petroenergy, Mocho, Tevier Petroleum, Heritage Oil, Levene Energy, Glencore and Latasco Supply and Trading.  The five foreign refineries are Hindustan Refinery, Varo Energy, Sonara Refinery, Bharat Petroleum and Cepsa while the NOCs are India Oil Company, China (Sinopec) and South Africa (Saccoil).  The NNPC trading arms are Duke Energy and
the Carlson Hyson.

Clay Neff becomes President, CALAEP

Lagos, December 31, 2016: Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), operator of the joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and CNL, has announced the appointment of Jeffrey “Jeff” Ewing to the position of Chairman and Managing Director of Chevron companies in Nigeria, effective January 1, 2017.

Jeff Ewing succeeds Clay Neff, who had been named president of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production (CALAEP), with effect from January 1, 2017.  Jeff who is currently the Director, Deepwater & Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for the Nigeria Mid-Africa Business Unit, will be responsible for Chevron’s upstream operations in Nigeria and West Africa in his new position.

Jeff joined Chevron in 1985 as a Drilling Representative in New Orleans after graduating from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering.  Since then, Jeff has held numerous technical and management positions of increasing responsibility in different locations; including Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kuwait, Scotland the United States of America, Venezuela and Nigeria.

According to Clay Neff, the current Chairman & Managing Director of Chevron companies in Nigeria, Jeff Ewing was appointed to his current position based on his

“demonstrated leadership, breadth of experience and proven ability to build effective relationships with key stakeholders.”

Senior NNPC, SNEPCo, TOTAL E & P, First E & P and SEPLAT officials amongst representatives to build programme for WAIPEC 2017 

The steering committee driving the programme for the West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (WAIPEC) 2017 has officially been announced, representing a cross section of key senior business leaders and stakeholders from across Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

WAIPEC, hosted by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) will take place on 21-23 February 2017 at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos and will promote Nigerian expertise and key projects throughout West Africa, whilst supporting the development of major new collaborations for the benefit of the region’s petroleum economy.

The steering committee representatives will feature:

–          Ademola Adeyemi- Bero, Managing Director, FIRST Exploration & Petroleum Development Company Limited and Chairman, Nigerian Independent Oil Companies

–          Austin Ojunekwu Avuru, Chief Executive Officer, SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company

–          Bank Anthony Okoroafor, Chairman, Petroleum Technology Engineers Association of Nigeria (PETAN)

–          Bayo Ojulari, Managing Director, The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo)

–          Emeka Ene, Petroleum Technology Engineers Association of Nigeria (PETAN)

–          Geoff Onuoha, Vice Chairman, Petroleum Technology Engineers Association of Nigeria (PETAN)

–          Ahmadu-Kida Musa, Deputy Managing Director, TOTAL Exploration and Production

–          Ranti Omole, Chairman, Conferences Committee PETAN

–          Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB)

–          Dr. Mazadu Bako, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC)

WAIPEC is the only oil and gas event to be held fully in partnership with Nigeria’s petroleum industry and the ten committee members, alongside PETAN will draw on their unrivalled global resources to ensure that the event delivers to the needs of all stakeholders in Nigeria and through the region.

The committee will guide the content of over 25 business, technical and special focus sessions, featuring more than 75 prominent industry speakers and representatives from both the regional and international oil and gas community. Running alongside the conference – an exhibition is projected to attract more than 200 exhibiting companies and 6,000 visiting professionals from West Africa, Europe, Americas and Asia. 

Bank Anthony Okoroafor, Chairman, PETAN explains; “PETAN has put together an esteemed panel of representative from both public and private exploration, production and services companies – their expertise together ensuring a programme that presents an invaluable insight for all stakeholders and participants in WAIPEC 2017.”

For full details on the West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, its content and how to participate, visit www.waipec.com.

Nigeria and Morocco have entered into a joint venture agreement to build a gas pipeline that will link the two countries and some other African countries to Europe.

According to Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyema (photo), the agreement was signed during a visit by the Morocco’s King Mohammed to Nigeria. He said the planned pipeline project would be designed with the involvement of all stakeholders.

“In this agreement both countries agreed to study and take concrete steps toward the promotion of a regional gas pipeline project that will connect Nigeria’s gas resources, those of several West African countries and Morocco,” Onyema said.

The foreign minister added that the project is aimed at creating a competitive regional electricity market with the possibility of being connected to the European energy markets, but gave no timeline as to when construction works will begin and how much it will cost.

Nigeria, which has abundant of hydrocarbons, produces little electricity, as its economy is now facing a recession caused by the fall in crude oil prices and attacks on oil facilities by militants demanding for a bigger share of Nigeria’s oil wealth in the Niger Delta region, Reuters reports.

“Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco also agreed to develop integrated industrial clusters in the sub-region in sectors such as manufacturing, Agro-business and fertilizers to attract foreign capital and improve export competitiveness,” Onyema added.

Eni plans to complete the first phase of its gas treatment plant for Egypt’s Zohr field’s production by October 2017, a source from Eni revealed.

This is coming after Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, announced that the company was in negotiations with several parties to cut its stake in Egypt’s Zohr field to 50% operating interest.

