OGRepublic August Edition 2020

REPUBLIC Oil & Gas

SPECIAL EDITION I JUNE - JULY 2020

COVID-19 LATEST NEWS INDUSTRY NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

ISSN 2705-2052

CORONAVIRUS Africa’s Journey, Inspiration, and Development

C.Divine - A Nigerian company specialized in manufacturing high-quality cables, electrical and electronic products.

C

DIVINE

Answer International Company Limited

SAFETY = QUALITY = VALUE ü www.cdivine.com.ng ™ info@cdivine.com.ng c.divinestd@yahoo.com

REPUBLIC Oil & Gas

SPECIAL EDITION I MAY - JUNE 2020

COVID-19 LATEST NEWS INDUSTRY NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

CONTENTS CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

ISSN 2705-2052

This article provides latest developments and key recommendation from industry experts on how Africa can navigate through the Pandemic and oil price plunge for a post COVID-19 recovery in the oil and gas industry.

CORONAVIRUS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Africa’s Journey, Inspiration, and Development

Publisher Engr. Idowu Babalola (MBA, MNSE, MEI)

Managing Editor Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

OGR talks to the Chairman and CEO of C.Divine Answer Int’l Company Limited. C.Divine is a Nigerian indeginous company specialized in manufacturing high-quality cables, electrical and electronic products. The have a trademark on all our products.

PAGE 4 Editor Tobi Owoyimika

COVID-19 Latest News

PAGE 7

Oil Market Report

PAGE 17

Industry News

PAGE 18

Majorwaves Webinar

PAGE 20

Contributing Authors Ayobami Adedinni Binutiri Samson

LNG World News

PAGE 24

Oil and Gas Republic (OGR) Reg. Number: 2347423

Local Content

PAGE 28

Email: info@oilandgasrepublic.com oilandgasrepublic@gmail.com Phone: +2348065187468

Renewable Energy

PAGE 31

Women in Energy

PAGE 32

Featured Contents

PAGE 40

APPO Interview

PAGE 45

Country Report

PAGE 47

Legal Council Barr. Jackson Olagbaju

Senior Correspondent Genevieve Aningo

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

'We Manufacture Cables, Electrical & Energy Products.

We prove that a Nigerian Company can offer Quality Products' OGR talks to Mr. Cyril Uzoma Oghaego, CEO of C.Divine Answer International Company Limited, about his products & services and future plans to domesticate production locally when it comes to manufacturing cables, electrical & energy products in the Nigerian market.

Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme brings the excepts:

OGR: Please tell us more about yourself and work at C.Divinve?

Cyril: My name is Mr. Cyril Uzoma Oghaego. I am the Chairman and CEO of the C.Divine Group of Companies.

OGR: What inspired you to establish C.Divine?

Cyril: One is to engage myself, meet people's needs, and create job opportunities for the Nigerian people.

OGR: How long have you been in this business and what are the challenges you are facing?

Cyril: I have been in business for 22 years now, since 1998. And, I learned business skills from my Father, in my childhood for about 16 years.

The challenges are normal. Anyone that isn't ready to face challenges doesn't worth living. Another challenge is the lack of infrastructure in our country.

For example, the road to Tincan and Apapa aren't accessible and this is a major place where the nation generates its revenue.

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Sometimes, our products that are supposed to arrive within 2 - 3 weeks would usually take more than 3 months to arrive, due to the roads and seaports aren't accessible. Is it that we cannot get a construction company to fix our roads? Is it that we cannot expand our seaports? These are some of the challenges that we are facing as businessmen when it comes to the importation of goods.

OGR: What are you expecting from the Government?

Cyril: They should duplicate or learn from what other developed countries are doing.

The Nigerian Government and China has a cordial business relationship. So I think they should work closely with them on that aspect.

OGR: What are the products and services you offer in the Nigerian market?

Cyril: We manufacture electrical and energy products for the Nigerian energy sector.

Our products range from Armored cable, Aluminum Conductors, A.C.S.R, X.L.P.E, T.R.S, Flexible cable, Flat and Single wire, TV cable, Single Flex, Distribution Boards,

E.L.C.B, Knife Switches, Cooker Unit, Knockout Box, Switches and Sockets, Energy Bulbs, Panel Lights, Flood Lights, Down Lights, Corn Bulbs, Gas Station Lights, LED Bulbs, Street Lights, Industrial Solar Street Lights, Industrial Street Lights Poles, Galvanized Poles, Solar Panels, Solar Battery, Electronic fans, Electric Kettle And many more!

We are also planning to start manufacturing Transformers both high and low tension.

OGR: How do you ensure the quality of your products?

Cyril: All our products come with our trademarks. If we aren't sure about the quality of our products, we cannot bring in fake products into the Nigerian market. Our products come with our company name, C.Divine.

OGR: Please could you briefly tell us about some of your products that are booming in the Nigerian market?

Cyril: We currently have up to 200 products on our portfolio.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Even in the developed world, they establish technical schools to empower people interested to get particular skills. And, that is exactly what we are doing at C.Divine.

Many of our products are booming including our flexible cables, single cables, flat cables, aluminum conductor, armould cable, energy-saving bulbs, solar battery, and solar panel among others. And, we are known for quality products.

OGR: Are you involved in any Corporate Social Responsibility?

OGR: How have you been able to establish a business partnership with Nigerian companies?

Cyril: As we speak now, we are building schools for Nursery and Primary students in my community. Some days ago, we inaugurated some primary schools where we spent over Six Million Naira in the eastern part of Nigeria.

Cyril: We have been dealing with Nigerian companies and we have been able to know those that are sincere and ready to work with us. We offer our partners some incentives that will encourage them to do business with us.

OGR: How would you evaluate your business capacity in the Alaba market?

OGR: Are there any particular project that you are involved in that excites you?

Cyril: Most of the things we do are Divine.

Cyril: We have proved to people that a Nigerian company can offer quality products.

We have encouraged a lot of entrepreneurs to venture into providing quality products in the Nigerian market. No matter the challenges we are facing, we are doing our best to thrive in this industry. And, we have set a standard when it comes to providing quality products. I am so happy to see the level of our business so far.

OGR: Do you have plans to domesticate your production in Nigeria?

Cyril: Yes, we have plans to produce our products locally in Nigeria. We do understand that producing our products in Nigeria will create a lot of job opportunities.

But, we need the enabling environment to achieve it. We are working towards it and in the nearest future, we will start our production locally. We are a good citizen, delivering exceptional value to the Nigerian people.

OGR: What would you need from the Government and Investors to achieve it?

Cyril: We need good roads, power supply, tax incentives, and loan facilities with a low percent interest. We need the Government to create an enabling environment for companies like us to operate and produce locally. Nigerians are very talented and hard-working but the Government should assist us in this area which I believe will go a long way to add value to our businesses.

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We are involved in various empowerment programs and we impact business skills to Nigerian youths. By God's grace, we have been empowering the Nigerian youths, irrespective of background. Also, we provide financial support to business people based on our capacity.

Annually, we empower over 100 entrepreneurs in Nigeria. That is what the company is all about and that's why it is called C.Divine. We are achieving God's purpose. We aren't just living for ourselves.

Most of the profit we generate goes back to the people.

OGR: How do you recruit people to acquire business skills?

Cyril: C.Divine is more of a business school, training Nigerian youths to get the required skills for business to whoever is interested.

We empower our workers and apprentice.

Usually, some graduates come here for IT. So far, we have trained up to 50 people to acquire the required business skills to establish their own business.

OGR: For those that come to C.Divine for training, how many years would they stay to learn business skills?

Cyril: Our training program for an apprentice is 6 years. As far as I am concerned, apprenticeship is one of the greatest opportunities to get full knowledge for a particular business area.

We are also involved in various community development projects. We are also contributing to the Nigerian economy by paying our tax duties.

We offer jobs to the youths. We provide financial support to entrepreneurs. So far, we are trying our best and we believe we will improve as we progress.

OGR: What are your vision for C.Divine in the next 5 years?

Cyril: Our vision is building a multinational company, proving to people that you can serve God and do the right things in business.

We are also working to make an impact in the nation building through creating jobs and empowerment, and to be the leading producer & supplier in electrical/electronic market with the best quality, providing unequaled customer’s service.

At C.Divine, safety and precaution is a serious matter. We are established not just to make financial profit, but also to serve God and humanity and knowing fully well that life is very precious and has no duplicate on earth if eventually lost, that is why we have gone extra miles in establishing safety workshop and procuring heavy duty equipment like fork lift, heavy duty trucks with Hiab Crane to ensure safety and precaution in loading and off – loading our heavy duty cables, high tension equipment and other materials.

Finally, a trial will convince you that diligence, integrity, love for God and humanity are the qualities that made us what we are.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

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Nigeria Targets $10 Per Barrel Cost of Production by 2021

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Maersk Drilling releases Trading Statement for Q1 2020

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OPEC Sees Oil Rising To $40 In Second Half Of 2020

Industry Collaboration Needed to Navigate Through The Global Pandemic, Experts says

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MG Events hosted its first Energy Webinar Series on May 6, 2020, titled: "Strategies to Navigate the Oil & Gas Business through the Global Pandemic" with a focus on the future economic forecast in Nigeria, and the impact of the COVID-19 in the oil and gas industry.

