FG feigns ignorance of Chevron’s plans to sell oil bloc stakes

The Federal Government, the majority partner in the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 35 and 38, has denied knowledge of plans by Chevron Corporation to sell stakes in two Nigerian oil blocks.

This declaration, may have however, swiftly heightened fears among prospective investors in the blocks.

Chevron is, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), expected to officially inform the government, which, through the NNPC owns about 55 per cent stake in the blocks purportedly up for sale before announcing such.

The oil major is the latest International Oil Company (IOC), operating In Nigeria’s multi-billion dollars oil and gas industry, seeking to dispose of assets in Africa’s biggest oil producer. Joint blocks’ owners like Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s Eni and France’s Total have sold several blocks.

The two newest blocks for sale also hold an unknown amount of natural gas but there has been no production yet, Reuters reported quoting two industry sources.

Insurers Move to Correct Anomalies in Oil and Gas Underwriting

Operators in Nigera’s insurance market have expressed determination to check the continued loss of foreign exchange by way of ceding insurance businesses to foreign insurance and reinsurance companies.

To this end, the industry is taking necessary steps to build human and underwriting capacities to ensure that no oil major in the country cedes risks to their insurance subsidiaries abroad, under the guise of lack of local capacity to underwrite oil and energy risks.

This step followed the identification of infractions in the underwriting of oil and gas risks in the country that make it impossible for the insurance industry to tap fully into the Local Content in Oil and Gas policy of the Federal Government.

Okonjo-Iweala: My Mother was Abducted over Subsidy Claims

Barely three days after her mother, Prof. Kamene Okonjo, was freed, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that the kidnappers told the octogenarian that the minister’s purported refusal to pay subsidy claims as well as the non-release of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) funds were the motives behind their heinous action.

The minister, who said the old woman’s freedom from the abductors was miraculous, added that although she was denied food and water for the five days she was in captivity, she was in excellent health.

Briefing journalists in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala, who described her mother as a very courageous woman, said while she was in their custody, the woman had inquired from the kidnappers the motive behind the ordeal they had subjected her to. The abductors, she said, had told her mother in no uncertain terms that her daughter (the minister) had refused to pay subsidy claims to marketers as well as blocked the release of funds accruing to SURE-P.

To set the record straight, the minister noted that nobody had stopped the payment of subsidy to marketers whose claims had been verified by the Aig-Imoukhuede Committee, stressing that the insistence of the Federal Government remained that only claims emanating from genuine transactions and had been verified should be paid – a position she said Nigerians had also championed.

On SURE-P, the minister stated that the programme was a different process, under a special committee, which is not under her control, adding that the Federal Government would continue to do what is right and in the overall interest of Nigerians. “I can’t give all the details because we don’t want to compromise ongoing investigations. “But I can tell you one thing: My mother suffered a great deal during this ordeal. It was only the Almighty God that rescued her from a situation that could very easily have ended tragically.

FG approves 25% pay-off for electricity workers

After protracted negotiations, electricity workers have sealed a deal with the Federal Government to end the lingering crisis over their pension payout.

In an agreement reached at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Federal Government agreed to pay the workers’ pension that had accrued by June 30, 2007 on the basis of 25 per cent of their annual salaries. However, the payment will be based on the new conditions of service that came into effect in 2010, while pension accruals from July 1, 2007 will be based on 15 per cent of annual salaries as contained in the Pension Reform Act, 2004.

The workers had been at loggerheads with the Federal Government since 2010 over what their terminal benefits should be.

While the former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, had insisted that the workers should be paid on the basis of the 2004 PRA, the workers had insisted that they must be paid according to their Superannuation Fund, which made them to be entitled to 25 per cent.

Present at the meeting were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu; Minister of State for Power, Mrs. Zainab Kuchi; President, Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele; and Secretary General, National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joseph Ajearo.

Anyim signed the agreement on behalf of the Federal Government, while Esele and Ajearo signed on behalf of the workers.

Govt activates N162.9b Zungeru 700MW power plant MoU

The Federal Government has activated a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between it and a Chinese Consortium Sinohydro/CNEEC Corporation for the immediate commencement of work on the construction of 700 Mega Watts (MW) Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project in Niger State.

This followed the nod given to the contract by the Federal Executive Council some weeks ago.

The construction of the plant is coming 30 years after government first did a feasibility study on it.

Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim Kuchi, who spoke at the signing of the contract in Abuja, said, the project, which is valued at N162. 9 billion, would be completed in 48 months and that on completion, the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) would be invited to privatize the plant like other utilities in the power sector.

The ministry assured that it would immediately release the sum of $309 million representing 25 per cent of government’s counterpart funding for the project while the Exim Bank of China is to provide the remaining 75 per cent of the contract sum.

The eventual managers of the plant are expected to generate sufficient revenue for repayment of the loan when the plant generation takes off.