According to the source, Phase 1 represents about 24% of the facility with a treatment capacity at 650mcf/d of gas.

The source added that Eni estimates that the entire investments needed to complete the entire treatment plant as well as all development phases, will reach $ 4billion. When completed, the facility will be able to process 2.7bcf/d of gas, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

Eni finished drilling 6 wells prior to the planned deadline and plans to connect the production of these wells to the gas treatment plant by the end of 2017, the source stated.

By 2017-ending or early 2018, the Italian company intends to increase Egypt’s gas production by connecting 900mcf/d of output from Zohr. The field’s production capacity is estimated to reach 2.7bcf by 2020.

Italian Eni’s floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Armada Olombendo, has arrived and received at its final destination on Block 15/06 offshore Angola.

This vessel was constructed by Keppel’s shipyard in Singapore and leased to the Eni who named the FPSO built to operate offshore Angola for the East Hub Development Project, in mid-October this year.

According to a spokesperson for Eni, the FPSO arrived at its offshore location on Sunday, December 11 after entering Angolan waters on Friday December 9, 2016.

The East Hub Development Project covers nine subsea wells, five producers and four water injectors, in water depths between 450 and 550 meters.

The hydrocarbons produced from these wells are to be transported through a pipeline system to the FPSO to be preserved and stored before export, Offshore Energy Today reports.

First oil from the wells is expected within the first half of 2017, the Eni spokesperson added.

The FPSO Armada Olombendo is capable of handle crude oil production capacity of 80,000 bopd, 120,000 bpd of water injection, 120 Mmscf of gas handling and a net storage capacity of 1.7 million barrels.

Eni operates the Block with a 36.84% stake alongside Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção with 36.84% and SSI Fifteen Limited with 26.32%.

BP Angola has announced that the Grande Plutonio production field in Block 18 offshore Angola has achieved a new production milestone of 500 million barrels of oil. The field, with an estimated gross production of 160,000 barrels of oil per day, is shared equally by Sonangol Sinopec International and BP Angola.

Grande Plutonio is 310 metres long and has a storage capacity of 1.77 million barrels, 24 production wells, 22 active water and three gas injection wells and an installed production capacity of 144,000 barrels of oil per day. BP has been in Angola since the 1970s.

The Grande Plutonio, which became operational in October 2007, was the first field operated by the British company in the country and includes five distinct fields found between 1999 and 2001. The fields are; Gálio, Crómio, Paládio, Plutónio and Cobalto.

BP Angola has interests in eight blocks in deep and ultra-deep waters and is one of the largest international investors in Angola, with more than $29 billion invested by the end of 2015.

That same year, total net production from main fields was 221,000 barrels of oil per day, Macauhub reports.

Lekoil in its operational update, announced that oil is flowing at the Otakikpo marginal field in Nigeria to onshore storage tanks, where it will later be transferred upon completion of the offshore pipeline.

According to Lekoil, all onshore facilities have been fully commissioned and approved by the regulators, and the offshore pipeline which runs from the storage tanks to the tanker offloading manifold is 80% complete.

When completed, the joint venture partners hopes to commence transportation to the export terminal and afterwards, be able to slowly increase production to 10,000 bopd, Offshore Energy Today reports.

“We’re delighted to announce this key milestone from the Otakikpo field. I would like to thank the entire team that has worked so hard on this project, our partners Green Energy, investors, debt financiers, our host communities and our government regulators for their continued support,” Lekan Akinyanmi, Lekoil CEO said.

The Otakikpo marginal field is operated by Green Energy International with 60 percent interest while Lekoil is a technical and financial partner in the field with the remaining 40 percent interest.

Dr Anthony Enebeke Ofoma is the current General Secretary of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) and also the Account Manager of Halliburton (Landmark) Nigeria. He spoke with Orient Energy Review on the sideline of the Africa Oil Week in Cape Town, South Africa; on the need for increased exploration activities in Nigeria, while commenting on the spate of bombing of pipelines in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Excerpts.

How are NAPE members coping with the fall and drop in this oil price?

Well it is really biting because the fall in oil price is a roller coaster effect. It has really hit our members; we have some of our members that have been retrenched or downsized or outrightly made redundant in these organisations due to this. We understand what is happening in the industry at the moment; oil prices are down, the total down turn in the industry and of course downsizing of members by companies, these are parts of problems we are being faced with. We have to tackle our realities based on these happenings in the industry.

However, this is really not good for our members, it poses a great danger for us, it is unfortunate but my thinking here is that it won’t last forever, it isn’t going to take too long before we  get over this. I appeal to the companies to find a way to cushion these effects, maintain our members, perhaps maintain the experienced ones they have so that when things pick up they won’t have problem trying to hire experienced hands which might be double the price they would pay at that time.

What are some policies you think government can put in place to assist your members in their work places?

I know we have a lot of policies set out by government. We have some of the Acts that have been in existence for years. I think government in their wisdom should be able to invest more especially at this time to invest more in exploration. They need to find these reserves so that when things pick up they can go into drilling, invest more in exploration I understand that going into drilling now would be very expensive, but  they should channel their energy into more exploration activities to discovery more reserves.