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

The speakers include; Ainojie Alex Irune, Chief Operating Officer, Oando Energy Resources, Oluwatoyin Aina, Group Head Energy, Downstream & International Oil Trading, First Bank of Nigeria, Ade Adeola, Managing Director - Energy & Natural Resources, Standard Chartered Bank PLC and Seyi Bella, Partner, Banwo and Ighodalo, as they opened discussion on Strategies to Navigate the Oil & Gas Business Through the Global Pandemic.

The panel discussion was moderated by Bismarck Jemide Rewane, MD & CEO of Financial Derivatives Co Ltd. In his presentation, Bismarck Jemide Rewane explained that in 2019 global growth was projected at 2.9% but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it now stands at 3%. While in Sub-Saharan Africa, the economic growth in 2019 stands at 2.1% but today it is projected at -1.6%.

According to his report, the sectors that will be affected most likely in Nigeria during this pandemic are; Aviation, Hospitality, Trading, Catering, Brewing, Real Estate, Entertainment, Transportation, Crude Petroleum, Health Insurance, etc. While other sectors that will benefit include; Telecoms, ICT, E-commerce, Electronic payment, Mining & Quarrying, Distributions & Storage, Healthcare,

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Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas Upstream, among others."

Speaking about the impact of the current market condition in Nigeria's oil and gas industry, Ainojie Alex Irune, Chief Operating Officer of Oando Energy Resources, said that oil producers have to look for an efficient way to minimize their budget and cost of production. And, the government will play a vital role more especially to assist local producers in terms of incentives and providing an enabling environment.

Irune said: "The recent OPEC, OPEC+ production cuts of about 10 million barrel is a historic one in the oil and gas industry. For us in Nigeria, it is about 22% of over 2 million barrels per day production.

"The Nigerian Government has been very aggressive to bring down the cost. And, it is the first time we are seeing it.

"But, the Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill will be very useful this period as it speaks very much in a situation like this. I would urge the Federal Government to take a closer look at this for the passage of the Bill," he added.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS Ade Adeola, Managing Director, Energy & Natural Resources of Standard Chartered Bank, noted that the oil and gas industry is a huge catalyst due to the number of players operating in the industry. And, the COVID19 has induced CAPEX Cut which resulted in key projects been delayed.

Countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal have put on hold some of their deepwater projects. While some are been reviewed, optimized and some of the projects will be canceled.

"We do not expect to see additional project been sanctioned. Capital will flow to where it gets is best value and investors require variables that they can manage and control.

"We have seen the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding the PIGB as they are working on passing the Bill to address specific challenges and to move the industry forward. But, we need to rapidly implement the PIGB as it will help in situations like this."

Speaking further, he advised producers to consider new cost consolidation strategies, adding that IOCs in Nigeria should see this global pandemic as an opportunity to collaborate on cost reduction.

He stressed that industry players need to work together on collaborative measures to

provide advocacy to policymakers putting forward a clear part of how to reduce the overall cost budgets and how to optimize value in the industry more efficiently.

In his forecast for 2020 - 2021, he highlighted that there will be challenges in the industry due to the oil price plunge and the coronavirus pandemic.

According to him, there is going to be a lot of pain further down the line as all those projects that are been delayed create an inbalance in the market. The industry will witness a demand shock due to global pandemic.

"But, when that demand goes off, all the projects that have been delayed will be reviewed again for FIDs and the market will start rebalancing by 2021 to 2022. Oil prices may rise to $44 - $50 per barrel," he said.

Oluwatoyin Aina, Group Head Energy, Downstream & International Oil Trading, First Bank of Nigeria, in her words, she explained: "Aside from reducing cost, indigenous producers should begin to do the valuation of the asset they want to buy and they have to be very conservative so that they don't run into stunning waters.

She said the Financiers have a very important role to play by curtailing the

pricing and bidding of assets to ensure they maintain their budget.

She advised the Government to set up a monetary board and anti-trust consumer protection agency that will monitor and ensure that bids aren't overrated and value aren't been removed from the economy.

She also said that diversification of alternative funding sources is recommended as some producers have moved into that process.

During her speech on Force Majeure, Seyi Bella, Partner of Banwo and Ighodalo, said companies shouldn't use the current market condition as an excuse to terminate contracts but rather the way forward is restructuring their business agreement.

That is to say, all parties involved should reevaluate their business plans instead of canceling contracts.

She continued: "There should be a stakeholder collaborative approach in trying to help oil and gas companies thrive in this global pandemic.

"Bank and borrowers need to work together to offer incentives. While CBN should be at the frontline in dealing with it," she concluded.

BP Supercomputer to Aid Global Healthcare Researchers to Halt Coronavirus more than 16 million billion calculations per

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P is joining forces with the U.S. government, leading universities and the world’s largest technology companies by providing access to its supercomputer to help researchers halt the spread of COVID-19.

BP will donate its significant supercomputing capability to the publicprivate consortium formed in March 2020 by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the U.S. Department of Energy and IBM. The group, known as the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, will pool resources and expertise from Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, BP and others.

They aim to provide COVID-19 researchers worldwide with access to the most powerful high-performance computing resources that can significantly advance the

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pace of scientific discovery in the fight to stop the virus.

“The world is rallying together in response to this pandemic and our biosciences experts, computer scientists and mathematicians are proud to play their part by supporting groundbreaking and potentially life-saving research,” said David Eyton, BP’s executive vice president of Innovation & Engineering. “We’re all in this together and BP is working with governments and communities to do everything we can to help fight this pandemic.”

second and complete a problem in an hour that would take a laptop nine years. The Center’s staff includes experts in data science, applied mathematics, and systems architecture.

BP will also make available the expertise of its Biosciences Center, located in San Diego, California. The center consists of dozens of scientists who have capabilities in biological sciences, chemical engineering and chemistry, and works across BP to support many aspects of its operations. These scientists will work closely with BP’s highperformance computing team to understand research proposals as they come in and help prioritize work.

BP will provide access to its Center for HighPerformance Computing (CHPC) in Houston, which houses one of the world’s largest supercomputers for commercial research and processes enormous amounts of data for BP. It has 16.3 petaflops of computing capability, allowing it to process

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and 5G Reshaping the Oil and Gas Industry

cloud. The cloud data center improves computing power by eight times and has similarly improved prestack seismic data processing capability by five times, from 400 square kilometers to 2000 square kilometers, matching work area requirements. Elsewhere, AI and big data capabilities have been used to reanalyze 10 PB of the customer's historical exploration data, to mine new value from it and support extraction decision-making, bringing huge additional value to the oilfield.

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uawei organised an Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020, exploring 'Data to Barrel'.

The summit gathered together global customers, industry partners, and thought leaders — including representatives from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Schlumberger SIS, and the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) of French giant TOTAL — to share their experiences of helping oil and gas companies increase profits while cutting costs, creating added value through digital transformation. Key suggestions on how the industry can overcome challenges at this particular point in time, adapting to the new normal of the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, were also fully explored.

As the oil and gas industry faces upheaval, Huawei is well positioned to help. In the first half of 2020, due to the global economic downturn amid the spread of COVID-19, international oil prices fell to a low of 30 dollars per barrel. In May, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures prices even turned negative, a historically unprecedented event.

Undoubtedly, the oil and gas industry has entered an extremely difficult period and is witnessing changes, the likes of which have not been seen for over a century.

Huawei has been working hard to help oil and gas customers cope with these current challenges. David Sun, Vice President of Huawei's Enterprise Business Group and Director of the Global Energy Business Department, noted that, over the past decade, Huawei has partnered with customers in the oil and gas industry and together witnessed oil prices peak at 120 dollars per barrel, as well as fall to that low of 30 dollars. Along the way, Huawei's role has changed — and upgraded — with the support and help of oil and gas companies. Evolving from a vendor that simply provided switches, routers, and network devices, to becoming a full partner dedicated to providing digital transformation solutions, Huawei works with partners and customers alike to jointly promote the application of 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data in the oil and gas industry. It continues to explore new technologies and applications, where solutions to the current challenges lie.

Indeed, using elastic computing, big data analytics, AI, and cloud data centers, Huawei has already helped oil and gas customers achieve digital transformation, promoting the construction of intelligent oilfields and increasing oil and gas reserves.

Working with partners, Huawei planned and built a computing AI platform for an industry customer, to implement AI training and big data analytics. This has, in turn, led to an increase in both oil and gas reserves and in production.

Indeed, solutions have been implemented in various scenarios, including artificial-lift fault diagnosis, well-logging and reservoir

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identification, and seismic first arrival wave identification, extracting significant value from underutilized — formerly 'useless' — data.

In the words of Dr. Mohamed Akoum from ADNOC: In an era of change for industries around the world, ADNOC continues to drive innovation and embed advanced technologies across its value chain to optimize performance, boost profitability and build resilience.

New ICT Technologies Reshape the Oil and Gas Industry: Huawei Offers a Wealth of Experience Today, 150 years after the first successful extraction of oil from a drilled well, accessible underground oil resources have been all but exhausted. Oil companies, by necessity, are therefore now exploring deep-water, pre-salt, and unconventional reservoirs.

