Sahara Group Releases it’s 2019 Sustainability Report, Says Transition to Cleaner Energy Urgent

Mordi chukwunonso Esther

Sahara Group has released its 2019 Sustainability Report which reflects its commitment to achieving its corporate goals and creating shared value for stakeholders through economic development, protection of the environment and building a sustainable society.

The energy conglomerate, which announced this on Wednesday in a statement, also described the global transition to cleaner energy and low/ carbon solutions as urgent.

It said the report, tagged ‘Transformative Innovation’, highlights how Sahara continues to leverage innovation and technology in achieving its corporate goals and sustainability ambitions across its businesses in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Director, Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group, Pearl Uzokwe, said the Group had continued to foster partnerships and initiatives that have co-created a desirable future through innovation.

Uzokwe said: “We have aligned our business operations within our entities with the demands and expectations of our changing world – digitization – which in turn increases our competitive advantage for sustainable growth. Beyond measuring our performance in numbers and outcome, we have raised our lever of sustainability excellence by committing to more strategic partnerships and setting targets to achieve sustainable development from the micro to global scale.”

She said Sahara had aligned its operations and processes in furtherance of the urgent global transition to cleaner energy and lowcarbon solutions.

She said “Sahara entered an MoU with the United Nations Development Programme in 2019 to provide access to affordable and sustainable energy in sub-Saharan Africa. This is in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 7.

“During the year, we were pivotal to the success of the United Nations Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) and joined hands with other stakeholders in advancing the mission of the African Influencers for Development (AI4Dev), World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) and other institutions in providing a better quality of life to the world.” According to Uzokwe, Sahara launched its Green Life Initiative in 2019 in line with its commitment to fostering sustainable environments via the protection of the environment, promotion of a circular economy and recycling of waste within and outside our business.

“Among other activities, we established a Recycling Exchange Hub in the Ijora Oloye community and executed upcycling vocational training for the conversion of tyres to usable products. In delivering more environmentally friendly fuels, we committed to complying with the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARA) standards – the only pan-African organization for the African downstream oil sector – in 2019, as we expanded our investment in the supply of cleaner energy in the form of gas, particularly LPG’” she added.

Sahara is a foremost provider of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in Africa through West Africa Gas Limited, a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). WAGL operates two 38,000 cbm LPG vessels, MT Africa Gas and Sahara Gas that are driving LPG access, security, and stability in Africa. Both vessels have supplied approximately 500,000 MT of LPG across regional markets since their acquisition in 2017.

Sahara Group’s 2019 Sustainability Report reflects its economic, social, and environmental activities from January 1 to December 31, 2019. The report is the energy conglomerate’s fifth sustainability report, and the fourth report written in line with the GRI standard. The 2019 Sustainability Report has been organized and presented in accordance with the Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The guidelines seek to achieve consistency amongst corporations reporting on their sustainability activities.

NNPC COO, Waltersmith MD, Others to Speak at WIEN/ REAN’s International Women In Energy Symposium

By Ikenna Omeje

Yusuf Usman, COO GAS AND POWER, NNPC

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) — Gas and Power of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Usman Yusuf, as well as the Managing Director of Waltersmith, Chikezie Nwosu, have confirmed to speak at the forthcoming International Women in Energy Symposium to be co-hosted by The Women In Energy Network and Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), scheduled to hold on Saturday March 13, 2021.

The Symposium, which will hold 9:00am — 3:00pm on the scheduled date, will also have as speakers, Country Manager Solar Sisters, Olasimbo Sojinrin; Managing Consultant Pejad Group, Engr Tony Ogbuigwe; General Manager Human Resources — Waltersmith, Tari Akhibi; Founder/CEO Sosai Technologies, Habiba Ali and the Chief Commercial Officer at Mixta Africa (an ARM Group), Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, the organizers of the Symposium diclosed at a press conference on Friday.

The Symposium, which will hold virtually, is sub-themed: Light Up Africa and aims to bring together Women in Energy across Africa. The event will yield initiatives, to extend the footprint of women in Energy to new frontiers and increase womens talent contribution to Light up Africa.

In alignment with the 2021 global International Womens Day theme – Choose to Challenge” the Symposium looks to encourage women across Africa to choose to challenge gender bias and inequality, to take a position in driving the energy transition and to celebrate the achievements of women driven successes in the energy sector.

Speaking at the press conference, the President of WIEN, Ms. Funmi Ogbue and REANs Executive Secretary, Ms. Lande Abudu, listed three activities lined up ahead of the symposium. They include: Supernova girl Initiative, The Light up Africa with women Pledge and Winning with Women Award (WIWA).

According to them, Supernova girl is a WIEN Initiative to encourage and motivate young girls to study related subjects and aspire to come into the energy industry. This, they say, will be carried out through school visits.

Leveraging on the 2021 Global IWD theme, they said they will use The Light up Africa with women Pledge, to encourage CEOs of key companies and government officials in Nigeria to do a photo pledge supporting the IWD theme and post on their Social Media handles using #LightUpAfrica, #ChooseToChallenge hashtags.

Also, stakeholders will be asked to choose from a couple of key themes presented by the organisers to make Public commitments to drive positive change and monitor progress towards gender equality in the energy industry and a gender equal Africa.

Similarly, they said that the Winning with Women Award is an Employer programme to recognize and reward companies, and individuals who champion workplace policies and programmes that help women succeed and thrive and called on companies to self-nominate or be nominated for this award.

Explaining further the aim for Supernova girl Initiative, Ogbue said it was aimed at encouraging girls in secondary schools to embrace STEM subjects, so as to take up carrers in them, noting that while art related disciplines are good, STEM related disciplines are also important and girls should be encouraged to embrace them.

