Libya's NOC targets 1.72 million bpd

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) aims to boost oil production to 1.72 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of March 2013.

According to the Libya’s NOC Chairman, Nuri Berruien, "we had some drops with production. Welcome to democracy and freedom of expression. We had strikes and we expect more of that but it is a healthy thing."

OPEC member Libya has surprised analysts by boosting production much faster than anticipated after last year's civil war to a current level of around 1.6 million barrels per day.

Three IOCs sell 7 Oil Blocks for $2.57bn

Over the last two years; Shell, Total and Eni (Agip) have sold their stake in a jointly held stake in seven oil blocks for $2.569 billion (N411.04 billion).

The multinationals were said to have sold a 45-per-cent stake in the seven oil concessions in five transactions. The oil blocks, which are now operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the upstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), were acquired by local companies alongside their foreign partners. They are Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 3, 38, 41, 26, 42, 30 and 34.

Following growing attack on their facilities by militants in the Niger Delta between 2007 and 2009, the IOCs embarked on a divestment programme to sell some of their onshore assets in the region.

Seplat Petroleum Development Company, in partnership with French-based Maurel and Prom, paid $386 million to acquire OMLs 3, 38 and 41, while First Hydro Carbon Nigeria, alongside AFREN as foreign partners, bought OML 26 for $148 million. Neconde Energy Limited and its foreign partners, Kulczyk Oil Ventures, paid $585 million for OML 42, while OMLs 30 and 34 were acquired by Shoreline and Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc (NDEP) at $850 million and $600 million, respectively. Shoreline was partnered by Heritage, while NDEP acquired its block with the Petrolin Group.

Vehicles queue for 8 hours for fuel in New York

About one week after Superstorm Sandy, survivors are becoming ever more desperate for fuel, bickering over their place in the queue at gas stations and even brandishing firearms to get what they need. Fuel shortages have become even direr, prompting some opportunist convenience store owners to charge as much as $6 a gallon.

Along the New Jersey turnpike, cars lined up for miles in the hope of getting fuel. By 7.30am the cars have lined up around two blocks. By 10.30am there were more than 100, engines stilled, drivers out, waiting. On the forecourt, people huddled holding their gas cans, water bottles, as many containers they could carry or load onto a trolley.

People tweeted asking for information on open gas stations; others tweeted when they found them or moment by moment as they closed. A Facebook page was set up to track what was open, what was closed, when gas was perhaps being delivered, how long the queue to get it.

Rivers, Bayelsa Oil Dispute: No truce in sight

Despite the intervention by President Goodluck Jonathan to broker a truce between Bayelsa and Rivers States over some disputed oil wells, the war of attrition raged on.

 Amid recent recriminations between the two states, President Jonathan had met with a delegation from Rivers State at the State House, to broker a truce in the simmering disagreement between the two neighbouring states over the ownership of the oil wells.  Although he was initially billed to meet delegations from the two states, the president only met with that of Rivers, led by the governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi. No reason was given for the exclusion of the Bayelsa delegation from the meeting.

 According to a source at the meeting, which lasted more than one hour, the president explored means of peacefully reconciling the differences over what some indigenes of Rivers State claimed to be an attempt to excise some oil wells belonging to their communities.

Giving its account of the dispute, Bayelsa said while Soku is a village in Rivers State, the oil wells/oil field and the flow station are located in the Oluasiri clan in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. According to it, the name Soku oil wells/oil field was wrongly given by the Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd (SPDC) because Soku village was their operational base at that time.

The Bayelsa State Government explained that it was wrong for Rivers to now claim River Santa Babara as the boundary between the Kalabari people of Rivers State and the Nembe people of Bayelsa State, when in its White Paper of 1993 on the report of the Justice Peter B. Akere panel it rejected the river as the boundary landmark. It added that the 11th edition of the administrative map of Nigeria has confirmed River San Bartholomew as the boundary between Nembe of Bayelsa State and new Calabar (Kalabari) of Rivers State, which has metamorphosed into the boundary between the two states.