At 60 years old, Daqing Oilfield — the largest oilfield in China, situated in Heilongjiang, the country's northernmost province — has faced enormous challenges in terms of reserve replacement, stable production pressure, cost reductions, and efficiency improvements.

At the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020, Zhang Tiegang, former Deputy Chief Engineer of the Exploration and Development Research Institute at Daqing Oilfield, explained that seismic exploration technologies to detect oil and gas reserves have been the method of choice for most oil companies.

Increasing seismic exploration while decreasing well drilling, he noted, has become a new measure widely used in the industry. However, high precision and massive data processing have brought their own challenges to seismic exploration and oilfield exploration and development. With a single seismic exploration work area now expanded to over 2000 square kilometers, the volume of data collected through the broadband, wide-azimuth, and high-density seismic data collection technology has exceeded 1 TB per square kilometer.

To help Daqing Oilfield address these issues, Huawei built a dedicated oil and gas exploration

Huawei is empowering a wide range of industries through 5G networking. In the oil and gas industry, 5G technologies are changing the operation modes of seismic data collection.

Huawei has put 5G network features to work — including high bandwidth, wide connectivity, and low latency — to help achieve high-speed backhaul of seismic data, reducing the manual cabling workload and significantly improving the efficiency of seismic data collection.

Elsewhere, Huawei 5G networks are already being used in oilfields and stations to support robot inspection, drone inspection, and Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications.

Additionally, the Huawei Horizon Digital Platform helps oil and gas customers break down legacy siloed service systems and quickly release service applications as micro-services, to meet the complex and changing needs of the industry. For example, Huawei has deployed an enterprise cloud for SONATRACH, the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. The cloudbased solution manages and coordinates multiple data centers, eliminates resource silos, and greatly improves overall operation efficiency.

As a global ICT solutions provider, Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every oil and gas company. At the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020, Wang Hao, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Oil & Gas Development Department for Huawei's Enterprise Business Group, said that Huawei will use ICT as a new engine to work even more closely with industry customers in challenging times. Indeed, Huawei is already working with 19 of the top 30 oil and gas companies, in 45 countries and regions around the world, helping them achieve digital transformation. Ultimately, this will bring more benefits to the upstream, more security to the midstream, and more value to the downstream.

Such innovative ICT technologies — AI, cloud, edge computing, and 5G — will reshape the oil and gas industry. As David Sun concluded at the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020: "According to IDC's latest survey, Chinese industrial users see Huawei as the digital transformation leader, ranking number one. In the future, we hope to share Huawei's digital transformation capabilities and experiences in China's oil and gas industry with global customers, to help achieve ever greater business success.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers

www.capp.ca

COVID-19 NEWS

Nigeria Targets $10 Per Barrel Cost of Production by 2021 The Federal Government has made its intention to fix the Unit Operating Cost (UOC) of producing crude oil in Nigeria to $10 per barrel.

The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari made the disclosure on Wednesday during the second webinar series by the Nigerian Association of Explorationists (NAPE), themed “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry – The Way Forward”. He said the reduction would come into effect December 2021.

Speaking on the impact and reaction of Nigeria’s to the COVID-19 crsisi, the NNPC boss said while Nigeria remained resilient in the face of the Coronavirus crisis, however, noted that the situation left the country with revenue instability.

He hinted that the move for reduction in the cost of oil production is part of the government’s response to new realities.

Kyari said the cost of production have been too high for too long, adding that government had initiated the conversation on cost reduction with industry operators but was stalled by the Coronavirus outbreak.

He noted that government’s industrywide intervention pointed to the need for a substantial reduction in the cost of production.

He said “a number of cost elements we deal with today shouldn’t be there in the first instance. We can work on our cost structure to bring down the cost of production.

“We are engaging our Joint Venture partners on the areas of inefficiency that they can do away with. Also, there is need for adoption of technology to enhance productivity, reduce waste and improve system efficiency,” he said.

Speaking further, NNPC boss provided official data on upstream production cost which revealed varying costs of production by NNPC joint venture partners. While some produced at $93 per barrel in 2019, an unnamed operator produced at $57 per barrel in the 2020.

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Evy Maffini

The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari

Also, costs from production-sharing contracts (PSCs) were lower. The highest cost of production from PSCs, which tend to be offshore, came in at $35.97 per barrel, while the lowest was $6.18 per barrel, Kyari stated.

He said, “Some companies are producing at $90 per barrel, while others are at $9. This is unacceptable and industry must work together to bring this down. There are no subsidies for the upstream, if it is not economic it must shut down,” “It is not acceptable and this cannot continue. Our target is to bring it down to $10 per barrel by December 2021 and this is achievable.

“Any company that does not operate at $10 per barrel cost of production is free to go because the upstream sector is not a subsidised market, ” the NNPC boss said.

Continuing, Kyari said “some of the oil and gas companies had over bloated management structures which impacted on the production cost “We are going to do things very differently.

“We need to focus on projects that generate more cash, produce more resources – and at cheaper costs.”

In another development, a report has said that Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Cameron sustained their export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) despite the economic turmoil triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. An analytical data from S&P Global Platts described exports from the listed countries as showing ‘resilience,’ during this period.

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The report said that total LNG exports from the four exporting countries in the region, so far this year are broadly in line with volumes supplied in the same time frame last year. That is despite sharp falls in LNG utilization rates in other parts of the world, particularly in the US, while spotexposed Egypt has halted LNG exports altogether.

Nigeria is exposed to the spot market with around 50% of its LNG exports last year sold on a spot or short-term basis, according to industry group, the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL). The report however noted that Nigeria’s LNG exports in 2020 have stayed strong despite weaker demand and low prices, with some 11 Bcm exported in the first five months of the year.

That is down just 4% on the same period last year. S&P Platt said some cargoes have taken longer to reach their destinations, while other loaded cargoes have been idling at sea in recent weeks, but nonetheless, exports continue out of the country’s only LNG plant, the 22 million mt/year Nigeria LNG facility.

“With supply to the Nigeria LNG facility being associated gas, LNG exports are to a degree driven by domestic oil production, which Platts Analytics estimates fell by around 5% over the first five months of the year,” Platts Analytics’ LNG analyst Luke Cottell said.

“This meant we saw little change in LNG exports year on year, although a record volume of Nigerian LNG on the water in late May was indicative of the difficulties such cargoes faced in finding a home amid record low prices in both Asia and Europe,” Cottell said.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

CNL’s Executive says None of its Employees has Tested Positive for Coronavirus

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hevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), has continued to operate safely, and without any Coronavirus (COVID-19) related incident in its operations.

moved to the designated facilities on Friday, April 10, 2020 and other groups will follow based on the crew change schedule and the personnel will be required to strictly maintain social distancing protocols, personal hygiene, and use of appropriate personal protective Evy Maffini equipment during the supervised quarantine period. “We are also working with the hotels and other facilities where the personnel will be placed, to ensure that the hotels and facilities maintain high levels of sanitation and follow strict adherence to all COVID 19 protocols,” he stated.

CNL affirms that as a responsible organization, one of the precautionary safeguards it has put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus into its operations is the introduction of a compulsory two-week supervised quarantine for all personnel returning to work at its Escravos Operations during this period of the pandemic.

CNL’s General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Esimaje Brikinn explained that the precautionary safeguard enables CNL to provide a controlled environment for very close monitoring of the personnel during the period of the supervised quarantine. He added that in order to make this safeguard effective, all personnel will first be required to provide a comprehensive travel history before they are placed in the supervised quarantine.

Reacting to speculations that CNL quarantined some of its staff suspected of having the Coronavirus in a hotel in Warri, Delta State, Esimaje affirmed that none of CNL’s employees has contracted the COVID-19 virus. He clarified that based on the Coronavirus

Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

Esimaje declared that at the end of the twoweek period, only those who are certified free of the COVID-19 virus shall be moved to Escravos and that anyone with suspected symptoms during the period will be subjected to further testing and subsequently transferred to government designated hospitals for further handling in line with the government approved protocols.

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Esimaje Brikinn, CNL’s General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs,

directive issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding sustained operations in the oil and gas industry, CNL entered into arrangements with some hotels and other facilities in Warri and Lagos where their staff on rotational duties will be accommodated, and their health status monitored to ensure that they do not have the COVID-19 virus before returning to work at its Escravos Operations.

According to him, the first group of personnel scheduled for quarantine were

“Chevron continues to monitor the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak around the world and has been utilizing the guidance of local and international health authorities. We are regularly updating our workforce and will continue to adjust plans as appropriate as we receive more information. Our top priority is to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our workforce and their family members, and we are taking precautionary measures to reduce the risk of exposure,” he remarked.

Total Issues 2020 Share Capital Reserved For Employees in 97 Countries

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n accordance with its policy in favour of employee shareholding, the Board of Directors of TOTAL S.A. decided, on September 18, 2019, to carry out a capital increase reserved for eligible employees and former employees of the Group worldwide under the conditions set by the eighteenth resolution at the Shareholders’ Meeting of June 1, 2018.

On April 29, 2020, the Chairman and CEO decided to set the subscription period from May 6 to May 18, 2020 and the subscription price at 26.20 euros per share, corresponding to the average of the closing prices of the TOTAL share on Euronext Paris over the twenty trading sessions preceding the date of this decision, reduced by a 20% discount and

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rounded off to the highest tenth of a euro.