She also said that the Supernova girl Initiative is targeted at demystifying STEM disciplines by projecting role models in the fields that girls in secondary schools can emulate, just the same way it is in art related disciplines.

Responding to a question on whether issues around clean cooking energy will feature at the Symposium, Abudu said that they will make arrangement for an expert in the area of clean cooking energy to be part of the panelists.

Chike Nwosu, COO Waltersmith Petroman Oil Ltd

CISME Consulting Admitted into PCCB of UNFCCC

The Consulting arm of Nigeria’s Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management and Environment (CISME) has been admitted as a member of the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB).

This was revealed in a press release signed by the Chairman of CISME Consulting, Prince Lekan Fadina upon receipt of an email dated February 16, 2021.

The release quoted Ms Eva Vazquez Costa of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) thus: “It is with pleasure we welcome CISME Consulting Ltd to the PCCB Network. The PCCB looks forward to working with you.”

Established at COP 21 in 2015, the mission of the PCCB is to identify capacity gaps and needs and potential solutions, including enhancing the coherence and coordination of capacity-building efforts related to climate change.

It fosters collaboration between actors at all levels (local, national, regional and global), strengthening networks and partnerships to enhance synergies and promote knowledge- and experience-sharing.

“Recently, it called for refocusing and redirection with COVID19 and the effects on our ways of life. “The UNFCCC status has been boosted with the return of the United States to play a more effective role in its activities”, Fadina stated.

Through its platform for capacitybuilding guidance and its communication tools, the PCCB facilitates access to information and knowledge for enhancing climate action in developing countries and for measuring progress on capacitybuilding to ensure continuous improvement over time

The PCCB consists of twelve members from developed and developing countries. Some include: the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNIDO, Nigeria Metrological Agency (NiMET), Commonwealth Foundation, and World Health Organization, among others.

The members meet once each year and regularly reports to the Conference of the Parties (COP) on its progress and activities.

Dubai Gives a Glimpse inside its Expo Sustainability Pavilion

By Ana De Oliva, CNN

Delayed by a year by Covid-19, Dubai Expo 2020 is now giving people a sneak peek inside the event that will officially open in October.

Despite the pandemic, the World Expo is set to see more than 190 countries showcase innovations around the themes of sustainability, mobility and opportunity.

The Sustainability Pavilion will be a centerpiece of the event. Called “Terra” -- meaning planet Earth -- the building generates fresh water from the surrounding humid air. Its 130 meters-wide roof canopy and surrounding “Energy Tree” structures are fitted with more than 1,000 solar panels, which will provide some of the energy needed to host this massive event. “We’re trying to showcase that humanity can build buildings that do live in harmony with the environment around them, that do manage to grab the resources around them whether that’s sun or water,” explains John Bull, director of the Sustainability Pavilion.

“Even in this environment, which is somewhat dry, we’re still able to get enough water which allows this building to be self-sufficient.”

This pavilion is the first of the Expo structures to be completed. Until April 10, residents and visitors will be offered a glimpse inside, where a range of interactive experiences are intended to help people understand their impact on the environment.

“Through those immersive and interactive experiences, that’s how we can really connect to people. That’s how you start conversations that matter, rather than just giving information,” says Bull.

Expo will run from October 2021 to the end of March 2022. Once the event is over, the Sustainability Pavilion will form part of a science center in District 2020 -- a new residential and business development that will evolve from the Expo site.

OPEC+ to Reconvene in March to Take Stock of Oil Market Conditions

By Ikenna Omeje

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC member countries, popularly called OPEC+, which is led by Russia, will reconvene in March “to take stock and examine oil market conditions and developments.”

OPEC’s Secretary General, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, disclosed this recently while participating in the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum via videoconference.

Now in its fifth year, the forum is taking place under the patronage of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, from 19 to 22 January 2021.

The event is focusing on the post-COVID-19 energy system, the energy transition and other emerging trends in the energy sector.

In the ‘2021 Global Energy Agenda’ session, the Secretary General praised the achievements of the ‘Declaration of Cooperation’ (DoC) and highlighted its role in supporting oil market stability to the benefit of producers, consumers and the world economy at large. “Our target remains stable oil markets, and to ensure that we have stability on a sustainable basis, we need to flexible and adaptable,” he told the panel.

DoC

participating countries agreed at their 13th Ministerial Meeting on 5 January 2021 to meet on a monthly basis “to ensure that we do not allow this market imbalance to re-emerge,” the Secretary General said. “We all agree that the recovery is fragile, there are still uncertainties. But we are cautiously optimistic that the recovery will materialize this year.”

Barkindo reiterated the need to remain vigilant and adaptable to changes in the economy and oil market in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 uncertainties.

“I want to use this opportunity to assure consumer countries that we have their interests in mind. Our role is to assist the market to return to stability,” the Secretary General said.

He highlighted the effective relations with the United States and noted that OPEC’s cooperation with US independent oil producers has grown over the years. He also pointed out the important US contribution to international efforts in April 2020 to help mitigate the devastating impact of the pandemic on the oil market.

“We congratulate President-elect Biden,” he said, “and we look forward to deepening our relations with the US independent producers.”

FG Announces New Date for 2021 NIPS

The 2021 edition of the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) has been postponed to June 6, 2021 instead of the earlier dates of March 28 to April 1, 2021.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who announced the new dates said that the official oil and gas meeting of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will hold in Abuja

“We have had to re-consider the dates in light of the current global pandemic”, Sylva said in a special broadcast on select television stations, which was also shared on the Petroleum Ministry’s official social media handles.

“While it has been a challenging year for the oil and gas industry due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis also provides us with the opportunity to re-define our industry for transformative moments.