As the construction of the second phase of the Lagos-Badagry 10-lane expressway gathers momentum, more filling stations along the road; Total filling station and Mobil filling station, have been marked to be pulled down as they are obstructing the project plan.
The second phase of the project which is referred to as Lot 2 and which is being handled by Messrs China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) runs from Maza-Maza to Okokomaiko.
The two filling stations are part of the several business outfits that will be affected by the construction of the ambitious expressway project by the government, even as more filling stations are going to be removed as the project continues further.
The National Assembly is considering jerking up the oil bench mark price from $70 per barrel to $75, a member of the House of Representative, Abdurahman Terab has said.
Terab told newsmen last week in Abuja that the House Committee on Appropriations is currently scrutinizing the budget estimates.
He said there was a general consensus in both the Finance and Appropriations committees that $70 per barrel was rather too low considering the current oil price in the international market which is well over $100.
Foremost industrial fabrication company Nigerdock has successfully completed and commissioned the Abang and Itut platforms which are part of 3 well-head platforms in the Satellite Fields Development Project – Phase I of Oil multinational Exxonmobil.
SFDP according the Exxonmobil seeks to recover hydrocarbons from viable undeveloped fields within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC /Mobil Producing Nigeria, MPN Joint Venture’s acreage.
“There are over 20 fields that have been identified for development which will be carried out in phases and a key element of the project is a strong Nigerian content focus” the company said in a statement issued in Lagos last week.
In order to key properly into the local content law and enjoy its full benefits this year, indigenous players in the oil and gas sector, especially the indigenous ship owners have been advised to acquire more vessels that will allow them get allocations to lift Nigeria’s oil and gas products.
This advice was dropped last week by the Chief Executive Officer of an indigenous oil and gas company; Ocean Glory Commodities Limited, Rev. Cole Chiori in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has given government till Wednesday this week to address the sharp practices taking place in the petroleum products distribution system in the country or they would embark on strike.
President of the association, Alhaji Aminu Abdulkadir has said that if the authorities fail to address the problems associated with the distribution challenges particularly on kerosene and diesel, they have no option than to close down their retail outlets all over the country.
Even as the Senate ad-hoc committee on subsidy continues to probe activities surrounding the supply of petroleum products in the past years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Capital Oil and Gas have commenced the second phase of the Kero-Direct initiative which it started last year.
Even though the company is presently not loading kerosene at its depot in Lagos as a result of a minor internal problem among the Petroleum Tanker Driver (PTD) union members, Shipping Position Daily correspondent confirmed at the Capital Oil head office in Lagos last week that the second phase of the kerosene distribution scheme has started across 10 states namely; Plateau, Jigawa, Ondo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Adamawa, Imo, Taraba, Kano and Abia States.
There are strong indications that the country may be plunged into yet another round of scarcity of petroleum products as banks in the country have continued to deny petroleum marketers funds for the importation of petroleum products.
This troubling news was revealed in Abuja last week by the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Reginald Stanley.
He said that the country may face serious fuel scarcity because banks were skeptical of granting fuel importers fund due to removal of fuel subsidy.
The Lagos State Government has commenced the monitoring of major filling stations in the state in order to check their level of compliance with the new pimp price of N97 per liter.
Shipping Position Daily gathered in Lagos last week that the State has already set up a monitoring team to check the excesses of some filling station that sell fuel above the required pump price of N97 per liter as well as those who under-dispense product to unsuspecting customers.
The British Government has offered to assist Nigeria with technical capacity to fast track the protracted Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
Making the offer through one of its development agencies, Facility for Oil Sector Transparency (FOSTER) which is supervised by the Department of Foreign International Development (DFID) Britain said its offer is to ensure a more effective and efficient petroleum industry in Nigeria.
The Team Leader of FOSTER in Nigeria, Mr. Lai Yahaya, who made the offer at a PIB roundtable in Lagos last week, also said the move was meant to ensure that the petroleum law that would eventually evolve will be at par with "international best practice, and most importantly, meet the needs and aspirations of ordinary Nigerians."
The Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta has arrested seven suspected crude oil thieves in Bayelsa State.
The suspects were nabbed by men of the Joint Task Force also codenamed
Operation Pulo Shield while on routine patrol of the creeks of Southern Ijaw local government area of the state.
According to spokeman of Joint Task Force, Lt. Col Timothy Antigha, the suspects were arrested at Onyeregbene, Lasugbene and Igbomaturu communities.
“In line with its mandate to eradicate the menace of crude oil theft, illegal refining of petroleum products and illegal oil bunkering, the Joint Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield have arrested 7 suspected pipeline vandals in Onyeregbene, Lasugbene and Igbomaturu communities, in Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa.
Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has directed the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to work with oil companies operating in the country to evaluate existing machine shops, dock yards, fabrication yards and other facilities, which could be upgraded to meet the oil industry specifications.
Worried that many existing facilities were under-utilised and could be harnessed at reduced costs to support industry operations locally, the minister further instructed that recommendations from the evaluation should get to her office before July this year.
Saudi Arabia has nominated its OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) governor, Majid Al Moneef, as a candidate for secretary-general of the oil-producer group.
OPEC's current secretary-general, Libya's Abdullah Al Badri, will end his second three-year term at the end of this year, after first taking over the post on January 1, 2007. Al Moneef would be replaced in his current post by Yasser Al Mufdi, who works at the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, a source said, declining to be identified because the change hasn't been made public.
Two weeks after the nationwide strike has been called off, oil marketers in the downstream sector have opened up on the losses they counted during the one week dark periods of anti subsidy removal protests and rallies which paralyzed economic activities.
Some downstream oil marketers who spoke with Shipping Position Daily last week have estimated that they may have lost in excess of N37billion to the periods of the nationwide protests.
Based on daily consumption estimates, the Depot Manager of the nation’s biggest tank farm, Capital Oil and Gas; Mr. Geoffrey Okorie said that the depot alone usually loads not less than 100 tankers trucks of petroleum product per day.
Facts emerged last week that the Federal Government spends about N12 billion annually to keep the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) running, in spite of producing at less than 35 per cent capacity.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe, who disclosed this when he led other committee members on an oversight visit to the refinery, deplored the condition of the plant and promised to engage the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Austine Oniwon, to look for immediate remedy.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) the agency saddled with regulation of the oil and gas industry has assured that it is set to transform in all its operations and processes in line with global industry standards.
Speaking recently on his plan, the Director of the DPR, Mr. Augustine Olorunsola said he would beam his spotlight on attitude change, upscale technology usage and ensure private sector participation to take the company to the next level.
He said one of the things he wants to achieve quickly is the enthronement of professionalism in the company. “I want to see that professionalism is established across all cadres in the organisation because you cannot regulate people who know more than you, and that is what we are seriously lacking,” so that is really where we have to start, he added.
commissioned war ship NNS Thunder donated by the United States of America and four other patrol ships.
The Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim said this last week at a budget defence before the Senate Committee on Navy.
"The NNS Thunder has the tank capacity of about 1.05 million litres of diesel monthly. If this is multiplied by a round figure of N150 per liter of diesel, that gives N150 million. This is what it takes to keep the ship on high sea for one month".
Ibrahim said "The Navy cannot be run with half measures. If you want it to be there at all times, you must be ready to invest in it."
One week after the nationwide strike that was embarked upon by the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was called- off, activities at the downstream sector of the oil and gas has once again gathered momentum, especially as it concerns the loading of the all-essential Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol.
Shipping Position Daily investigations last week show that many of the depots in Lagos have resumed loading of petrol which they hitherto had been unsure of how to fix the ex-depot price for it, due to the government's recent declaration N97 per liter price benchmark.
Depots have started selling the products for between N89 per liter to N90 per liter.