At the end of this period, 45,547 employees in 97 countries, representing 39.97% of the eligible Group employees and former employees, subscribed to this capital increase for an amount of 339.4 million euros. These results are on the rise compared to 2019, both in terms of participation rate and number of shares subscribed despite the uncertain economic environment.

"This year again and in spite of the health and economic crisis, Total’s employees have confirmed their attachment to the Group, first by supporting in a vast majority maintaining the operation of Capital increase reserved for

employees, then by subscribing massively to it.

As Chairman and CEO, I am extremely proud and that comforts my conviction that the Group will know how to handle the crisis it faces", declared Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total.

As a consequence, 13,160,383 new shares, representing 0.51% of TOTAL S.A.’s share capital as of April 30, 2020, will be issued on June 11, 2020, will carry immediate dividend rights and will be fully assimilated with TOTAL shares already listed on Euronext Paris.

Following this issuance, the employee shareholders in TOTAL S.A.’s share capital, within the meaning of Article L. 225-102 of the French Commercial Code, will represent 5.85% of TOTAL S.A.’s share capital as of April 30, 2020.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

Maersk Drilling releases Trading Statement for Q1 2020 average day rate was below the previous quarter average.

Revenue within the International floater segment increased to USD 116 million in Q1 2020 compared to USD 93 million in Q4 2019 primarily driven by an increase in utilisation to 89% (64% in Q4 2019) with 645 contracted days in Q1 2020 (428 days in Q4 2019) out of 727 available days (664 days). The financial uptime of 94.2% (95.7%) was negatively impacted by unscheduled maintenance down-time on Maersk Venturer.

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aersk Drilling has released its Q1 2020 Trading Statement, showing that the company is well positioned to respond to the unprecedented business environment.

The announcement was made during a conference call for investors and analysts, where Maersk Drilling's CEO Jorn Madsen and CFO Jesper Ridder Olsen presented the Q1 2020 trading statement.

Maersk Drilling CEO, Jorn Madsen said: “With the combination of COVID-19 and lower oil prices we are facing unprecedented times in the offshore drilling industry. Maersk Drilling succeeded in maintaining a strong operational performance during Q1, and we are well positioned to respond to the changed business environment due to a combination of operational, commercial and financial strengths. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to adapt our cost structure to the updated market outlook.�

According to the statement, Maersk Drilling's revenue generation for Q1 2020 stands at USD279 million. While Q4 2019 revenue stands at USD305 million.

Maersk Drilling says the revenue for Q1 2020 was impacted by lower utilisation in the North Sea jack-up segment, partly offset by higher utilisation in the International floater segment but at a lower average day rate. The financial uptime of 97.5% (98.6% for Q4 2019) was negatively impacted by non COVID19 related down-time primarily in the International floater segment.

Maersk Drilling managed to keep

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operations largely unaffected by the COVID19 situation despite severe difficulties in performing crew changes and keeping supply chains running. The total number of contracted days increased slightly to 1,555 days in Q1 2020 compared to 1,523 days in Q4 2019 resulting in utilisation for Q1 2020 of 78% (76%).

As of 31 March 2020, the forward contract coverage for the remainder of 2020 was 64%.

The average day rate was USD 179k in Q1 2020 compared to USD 200k in Q4 2019, impacted by extended mobilisations for new contracts in the International floater segment.

North Sea jack-ups The company said the revenue within the North Sea segment stands at USD 156 million in Q1 2020 compared to USD 205 million in Q4 2019. It was mainly impacted by lower utilisation. With 819 contracted days in the quarter (1,003 days) out of 1,183 available days (1,151 days), utilisation decreased to 69% in Q1 2020 (87% in Q4 2019). The drop in utilisation of 18 percentage points compared to Q4 2019, was mainly driven by Maersk Interceptor completing its five-year contract with Aker BP in Norway towards the end of 2019 as well as additional idle days on two R-rigs located in the southern part of the North Sea. Financial uptime remained high at 99.9% in Q1 2020 (100% in Q4 2019). The average day rate of USD 190k in Q1 2020 (USD 204k in Q4 2019) was impacted by Maersk Interceptor finishing its legacy contract in Norway.

International floaters Maersk Drilling explained that the performance within the International floater segment displayed a positive trend both in terms of revenue and utilisation, while the

Revenue backlog Two new contracts and three contract extensions were signed in Q1 2020 adding a total of USD 60 million to the revenue backlog. As of 31 March 2020, the revenue backlog amounted to USD 1.7 billion (USD 2.1 billion in Q4 2019). In addition to revenue recognised in the quarter, the backlog was reduced by USD 175 million related to the termination of the drilling contract for Maersk Venturer and by USD 45 million related to changed duration of certain activity-based contracts as well as impact from depreciation of the NOK on certain split rate contracts.

At 31 March 2020, the forward contract coverage for the remainder of 2020 was 63% for the North Sea jack-up segment and 62% for the International floater segment. The average backlog day rates for the remaining part of 2020 were USD 174k for the North Sea segment and USD 230k for the International segment.

On 30 April 2020, Maersk Drilling announced that it had been awarded a four-well extension for the low-emission jack-up rig Maersk Intrepid to continue working for Equinor offshore Norway. The contract extension is expected to commence in September 2020, with an estimated duration of 339 days, which will keep the rig deployed into the second half of 2021.

In addition, Maersk Drilling and Equinor have reached an agreement on the provision of integrated services for the campaign, including Managed Pressure Drilling, slop treatment, cuttings handling, and tubular running services. The contract value is approximately USD 100 million, including rig modifications and upgrades, but excluding the integrated services provided and potential performance bonuses. The contract includes an additional one-well option, plus the option of adding up to 120 additional days of well intervention.

In addition, subsequent to quarter end, the revenue backlog has been impacted as follows:

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS postponed or cancelled, and some existing drilling contracts have been renegotiated, suspended or terminated.

• Notices of early termination for convenience of the drilling contracts for Mærsk Developer, Maersk Reacher, Mærsk Innovator and Maersk Guardian have been received.

Based on current tender activity and bilateral customer dialogues, Maersk Drilling expects that the number of new contracts for drilling campaigns commencing in 2020 will be limited, while the demand pipeline for campaigns with commencement in 2021 is building up due to postponement of projects originally scheduled for 2020.

The terminations are expected to have immaterial financial impact given early termination fees.

• Maersk Drilling has agreed with Inpex Australia to suspend the contract for Mærsk Deliverer with effect from 30 April 2020. Re-commencement of the contract is expected to be in October 2020 and Maersk Drilling will receive a suspension rate until then.

To what extent the current project pipeline for 2021 will materialise into new drilling contracts depends on the development in the oil and gas prices and the overall uncertainty in the oil market.

The expected end-date of the firm contract period is now in August 2023.

According to the company, the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have also affected the Egersund yard where the Mærsk Inspirer is being retrofitted to work as a combined drilling and production unit at the Yme field offshore Norway. The onshore modifications to the Mærsk Inspirer are currently scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, whereafter the rig will move offshore for hook-up and commissioning.

The first quarter of 2020 showed simultaneous demand and supply shocks in the oil markets. Measures to

Jorn Madsen, Maersk Drilling CEO

contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus across the world have led to an unprecedented decline in demand for oil and gas resulting in a sharp fall in prices. At the end of March 2020, the Brent Crude Oil closed at USD 22.74 per barrel and averaged USD 50.82 per barrel during the Q1 2020.

The sharp decline in prices has caused several oil and gas companies to announce reductions in their spending budgets.

Generally, sanctioning of new projects and ongoing tenders for drilling have been

Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

In relative terms, the market for ultra-harsh jack-up rigs, including the CJ-70 jack-up rig segment, is expected to be more resilient compared to the broader harsh environment jack-up market and the international floater market.

Many stacked rigs across the offshore drilling industry continue to incur stacking costs despite unfavourable commercial prospects, and given excess supply in most market segments, continued scrapping of rigs is needed to obtain a healthier balance between demand and supply.

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The secondary market for offshore rigs remains illiquid with bid-ask spreads continuing to be too wide to facilitate any market transactions.

Green hydrogen can help drive job recovery out of the Covid-19 recession - Expert

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he green hydrogen export market could be worth US$300 billion yearly by 2050, creating 400,000 jobs globally in renewable energy and hydrogen production, according to a new report by Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.

The global demand for “green hydrogen,” produced with minimal carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, could reach about 530 million tons (Mt) by 2050, displacing roughly 10.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (around 37 percent of pre-pandemic global oil production).

Rapidly declining renewable energy costs and technological advances would enable hydrogen to become the medium of choice for transporting cheap clean energy across the globe. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward decarbonization by reducing hydrocarbon demand substantially.

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According to the Strategy& report, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries can ramp up production to boost domestic industries and utilize green hydrogen for export purposes.

While other countries are also seeking to invest in green hydrogen, the export prospects of GCC countries are limited by large domestic demand that will probably consume most of their production. However, GCC countries can export much of their green hydrogen and still have adequate, low-cost renewable energy.

