Shell Awarded $2.4b Contracts to Indigenous Firms In 2012

Shell Nigeria has said it awarded a total contract sum of $2.4 billion to Nigerian companies in 2012.

This figure according to the Managing Director SNEPCo, Chike Onyejekwe was $1 billion more than the sum of contracts awarded by the company in 2011.

Onyejekwe made the disclosure while speaking at an investment summit for Nigerian and British companies jointly hosted by Shell and the United Kingdom Trade & Investment (UKTI) recently in Lagos.

While restating Shell’s commitment to further develop the local content policy, he said “last year, Shell companies inNigeria awarded contracts worth $2.4 billion to Nigerian companies, one billion dollar more than the amount in 2011. Local content is good forNigeria and for the business and we’re determined to raise the game.”

About 100 Nigerian and British companies attended the summit which aimed at forging partnerships among businesses in the two countries in areas of Engineering Procurement Installation Commissioning (EPIC) contracts, manufacturing, fabrication and general oil and gas services.

Over $53bn spent to secure oil facilities in 4 years

An expert in oil industry security, Austin Onuoha has said that over $53billion was spent by operators of the petroleum sector to protect oil facilities and personnel in the Niger Delta region between 2007 and 2011.

Austin Onuoha who gave the figures in Abuja while making a presentation at round table on business and security organised by Global Rights noted however that the huge cost could be drastically reduced if Nigeria embraced the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.

Voluntary Principles on security and human rights initiative (VPs), which was established in 2000, is a multi-stakeholder initiative involving government, companies and non-governmental organizations that promotes implementation of a set of principles that guide oil, gas and mining companies on providing security for their operations in a manner that respects human rights.

A breakdown of the figures showed that in 2007 about N444b ($3billion); 2008, $23.7billion; 2009, $24billion; and $3billion in 2011. agencies Onouha explained that oil giant, Shell, alone employs about 1200 internal police officers paid wholly by it while it also engages another 1300 armed security forces from regular government security.

China's Addax locked in $1 billion oil dispute with Gabon

Top Chinese refiner Sinopec's Addax Petroleum is embroiled in a legal dispute with Gabon over an oilfield in which claims and counter claims total more than $1 billion, sources familiar with the confidential proceedings said.

The case adds to questions about whether African enthusiasm for Chinese investment in the continent's resources is fading after an iron ore project in Gabon was placed under review and separately three Chinese licences were revoked in Zambia's coal sector.

Gabon conducted audits in 2011 and 2012 of the hydrocarbons sector, which pumps around 240,000 barrels per day and accounts for 80 percent of the Central African country's export earnings.

Nigeria Loses $1.6 Billion to Crude Oil Theft Annually - Shell

Shell Petroleum Development Company has expressed concern over the activities of crude oil thieves and illegal refineries operators in the Niger Delta, saying that the country was losing $1.6bn annually to oil theft.

The company cited its forced shut down of the Nembe Creek Trunklines, NCTL, in Bayelsa State, a facility which produces about 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day and its declaration of force majeure on Bonny Light export.

This, according to the company, was to enable it remove crude oil theft connections, investigate suspected oil theft leaks and effect repairs.

Speaking at a workshop organised for media practitioners in Yenagoa, Shell Manager, Government/Community Relations, Evans Krukrubo, said over 90 per cent of its pipelines in the region had been ruptured by suspected oil thieves. He noted that the shutdown of NCTL production would impact negatively on Bayelsa's share from the Federation Account.

Oil thieves convert Fishing Trawlers to Tankers

The Nigerian Navy has exposed how unscrupulous Nigerians and their foreign collaborators are now converting fishing trawlers into oil tankers for illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta region. The converted ships, according to the Navy, venture into the creeks and rivers in the Niger Delta disguised as fishing trawlers to lift stolen crude oil. 

Naval patrol team on routine patrol that intercepted such trawlers found stolen crude instead of fish in all the vessels captured. Parading the crew of one of such vessels in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the navy raised the alarm that the activity was on the rise in the region.
The authorities of the Nigerian Navy, through the Command Operations Officer, Central Naval Command, Commodore Emmanuel Enemor, disclosed that the confession obtained from the captain of one of the seized vessels showed that fishing trawler were now being converted to motor tanker for the purpose of illegal bunkering. According to him, the captain of the seized vessel, MV DALAL, caught last week, confessed to the illegal lifting of 120,000 litres of diesel from illegal refineries at the Akassa creeks in the state.

$60 million bribe: Total CEO faces jail

It is alleged that from 1995 to 2004, Total SA made about $60 million in bribe payments to an Iranian official in order to obtain oil rights in three oil and gas fields, according to the deferred prosecution agreement.

The Paris prosecutor recommended that the company and its CEO, Christophe de Margerie, stand trial on corruption charges along with two other people, the office said in a statement. The investigating judge now has to decide whether a trial should go ahead.

De Margerie was placed under formal investigation in 2007 by French judges looking into allegations Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, paid bribes to win contracts signed in 1997 with National Iranian Oil Co. to develop South Pars, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields.

De Margerie took over as head of Total in February 2007. Just over a month after he took the helm, he was placed under formal investigation for alleged misuse of funds and corrupting foreign civil servants after being held in custody for two days for questioning.