What do you have to say about the spate of pipeline vandalism that has been on-going in the Niger Delta?

Vandalism in the Niger Delta is sickening, it is dangerous. We have had people vandalise government property especially when it comes to public property like the pipelines, it is really not good, it causes inflation in the economy, sabotaging the efforts of government and the operators as well. Usually, once these pipelines are vandalised, one has to repair them, if they get busted and subsequently result to fire outbreaks, we would have to put off the fire, purchase another one and then lay it again with another round of labour and payment. So it is like doing a double job for something we have done before, it encroaches into our finances especially our revenue in the country.  So I think invariably the vandalism in the Niger Delta is causing us untold hardship and I want to appeal to the youths in the country to look at this from a different perspective, vandalism of pipeline is not the solution; constructive discussion with the government can see us through. We have to dialogue that is why we are human beings. When we destroy these properties, let’s realise that this is our property, it is not only for the government and when we say government who is government; it is you and I. So when we destroy these pipelines we are invariably destroying our own collective wealth. So I would appeal them to discontinue these acts, allow things to move and then engage government on constructive discussions rather than taking laws into their hands.

Combifloat Systems B.V. is the exclusive supplier of the modular Combifloat® pontoons. A wide variety of clients in the offshore and marine construction industry are using this flexible modular floating and elevating construction system, eminently suitable for coastal and inland waters. By means of a special but simple coupling and locking system, the units can be assembled to any project-specific configuration.  The company recently completed the design, including Bureau Veritas class notation, of its latest development: the C-1500 and C-2000. This monohull design will be capable of operating in approx. 65 mtrs water-depth with an approx. 2000 mt deckload and will also be available in a semi-modular version. Orient Energy Review caught up with MR. BAS DE JONG, the Managing Director at the 23^rd Africa Oil  Week in Cape Town, South Africa, where he spent time telling us more about Combifloat’s capabilities. Excerpts.

 Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and position in Combifloat?

I am the Managing Director and the major shareholder in the company. I started my career way back in the mid 70’s with an American engineering company called Fluor then I went to a heavy lift operator called Wijsmuller Transport which eventually merged into Dockwise where I was the commercial director for quite a few years. There after I ran a ship yard in Norway for about a year and then I took off with Combifloat in 1999 and have been running it since then.

How long has Combifloat been in existence and what is your expertise?

Combifloat has been around for about six decades. Our expertise is supplying marine equipment in the shallow water areas. That means water of maximum 60, 65 metres not only coastal areas but inland lakes. The essence of the system is that it is a module system so we can easily truck it, ship it and (air) lift it. We can turn all those little modules into a big self elevated platform that can take up to about 1,000 tonnes. We do this worldwide, we do 95 percent export. Our head office is based in Rotterdam and we have an office in Dubai, an operation facility in the Middle East, as well as in Poland. We have been focusing quite intensely on the African continent for the last couple of years. We are seeing a lot of opportunities here for our products and the gulf of Guinea is an obvious example. We are also on the East coast of Africa and we are hoping to be busy in Tunisia (North Africa) in shallow water drilling activities. Not only oil and gas related projects but also port development and building of new harbours and jetty(s) are of our interest. In addition, we are focusing on the inland water lakes like lakeAlbert, Lake Tangayika. We can be used for all sorts of marine activities.

With your expertise in building of harbours do you have intention of looking at free trade zones across Africa?

We will certainly be willing to take a look at that as a base for our further growth in Africa. Initially we would focus on the free trade zones from a perspective of helping to build the free trade zones and helping to build and develop the harbours that come around with the free trade zones.

I also want to find out if there has been any innovative technology deployed in your operations recently?

Yes we have just done our presentation here at the African Oil Week earlier, yesterday, where we introduced a new concept to develop marginal oil fields into a water depth of up to 65 metres. We are focussing on marginal fields with a capacity up to a maximum of about 10,000 barrels a day and a life cycle of about 10 – 12 years. Using our C-2000 class of Jack Up, we can cut down the overall CAPEX and OPEX in the range of 25 – 30 percent .So I think, that is a very interesting concept for the African continent which will hopefully trickle in actual developments even when the oil prices are low.

Have you deployed this technology anywhere and what has been the result?

Since it is a new development it hasn’t been put to work yet but as we speak we are generating quite a bit of interest. To deploy it from scratch will take approximately 12 – 14 months.

What are some of your major clients that you have worked for?

In recent times on the African continent we have been working for PETRONAS in Sudan, Shell in Gabon, Sonagol in Angola, and a few companies in Nigeria. We have done studies for Tullow oil, DNO, and a couple of others. Outside Africa we worked for varieties of oil companies in the Caspian Sea, which is another targeted area for us and also in the Middle East, South East Asia, South America and Australia.

What’s your model in the African continent? Do you have JVs or register companies to carry out the work?

Since we haven’t established a permanent base in Africa yet we mobilize our equipment from the Middle East and after project completion we demobilize the equipment either to the next job in Africa or go back to base in the Middle East.