Dr. Raed Kombargi, Partner with Strategy& and the leader of the firm’s Energy, chemicals, and utilities practice in the Middle East, said: “Given the current situation and the decline in demand for hydrocarbons, GCC countries need to act decisively to capture this market with a threephase plan. They should launch a commercialscale pilot in partnership with leading electrolysis operating companies to build capabilities and start research and development.

Second, they need to develop the right policies and regulations that will enable them to boost the domestic market. Finally, they need to build necessary export infrastructure and secure supply agreements with key export markets.”

Dr. Shihab Elborai, Partner with Strategy& Middle East added: “With the challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic and concurrent steep decline in oil prices, GCC countries need to act boldly now to catch up and overtake countries such as China and Australia, who are exerting significant amounts of effort in hydrogen. For instance, the province of British Columbia in Canada is developing plans to produce approximately 1.5 Mt of Blue and green hydrogen by 2050 and generate export revenues of $15 billion. There is clearly an opportunity for GCC countries here.”

With modern technology, the cost of producing green hydrogen will lead to benefits in a range of industries and advance the goal of making countries and companies more environmentally sustainable. This will apply to current applications of green hydrogen and new ones.

As a result, the demand for green hydrogen is projected to grow significantly by 2050.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

WindEnergy Hamburg Postponed to December 2020 plays a crucial role in fighting the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID-19 is a huge hit to the EU economy.

Last week the EU Recovery Plan singled out wind and other renewables as ‘policy fundamentals of the recovery’. And wind will deliver. It is cheap, reliable and already 15 percent of Europe’s electricity. The EU wants it to be 50 percent by 2050. That means huge investments. It means investing now. It means the jobs and growth that are needed now. The EU is unleashing all its firepower to drive a green recovery - €1.85 trillion. WindEnergy Hamburg in December Evy willMaffini show how wind can make this count,” said Giles Dickson.

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indEnergy Hamburg, the global onshore & offshore event, has been rescheduled to 1 - 4 December 2020 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The decision to reschedule WindEnergy Hamburg for December was made in May. The team at Hamburg Messe is working vigorously on the development of safety concepts to ensure a successful trade fair for exhibitors, delegates and visitors.

In addition, the exhibition will feature both digital and hybrid presentation formats, with broad backing across the industry. “We got a lot of positive feedback from our exhibitors who support our plans for the new December dates. It gives them a more solid basis for organising and planning.

So the vast majority of exhibitors and all of the big manufacturers will stay on board and the number of cancellations has actually been quite low. We are of course very happy about that and confident that we have made the right decision,” said Bernd Aufderheide, President and CEO, Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH. At a digital press conference, industry experts from all around Europe assessed the wind industry's current situation, the effects of the pandemic and the importance of the EU Green Deal, giving an outlook on the sector's future.

All speakers gave a positive view of the sector’s prospects while calling upon governments to take specific action.

The digital discussion panel included top-level representatives from the business world, politics and industry organisations providing insights into all areas of the sector.

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Global upswing despite coronavirus While the pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures have disrupted supply chains, hampered investments and brought wind power projects to a temporary halt, energy production from existing wind farms has been stable over the past months.

“Covid-19 is undoubtedly proving a challenge for the wind industry affecting the global supply chain, manufacturing and project execution. But the crisis is also showing the resilience of the sector, which has continued to provide affordable and clean energy throughout,” said Dr. Markus M. Tacke, Chairman of VDMA Power Systems and CEO of Siemens Gamesa.

Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope and coorganiser of WindEnergy Hamburg, pointed out that wind energy has become the most economical energy source in many parts of the world: “New models for offshore wind turbines have reached scales no one had expected some years ago, with single turbines of 12 MW and more. Floating wind is on about to getting ready for commercial market entry.”

Thorsten Herdan, Director General Energy, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, added: “In Germany, the electricity due to COVID-19 has pushed the share of renewables and wind energy in the electricity sector to new heights. So far, more than 55% of total electricity production in 2020 is renewable – wind alone makes up for a third of electricity production in 2020. And we have observed no problems with grid stability. This shows that our system is capable to adopt very high shares of renewables.”

Renewable energy is part of the EU recovery plan The speakers agreed that the wind industry

Dr. Markus M. Tacke voiced an explicit call to action: “Now is the time to build on this platform by investing in a true Green Recovery that can stimulate economic growth and job creation.”

And Thorsten Herdan added: “In Germany, the electricity due to COVID-19 has pushed the share of renewables and wind energy in the electricity sector to new hights. So far, more than 55% of total electricity production in 2020 is renewable – wind alone makes up for a third of electricity production in 2020. And we have observed no problems with grid stability. This shows that our system is capable to adopt very high shares of renewables” Positive outlook Ben Backwell, CEO of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), said that wind energy has demonstrated its dependability in the current crisis and deserves to be trusted: “The wind industry has proven itself to be resilient during the COVID-19 crisis, providing reliable and cost-competitive energy to power our society as the world is in lockdown.” China holds great promise, as well: “GWEC forecasted 2020 to be a record year for wind installations, and while the current crisis will impact these projections, we still see countries like China, the biggest wind market in the world, to surpass even our pre-COVID forecasts.” Backwell called on politics to provide support: “Governments across the world must leverage the resilience and huge potential of the wind power sector to generate investment, create jobs and renew critical infrastructure like grids and ports to power a green recovery.”

WindEnergy Hamburg is the worldwide platform for wind energy – both on- and offshore. Every two years one of the most fascinating and promising industries meets for the leading global networking event for wind energy. 1,400 exhibitors will present their innovations and solutions and around 600 service providers offering everything from planning and project design.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

COVID-19 NEWS

Damen Shiprepair Launches 24/7 Covid-19 Disinfection Service for Ships Damen's vision is to become the most sustainable and digital shipbuilder in the world.

To achieve this, the focus is on going 'back to the core': on standardisation and series construction; the traits that have made Damen great and that are essential to make shipping greener and more connected.

Damen’s focus on standardisation, modular construction and keeping vessels in stock leads to short delivery times, low ‘total cost of ownership’, high resale values and reliable Evy Maffini performance. Furthermore, Damen vessels are based on thorough R&D and proven technology.

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amen Shiprepair Harbour & Voyage (DSHV), the mobile ship repair squad of Damen Shiprepair & Conversion, has announced the creation of a 24/7 Covid-19 Disinfection Service for ships.

DSHV has sought to maintain service to its clients throughout the coronavirus crisis. With this new service, DSHV is extending its scope of work in a way that specifically meets current needs.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) advises that when there is a case of Covid-19 on board a vessel, the cabin and living quarters as well as the rest of the ship, are disinfected.

DSHV’s MD, Jozeph W.D. Quak says, “As with a lot of viruses, the coronavirus can be spread more easily on board a ship. People are in close proximity to each other on a vessel and self-isolation can be more difficult in such a limited space. The disease can be spread not only with coughing and sneezing, but also touching areas that have been infected. Therefore, hygiene and disinfection are essential. With this service we are looking to assist our clients through this challenging time.”

The disinfection service is based on WHO approved methods using stabilized hydrogen peroxide. The solution is colourless and odourless and causes no damages on interior or surfaces. All areas aboard the vessel will be disinfected with approved methods and with an approved risk assessments prior operation starts. The service has been successfully been performed for

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Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

Damen offers a wide range of products, including tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and superyachts. the cruise sector, but can be provided to any type of vessel.

In all that it does, DSHV makes the safety of its personnel and the communities in which it operates the number one priority. In order to provide this service, and other project work at this time, DSHV has implemented robust safety measures, continually updated in case as per the latest rules and regulations. These include maintaining a safe distance between personnel at all times. This is based on the national guidelines in the country in which DSHV is operating, but not less than 1.5 metres. The service can be provided alongside as well as during voyage according to client requirements.

Personnel are required to observe strict hygiene requirements and wear high quality PPE. DSHV sets up two separate and isolated areas. These safety zones are used prior to attendance and after disembarking of the vessel on each occasion. Areas with testing, washing, disinfecting, dressing, undressing (of PPE as per latest standards) facilities for our employees, avoiding speeding of the corona virus.

For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of services, including maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and the transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how. Damen also offers a variety of marine components, such as nozzles, rudders, winches, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.

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Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) has a worldwide network of eighteen repair and conversion yards of which twelve are located in North West Europe. Facilities at the yards include more than 50 floating (and covered) drydocks, including the longest, 420 x 80 metres, and the widest, 405 x 90 metres, as well as slopes, ship lifts and indoor halls. Projects range from the smallest simple repairs through Class’ maintenance to complex refits and the complete conversion of large offshore structures.

DSC completes around 1,300 repair and maintenance jobs annually, both at yards as well as in ports and during voyage.

Damen Shipyards Group operates 36 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 13,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 6,500 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers around 175 vessels annually to customers worldwide.

Based on its unique, standardised shipdesign concept Damen is able to guarantee consistent quality.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

OIL MARKET REPORT

OPEC Sees Oil Rising To $40 In Second Half Of 2020

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il prices are set to recover with the OPEC+ production cuts and gradual lifting of lockdowns around the world in the second half of 2020, when oil prices “will be $40 starting from the third quarter,” Mohamed Arkab, Energy Minister of OPEC’s rotating president Algeria, said during an interview on the country’s national radio channel.

