IOCs still flare 80% gas in Nigeria

The Federal Government has declared that International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria’s multi-billion dollars oil and gas industry, still flare 80 per cent of gas. Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who said this, however, maintained that the series of gas projects including the oncoming petrochemical and fertiliser plants would take up a bulk of the gas currently flared thereby reducing gas flare and the harm it does to the environment.

A statement issued by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation quoted the minister to have said this while speaking at a plenary session of the 19th Nigerian Economic Summit titled, “Building a World Class Petrochemical and Fertiliser Industry in Nigeria.”

Gas flare, she said, has been reduced considerably over the past two years to 20 per cent.

Five proposed fertiliser plants, which include the Dangote Petrochemical and Fertiliser Plant to be built at Olokola, Indorama Fertiliser Plant at Eleme, Brass Fertiliser Company at Brass, Nagarjuna Fertiliser Plant at Ogidigben, and another plant by the International Fertiliser Association, are billed to come on stream by 2017.

Reps to probe Alison-Madueke, NNPC, Shell, others over $750m oil deals

House of Representatives is to probe Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dieziani Alison-Madueke, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept, Septa Energy Ltd and some other entities over their alleged involvement in illegal allocation of seven oil blocs in the Niger Delta.
The loss to government from the said oil bloc deals amounts to $750 million.
The House decided to probe key players in the deals following a motion brought under Matters of Urgent National Importance by Victor Afam Ogene, who, while introducing the issue, cited Order viii, Rule 46/Rule 49 of the House to support his position. Ogene in the motion drew the attention of the House to last week’s protest staged at the National Assembly complex by representatives of oil-producing ethnic nationalities from Delta State. The protesters had alleged fraudulent allocation of some marginal oil fields, including oil mining leases (OMLs) 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42.
The House at the end of the debate resolved that an ad-hoc committee be raised to handle the probe. The committee is to be given four weeks to conduct its investigations and report back to the House in plenary.

Nigeria Ranked Among Africa’s Lowest LPG Consumers

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said that Nigeria is one of Africa’s lowest consumers of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) notwithstanding its current national LPG consumption rate of 110,000 metric tonnes (MT) per annum.
Alison-Madueke, who spoke at the opening of the LPG Strategic Workshop and Conference in Abuja, said growth of the LPG market in Nigeria was a critical component of the nation’s gas master plan which it launched in 2010.

The minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Abdulkadir Musa, expressed an urgent need for Nigeria to open up the LPG market for improved energy utilisation and economic growth.

Nigeria to Hold Oil Licensing Round This Year

Nigeria continues to set its sights on holding an oil licensing round for marginal fields before the end of this year, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said.

Last October, the minister had said the government planned to hold bid rounds for major and marginal fields before the year is up, but it is uncertain if there would be enough time to hold the tenders before the year runs out.

The Minister is also in license renewal talks with Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron over existing onshore fields, after ExxonMobil signed a renewal earlier this year.

She added that the Federal Government was in talks with international oil companies (IOCs) and local oil and gas companies to reach an agreement on fiscal terms proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The PIB is a comprehensive legislation aimed at instituting reforms in the oil and gas sector and increasing the country’s share of profits from oil pumped off its shores. The government has argued that extraction laws going back to 1993 are based on crude at $20 a barrel and unrealistic at prices that are now more than four times as high. But the IOCs have warned Nigeria against deterring investment.

FG to spend N251bn on repair of three refineries

The Federal Government plans to spend N251.2bn on the repairs of three refineries. The Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke made the disclosure when she appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream). The minister was at the Senate with the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, and the Managing Director of Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, Mr. Haruna Momoh. They were summoned to explain the continued scarcity of Petroleum Motor Spirit and the increase in the price of the product by marketers.

Alison-Madueke said the government would be spending N251.2b on the Turn Around Maintenance of the three refineries in the country, adding that there were some adjustments in the timelines for executing the TAM. She noted that although there were plans to build new refineries, existing ones would still be maintained.

Nigeria target an increase in oil production by 1million BPD

Nigeria is targeting an increase in crude oil production by 1 million barrels per day.  This was made public by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, who was represented by the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu, at the 36th annual conference and exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Lagos.

The Minister through her representative said that the Nigerian deep water and shallow water had the capacity to increase crude oil production to almost one million barrels per day in the next few years, and increase total reserve to about 40 billion barrels by 2020. She highlighted the reform embarked by the government to reposition the oil and gas industry and the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). According to her, “critically, the Nigerian crude oil reserve is over 36 billion barrels and a current production capacity of about 2.5 billion per day, which has made Nigeria the highest supplier of crude oil in the continent.”

Nigeria currently produces 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day and has a total reserve of about 36 billion barrels.