There are indications that pirates activities in Nigeria, especially as it concerns petroleum tankers did not decline last year, according to analysis by the Denmark-based maritime security intelligence concern Risk Intelligence, It merely moved elsewhere.
Hellenicshippingnews.com quoting Tanker Operator, said in total, Risk Intelligence recorded 70 Nigeria-related attacks against offshore oil and gas and maritime targets in 2011 – up from 58 recorded in 2010.
Pirates began to focus on product tankers in December 2010, when they attacked the Italian tanker ‘Valle di Cordoba’ off Cotonou.
Even as Nigerians are yet to accept its official pronouncement by the Federal Government, one of the biggest downstream oil company in Nigeria; Integrated Oil and Gas Limited has expressed optimism that the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will further boost the importation level of the company and that the company stands to gain more from the subsidy removal.
Speaking at the company’s end of the year party held in Lagos recently, the Group Managing Director of Integrated oil and gas limited, Eng. Tony Ihenacho said that the company is well positioned to take full advantage of the deregulation scheme as it has acquired additional vessels and barges as well as building of more filling stations.
The Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is mired in corruption, so says the Lagos zone chairman of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Reverend S. F. Oginni. He alleged further that the agency is involved in corrupt acts in the administration of subsidy on petrol in Nigeria.
The PENGASSAN chief who represented the oil workers’ association before the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the subsidy regime in Abuja said last week that his association was aware of the PPPRAs involvement in the sharp practices.
"PENGASSAN strongly believes that PPPRA price templates as currently being bandied needs to be reviewed."PENGASSAN opines that only a political will can sustain any affirmative legislation to put in place subsidy re-investment programme which requires credible people drawn from all strata of the country", he stressed.
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committees on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Environment and Niger Delta Ministry to visit, inspect and evaluate the cause and effect of the Bonga oil spill on the ecosystem of the neighbouring communities and ascertain the extent of clean -up of the spill.
The House has also urged Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) and her Joint Venture Partners to take full responsibility for the Bonga oil spill in all ramifications.
Even as Nigerians are yet to accept its official pronouncement by the Federal Government, one of the biggest downstream oil company in Nigeria; Integrated Oil and Gas Limited has expressed optimism that the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will further boost the importation level of the company and that the company stands to gain more from the subsidy removal.
Speaking at the company’s end of the year party held in Lagos recently, the Group Managing Director of Integrated oil and gas limited, Eng. Tony Ihenacho said that the company is well positioned to take full advantage of the deregulation scheme as it has acquired additional vessels and barges as well as building of more filling stations.
The Crude Oil market does not have any serious demand-supply mismatch. The pledge by OPEC to increase the output to 30 million barrels per day (mbpd), coupled with slowdown in China - the second largest consumer of crude oil in the world, mainly due to the contraction in manufacturing PMI, the drop in industrial production and strengthening of the dollar triggered a correction in crude oil.
It corrected from $102/barrel to $93/barrel last week. Again, prices are back at $100/barrel. However, factors other than contraction of demand are having a significant impact on oil prices.
The Crude Oil market does not have any serious demand-supply mismatch. The pledge by OPEC to increase the output to 30 million barrels per day (mbpd), coupled with slowdown in China - the second largest consumer of crude oil in the world, mainly due to the contraction in manufacturing PMI, the drop in industrial production and strengthening of the dollar triggered a correction in crude oil.
It corrected from $102/barrel to $93/barrel last week. Again, prices are back at $100/barrel. However, factors other than contraction of demand are having a significant impact on oil prices.
As Nigerian workers prepare to down tools from this week, security agencies have begun to look into the activities of six marketers for allegedly bankrolling the proposed nationwide protest.
It was gathered that the marketers may be invited for questioning any moment from now. Feelers last week indicated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been placed on the alert over curious withdrawals meant to support the mass unrest.
According to findings by security agencies, the concerned marketers were alleged to be working in concert with some trade union leaders to make the country ungovernable.
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