The global economy will not stay paralyzed for too long, and together with the 9.7 million bpd cuts that OPEC and its allies pledged for May and June, these factors are set to lift the price of oil in H2 2020, Arkab told Algeria’s national radio, as quoted by Oil Price.

In China, which was hit first by the coronavirus, and which exited the lockdown first, the return to normalization in the transportation sector “is driving up global demand,” according to Algeria’s energy minister.

Moving forward, OPEC and its allies led

by Russia has pushed to extending the oil production cuts and to urge countries such as Iraq and Nigeria to comply better with existing curbs.

and Russia had agreed to extend record cuts throughout July although Riyadh would prefer to see cut extended throughout August.

and oil market, as well as the decisions taken

by OPEC and its partners at the 9th and 10th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meetings on 9 and 12 April.

OPEC sources said an extension of cuts was contingent on compliance as countries that produced above their quota in May and June must compensate by cutting more in future months.

“As market conditions continued to deteriorate at the end of 1Q20 and the start of 2Q20, it became clear that urgent action was needed. Key stakeholders from around the world were lining up behind the DoC countries to support proactive, pre-emptive and decisive action to prevent a total market meltdown,” the Secretary General said.

As at 17 July 2020, the price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $43.80 a barrel on Thursday, compared with $44.12 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

Speaking at the 133rd Economic Commission Board (ECB) of OPEC via Webinar in Vienna, HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General, outlined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy

“The production adjustments totaling 9.7 mb/d for two months, followed by phased reductions in the adjustment levels over a further 22 months, were unparalleled in scope and duration. The 2-yr period for output adjustments demonstrated the full commitment of all stakeholders to achieve noble common goals,” HE Barkindo added.

He concluded his remarks by stating, “Another pivotal outcome has been the encouragement and outpouring of support the DoC participants have received. This support came from the very highest levels of government ... The largest producers acknowledged their mutual interdependence and the benefits of working together to return confidence to the global oil market.”

OPEC+ sources have said Saudi Arabia

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OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

INDUSTRY NEWS

Nigeria’s Crudeoil Production Dropped by 294,000 bpd in June – OPEC

revenues and lower global crude oil prices.

Moreover, despite Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio, which is moderate by international standards at about 20 percent, the federal government’s debt service-to-revenue ratio is already high due to low tax revenue. As a result, debt servicing might limit the government’s ability to increase economic productivity, and the fiscal account may remain in deficit throughout the medium term.”

In another report, Nigeria stands in the fifth position in revenue from oil export among OPEC member countries as she earned $45.11billion from oil last year.

The report shows that Nigeria's revenue was valued at $206.06billion came from petroleum export from 2015 to 2019.

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he Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said in its July edition of Oil Market Report that Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped by 294,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June.

According to the report, the country’s crude oil production stood at 1,411,000 bpd in June as against 1,705,000 bpd in April and 1,436,000 in May, which resulted in a change of -25 in June and May. In the month under review, the largest crude oil cartel in the world also said that secondary sources revealed that Nigeria’s crude oil production stood at 1,504,000 bpd in June as against 1,777, 000bpd in April and 1,592,000 in May, which resulted in a change of -88 in June and May. This shows a shortfall of about 280,000 bpd of the country’s crude oil production benchmark of 1,700,000 mbpd, which is a downward review of the earlier 2.01 mbpd for its 2020 budget.

It would be recalled that in April, OPEC and its allies led by Russia, agreed to cut crude oil production by 9.7 mbpd. The production cuts which took effect in May, saw many countries not complying with the production adjustment cuts, including Nigeria. So on June 18 after a Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting, countries that did not comply in May and June were asked to submit their plan of ensuring compliance, which took effect in July.

On the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the debt profile of the country and the impact

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occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic in the country’s economy, OPEC said, “Nigeria’s GDP grew by 1.9 percent y-o-y in 1Q20 following 2.6 percent growth in 4Q19, marking the slowest pace of economic growth since 3Q18. The data most probably reflects early COVID-19 disruptions, which led to restrictions in Nigeria’s activities with its main trading partners. The non-oil sector grew by only 1.5 percent compared with 2.3 percent in 4Q19. Meanwhile, internal trade declined to 2.8 percent following a contraction of only 0.5 percent in 4Q19. Public administration contracted by -8.7% in 1Q20, while administrative and support services contracted by -1.9 percent following expansion of 1.3 percent in 4Q19. Nigeria’s manufacturing sector expanded only by 0.4 percent compared with 1.3 percent in 4Q19, and agriculture grew by 2.2% following growth of 2.3 percent in 4Q19. Most importantly, the oil sector advanced by only 5.1 percent following 6.4 percent growth in 2019.

It further stated,”The recent manufacturing PMI reading indicated the steepest contraction in Nigeria’s manufacturing activity since July 2014, as it fell to 41.1 in June from 42.4 the previous month. In the meantime, responding to the recent crash in oil prices and the economic fallout of COVID19, Nigeria’s central bank devalued the local currency as it adjusted the official peg against the dollar to 360 from 307 in March. The step was taken to converge a multiple exchange rate regime which it has used to manage pressure on the naira. Meanwhile, according to a Debt Management Office statement published on 2 July, Nigeria’s public debt increased by around 15 percent y-o-y by the end of March to US$79.3bn, driven by growth in both domestic and foreign borrowing due to a shortage caused by a decline in internal

According to the breakdown from OPEC’s 2020 Annual Statistical Bulletin Nigeria’s oil export revenue fell in 2016 to $27.29billion from $41.17billion in 2015, tipping Nigeria into recession.

Oil revenue later improved in 2017 to $37.98 billion and by the time Nigeria’s economy came out of recession in 2018, the revenue jumped to $54.51billion.

The four bigger earners ahead of Nigeria are Saudi Arabia ($202.37billion), Iraq ($80.03billion), Kuwait ($52.43billin) and the United Arab Emirates ($49.64billion).

The country also imported $265 billion worth of petroleum products.

Nigeria exports its crude oil to Europe, North America, Asia and Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Middle-East.

Last year, its export to Europe plunged to 680,600 barrels per day from 1.06 million bpd in 2018. Also export to North America fell to 27,500 bpd from 172,000 bpd However, export to Asia and the Pacific rose from 387.200bpd in 2018 to 664.900bpd in 2019. Also, Nigerian oil export to Latin America increased from 52.300 bpd in 2018 to 252.200 bpd last year.

Exports to Africa fell from 309.500 in 2018 to 260.700 in 2019. No export was recorded for Middle East in 2018 but 122.300bpd was exported in 2019.

The total volume of oil exported to North America slumped by 84 per cent to 27,500 bpd in 2019, while exports to Africa fell by 15.77 per cent to 260,70

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

INDUSTRY NEWS

L-R: Country Chair / Managing Director of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mike Sangster; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TOTAL, Patrick Pouyanne; Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva; President, Exploration & Production, Arnaud Breuillac; Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater District, Ahmadu-Kida Musa and Senior Vice President, E&P Africa, Nicolas Terraz

Total’s Investment Portfolio for Deepwater Projects in Africa Hits $160 billion

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ike Sangster, Managing Director, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, has said that the company have made a huge invesment in deepwater exploration activities in Africa and is ready to increase its investment drive in the region.

Sangster made this declaration during a panel session at the 4th Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) in Lagos.

According to him, Total wants to continue to be the leader in the African oil and gas space.

He said: "We had spent $160 billion in deep water exploration activities in Africa in the last 10 years. While, 20 per cent of the amount was spent in Nigeria, reiterating Total’s commitment to increasing investment in the oil rich nation.”

Sangster said Total has been having a business discussions with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and is fully ready to assist Nigeria in achieving its target of producing three million barrels of crudeoil per day.

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In the past, Total CEO, Patrick Pouyanne led a high-powered delegation, comprised of the President, Exploration & Production, Arnaud Ibreuillac, Senior Vice President, Total E&P Africa, Nicolas Terraz, Country Chair / Managing Director of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mike Sangster, Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater District, Ahmadu-Kida Musa and Executive Director, Corporate Affairs & Services, Abiodun Afolabi, in a strategic visit to Nigeria where he met the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.

Pouyanne said the Group is commitment to deepening investments in the country, stated that “Nigeria has a big potential that has not been fully explored and TOTAL is ready to open discussions for new licenses.

He said: “Nigeria is important to the TOTAL Group as the country now represents about 10% of the Group’s global production. Nigeria has a lot of prolific oil fields and Total would gladly carry out exploration activities if the government grants the licence”.

He further stated that TOTAL will continue to invest more and it is imperative to have

conversations that will ensure a rewarding investment structure. He also reiterated the need for reinvestments stemming from the return on earlier investments with a focus on the practicality of the Egina Field while noting that “in a show of commitment, TOTAL is committed to reinvestments in the country from the proceeds of the Egina venture.”

Nicolas Terraz, Senior Vice President, Total E&P Africa said: "Africa is a key continent: It represents one quarter of our Upstream production and one third of our capital expenditure. Africa is also a place where we have continued to invest, even in the low part of the cycle.

"There is a bright future for oil and gas, and solar, and in fact all forms of energy in Africa. Africa is richly endowed with all these forms of energy.

There definitely is room for further oil developments in Africa" Ahmadu-Kida Musa, Deputy Managing Director, Total E&P Nigeria commented: "Commitment through the lower cycle has always been Total’s strength. That belief in our long-term affiliation with Africa, the long-term commitment, and knowing fully well that we are there for Africans, is what truly forms Total’s boldness in investing in the very lower part of the cycle, knowing fully well that it will never be permanent" Total has been operating in Africa for 90 years and have been able to evolve on the energy markets, being active in renewables, oil and gas industry.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

MAJORWAVES WEBINAR

Expert calls on Nigerian oil firms to explore opportunities in Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, others By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

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collaboration and dispute resolutions.

frican Energy Chamber Executive Chairman, NJ Ayuk, has called on Nigerian oil and gas services firms to take advantage of opportunities in Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique and other Africa countries post COVID-19.

While speaking about the importance of regional integration in a post COVID-19 Africa, he said that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) would be pivotal in this Evy Maffini regard, but lament on the difficulty it will face if the local content laws of participating countries were not harmonised.

Ayuk made the call during Majorwaves Energy Report webinar, which focused on the topic,”Optimising Local Content through Regional Integration in a post COVID-19 Africa.”

The webinar focused on identifying opportunities across Africa for built capacity and capabilities; the flow of capital, formation of JV towards big ticket projects; practical solutions to challenges with integrating businesses across national boundaries; optimising bi-lateral and multilateral trade agreements across regions, leveraging technology in a post Covid-19 era across the continent; and comparing National Content legislation of individual countries and provisions for

He gave example using Nigeria, which has competent services firms, who cannot operate in fellow African countries because of local content laws; and asked Nigeria to lead the campaign for regional content law.

According to him,”In the last two years, there has not been any major project in Africa.” He then called on Africa oil producers to make their fiscals competitive, so as to attract big projects.

African Energy Chamber Executive Chairman, NJ Ayuk

The AEC Chairman, who noted that equity investment will not be in the best interest of African countries in the oil and gas industry post COVID-19, also lauded the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), describing it as one of the most successful LNG in the world.

Uganda’s Albertine Graben Open for Investment - Peninah

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

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eninah Aheebwa, Director of Technical Support Services Petroleum Authority, Uganda, has said that the Albertine Graben is open for investment and there are currently three active exploration licenses given to Armour Energy and Oranto Petroleum.

projects. They are ready for Final Investment Decision but what is holding it is a few commercial issues which we are discussing with the IOCs. As soon as we have finalised on that, the FIDs will be taken anytime soon.

She disclosed this during an extensive discussion at Majorwaves First Webinar Series titled: "Optimising Local Content through Regional Integration in a Post COVID-19 Africa," held on June 10, 2020.

"Again, we have another categories of projects which is the monetisation project. We will be using some of our crudeoil that will be refined incountry to add value, meet the energy needs of our country and region at large.

Peninah noted that Albertine Graben is Uganda's most prospective basin and only 10% license has been issued while 90% is unlicensed. She further explained that before the COVID-19 Pandemic, Uganda has been doing very well in terms of its economy growth which stood at 6.5% and the country's GDP stood at $34 billion in 2019.

"The refining project was conceived in East Africa Community (EAC). It was a collective agreement within the region for the establishment of a Mega Refinery and Uganda was identified as an area where the refinery should be built because of the proximity of discoveries we have in the region.

According to her, there are about 21 oil and gas discoveries in Uganda's oil and gas industry with an unprecedented drilling tax rate of about 88% and a resource base of around 6 billion barrels of oil in place.

She continued: "Uganda have issued over 14 licenses to CINOOC, Total, Tullow among others. While the country is estimated to have about 1.4 billion barrels of recoverable resources.

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Peninah Aheebwa, Director of Technical Support Services Petroleum Authority, Uganda “There is an ongoing licensing round in Uganda for up to 5 blocks that was launched in 2019 till September 30th, 2020.

"The blocks are attractive as we currently have up to 6 investors that have shown interest. But, we are encouraging investors out there to take advantage of these blocks.

"Some of our projects that have moved into the development phase are Tilenga, Kingfsher

"There is work in progress in the refinery such as the FEED development. And, within the next 12 - 24 months we should be seeing the FIDS for the refinery as well.

"For the East African Crudeoil Pipeline, it is going to be the longest crudeoil pipeline in the world. It is unprecedented and the technical work is done and soon we will make FID. "Generally, these are the projects we have Post COVID-19. And, the estimated CAPEX is $7 to $10 billion within 3 - 5 years."

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LABACORP INTERVIEW

Labacorp Energy is set to unlocking Cameroon’s potential in major industries - Bako Ambianda Bako Ambianda, is a Cameroonian, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Labacorp Group of Companies. He is also the CEO of Labacorp Energy Limited.

Today, the Labacorp Group has grown from just housing an events organizing team to owning businesses across manufacturing, power, construction, agribusiness, and exhibition sectors with operations in six countries with 79 employees, and a footprint in Africa, Middle East and North America.

Evy Maffini

Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

Bako Ambianda has been listed on Forbes Africa 30 under 30, Class of 2020, and has been named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (Under 40) by MIPAD, 50 Most Admired Global Africans

by PASSION VISTA, and received the 2018 Global Business Disruptor Award by PAYA. He is an international development expert, author, speaker, philanthropist and entrepreneur.

Through his activities in the personal development industry, he created Bako Ambianda International (BAI), also known as The Bako University to inspire young professionals through books, videos, and personal growth trainings.

In this interview with NDUBUISI MICHEAL OBINEME of Oil and Gas Republic, Bako speaks about his company, Labacorp Energy, and business plan to unlocking Cameroon's potential in the Energy industry. Excepts: OGR: Please tell us more about Labacorp Energy?

Bako: I am a Global African Entrepreneur, seeking to build great companies that will foster development, especially in Africa, because Africa is yet to achieve its growth potential in terms of economic development. I serve as the President and CEO of Labacorp Energy, a subsidiary of Labacorp Group.

Labacorp Energy Limited is an indigenous oil and gas service company with operations primarily in West and Central Africa, and interests in other international markets. Our main services are distribution of Olympus Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) products, promotion of Oil and Gas exploration and production opportunities, provision of technical and engineering services, marketing of innovative Oil and Gas products, marine logistics support services, procurement, sale and distribution of petroleum products.

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OGR: What are your plans to getting involved in Cameroon’s major industries, more particularly the energy sector?

Bako: Most of the major industries in Cameroon are yet to be developed or are not working to their full potentials for one reason or the other, ranging from lack of funds to lack of equipment and operational expertise. This is a major opportunity for investors to tap into.

They can take advantage of these challenges and put their money into these industries and be sure to make a lot more.

Thanks to our top-notch partners and extensive network in and out of Cameroon, Labacorp Energy Limited has the ability to bring the business and the resources needed to unlock the potentials in Cameroon’s major industries, especially in the energy sector.

OGR: You will be organising an Oil & Gas Business Mission to Cameroon, what are your business strategies to attract foreign investors?

Bako: Cameroon is the sixth-largest producer of crude oil in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, currently producing over 100000 barrels per day. The National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) under the supervision of the government of Cameroon has put out nine blocks in the hydrocarbons rich Rio Del Rey Basin and in the highly prospective Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin on promotion.

These are opportunities that if tapped into and exploited; by bringing in the right people and businesses with expertise in the sector,

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Cameroon can see itself moving higher in the energy production ranks thereby leading to an overall development of the energy sector and why not other sectors related energy.

It is very common to hear Cameroon being referred to as Africa in miniature probably because it is possible to find almost everything on the African continent in Cameroon. Apart from Oil, Cameroon has a whole lot of opportunities, ranging from agriculture and horticulture to transport, education and training, health, and mining. It is worth noting that Cameroon recently discovered 300 new mineral deposit sites in five regions of the country, and these sites cover only 40% of the country’s national territory, leaving a huge 60% still to be explored. This is just one of the many attractive opportunities that can be exploited in Cameroon.

The Oil and Gas Business Mission to Cameroon is scheduled to take place from June 7 - 10, 2021.

The main strategy we are putting in place to attract foreign investors is finding what these investors are looking for and using the Oil and Gas Business Mission to Cameroon as a gateway for them to get these things.

Investors are looking for concrete opportunities and the Oil Gas Business Mission to Cameroon will focus on oil and gas exploitation opportunities and doing business in the oil and gas sector in Cameroon.

We are also putting forward the advantages the oil and gas industry has to offer, and the opportunity to build networks with existing oil and gas companies in the country

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

INDUSTRY NEWS

Labacorp Energy to Organise Oil and Gas Business Mission in Cameroon by June 2021 Companies, Trading and Distribution Companies among others.

OGBMC offers a wealth of content, opportunities, networking opportunities and provide industry players and investors relevant information about the investment and business opportunities in Cameroon.

Cameroon’s energy sector is growing in popularity and import among oil and gas companies including investors. The country's energy sector offers substantial opportunities for further development and diversification.

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abacorp Energy Limited (LEL), an indigenous company based in Douala, Cameroon, will organise an Oil and Gas Business Mission (OGBMC) in Yaounde, Kiribi, Douala, on June 7 - 10, 2021.

The Chairman and CEO of Labacorp Energy Limited, Bako Ambianda, said: "The Oil and Gas Business Mission to Cameroon will focus on oil and gas exploration opportunities in Cameroon, business matchmaking opportunities, explore the advantages of the oil and gas industry, and networking with existing oil and gas companies in Cameroon" According to report, oil and gas production in Cameroon witnessed a significant 70% increase in 2018 and 2019. Cameroon is also at the forefront to become Africa's new mining hub, following the discovery of 300 new mineral deposit sites. These new sites cover only 40% of the national territory, with 60% still to be exploited.

Cameroon set a remarkable record in 2018 when it became the second country in the world, and the first in Africa, to commission a floating LNG facility. Located offshore Kribi, Golar LNG's 1.2mtpa HiIli Episeyo FLNG vessel is now receiving gas from the Perencooperated Sanaga gas field, and its processed LNG has been sold to Gazprom's trading arm for eight years.

environment, a growing economy and an opening for foreign investors. The European Union (EU) remains the largest trading partner of Cameroon accounting for more than half of the country’s export.

OGBMC also provides an opportunity for a one-on-one meetings with the main actors in the oil and gas industry in Cameroon, and a business meeting with National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH); the body in charge of monitoring, regulating and developing oil and gas activities in the country.

SNH financial report for 2018 shows that Cameroon's exploration and production activities were boosted, and the closing forecast for investments amounted to $441.09 million USD, corresponding to an increase of 74% compared to 2017.

Following this developments, the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) has launched the promotion of nine blocks in the hydrocarbons rich Rio del Rey Basin (RDR) and in the highly prospective Douala/KribiCampo (DKC) Basin. These blocks are Ndian River, Bolongo Exploration and Bakassi (in RDR), EtindeExploration, Ntem, Elombo, Tilapia, Bomono and Kombe-N'sepe (in DKC).

Cameroon has an abundant reserve of energy resources, such as crude oil, natural gas, hydropower, biomass, solar, wind and geothermal energy. The country aims to cut its gas imports and further develop the LNG sector. An important step towards achieving this goal is that in 2018 constructed Hilli Episeyo FLNG, the world’s second floating LNG platform, located at Bipaga, near Kribi.

The floating platform has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, of which 30,000 tons of gas is intended for the domestic market.

It is therefore that Yaounde, Kiribi, Douala, should be the main focal point of the OGBMC by 2021. The objectives of the mission are to attract investors, partners into Cameroon’s oil and gas industry, as the country is becoming the next frontier for Mining, Energy, Exploration & Production.

Labacorp Energy business activities include: oil and gas exploration, production, and marketing, provision of technical and logistical support services to the upstream petroleum industry, provision of technical engineering to include FFED type services (Front End Engineering Design), Facilitation, development, and operations of power generation projects, License round tendering commercial activities.

Labacorp Energy is at the frontline of forging the all-encompassing indigenous energy company. The formula for success will be carried out by partnering with IOC’s and major energy actors as an entry point to the Cameroon’s hydrocarbon marketplace.

The 4 days business mission is open to global companies with activities in the oil and gas industry and related services such as Oil & Gas Exploration and Production Companies, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Companies, Drilling

Cameroon has a stable political

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OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LNG WORLD NEWS

Templars Provides Innovative Financing Framework for NLNG’s Train 7 Project

By Jackson Adefemi Olagbaju

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igeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has secured $3 billion for the development of its Train 7 project.

complex infrastructure projects in the Nigerian market, be it in the area of gas, pipelines, power, roads, ports, telecom infrastructure or petrochemicals.”

Zelda Akindele with support from Oghogho Akpata, Senior Associate Modupe Dabiri and Associates Benita Ogbodo, Ebuka Ogbodo and Bernard Ehigiamusor.

In Oil and Gas Republic’s investigation, Templars is the legal adviser that successfully developed the investment framework for NLNG’s Train 7 expansion project.

Speaking further, Partner and Finance Practice Group Head, Chike Obianwu added that; “Quite apart from its size and the uniqueness of the hybrid corporate finance technique being used on a deal of this nature, this was a standout deal for a number of other reasons…. And it is quite remarkable that the parties were able to pull this off in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and a particularly trying period for the Nigerian economy…. It has been a pleasure to have contributed to the success of the transaction and we wish NLNG all the best with the development of the project.”

Compliance law partner Emmanuel Gbahabo advised on environmental law and compliance issues; Senior Associate Sesan Sulaiman and Associate Promise Madubuobu advised on tax issues; whilst Disputes partners Godwin Omoaka, S.A.N. and Igonikon Adekunle together with Senior Associates Victor Igwe and Stanley NwekeEze provided support on complex enforcement-related issues.

According to the company, the $3 billion is a corporate financing from a group of 31 lenders, building investor’s confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The investment will also be supported by substantial cash flows from NLNG’s existing Six Train LNG plant.

Templars disclosed that the $3 billion is a record-breaking investment strategy for being the first time ever that a multisourced corporate finance lending would be utilised to fund an LNG project anywhere in the world.

Templars Managing Partner Oghogho Akpata commented: “We are pleased to have played a role in creating this firstof-its-kind financing technique, which happens to be the largest financing on the continent so far in 2020. It continues a trend of Templars advising on a majority of the largest and most

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The lenders include three export credit agencies, Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) and Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (SACE); two regional development finance institutions: African Export-Import Bank and Africa Finance Corporation; 16 international commercial banks under an international commercial facility tranche; and 10 Nigerian commercial banks, under a Nigerian commercial facility tranche.

A large team of lawyers from the London, Milan and Seoul offices of White & Case led by the London-based partners, Jason Kerr, David Baker and Richard Hill acted as international counsel to the lenders.

The project is scheduled for commissioning in 2025 and will include a new liquefaction unit, an 84,200m3 storage tank, a 36,000m3 condensate tank and three gas turbine generators. It is expected to increase NLNG’s production capacity from 22 to 30 million tonnes per annum, thereby placing the company among the top five producers and exporters of LNG in the world.

The Templars team on the transaction was led by Chike Obianwu and Finance partner

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LNG WORLD NEWS

NLNG’S Success Story: Train 7 Project On The Spotlight

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igeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has signed the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contracts for its Train 7 Project with the SCD JV Consortium, comprising affiliates of Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo.

The execution of the EPC Contracts now triggers the commencement of the Detail Design and Construction phase of the Project expected to increase the capacity of NLNG’s current six-train plant by 35% from the extant 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to 30 MTPA. NLNG is an incorporated Joint-Venture owned by four Shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International N.A. N.V. S.àr.l (10.4%).

Reacting to the Contracts’ signing, Engr.

Tony Attah, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG, remarked that the EPC Contracts represents yet another milestone in NLNG’s journey towards achieving its vision of being a global LNG company, helping to build a better Nigeria.

He said: “With the award of the EPC Contracts to our preferred bidders (SCD JV), we are guaranteeing that our country remains significantly on the global list of LNG suppliers. This singular act clearly demonstrates our Shareholders’ determination and resolve to sustain the economic dividends that NLNG’s monetization of our vast natural gas reserves offers our great country Nigeria” He expressed confidence in SCD JV Consortium’s proven competence, adding that the demonstration of an understanding of NLNG’s business philosophy by the Consortium will positively influence the execution of the Project and ensure zero harm to people, environment and host communities.

Also, the Group Managing Director (NNPC) and a Director on the NLNG Board, Mr. Mele Kyari, remarked on NLNG’s successes and its operating model.

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Evy Maffini

Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

He said: “Nigeria LNG’s successes since it started operation in 1999 continue to prove that the Company operates a unique business model that is profitable to all its stakeholders. NNPC and the other Shareholders — Shell, Total and Eni — are proud to be a part of this exceptional Nigerian brand that stands out in the global market.”

“It is for this reason that our President, Muhammadu Buhari instructed through the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources that NNPC as a Shareholder must do everything possible to support all the other Shareholders and NLNG’s Management to secure the much-needed public confidence from all critical stakeholders, especially the critical agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria and international investors, to pursue the Company’s ambition of adding a 7th train to its existing production capacity. I encourage every stakeholder involved in execution of the Train 7 Project, especially the SCD JV Consortium, NLNG Train 7 Project Team and the Company’s Management to leave no stone unturned in making this project a reality,” he added.

NLNG says the Project was in fulfilment of its vision of “…being a Global Company, helping to build a better Nigeria.” The Project upon completion will support the Federal Government’s drive to generate more revenue from Nigeria’s proven gas reserves of about 200 Trillion Cubic Feet (Tcf) and further reduce gas flaring in the country’s upstream oil and gas industry.

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The construction period is expected to last approximately five years with first LNG rundown expected in 2025.

NLNG was incorporated as a limited liability company on May 17, 1989, to harness Nigeria's vast natural gas resources and produce Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) for export.

NLNG operate from four offices spread across different locations. The company have the liquefaction plant and the bulk of our technical personnel in Bonny Island and Port Harcourt in Rivers State Nigeria. Most of its corporate and administrative staff are based in Port Harcourt at Intels Aba Road Estate, km 16 Aba Expressway Port Harcourt and other locations in Port Harcourt, and its staff who engage with the Federal government work at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; both in Nigeria. While, NLNG fourth company location is London, UK, where its staff involved in shipping operations and commercial gas trade negotiations operate from.

NLNG has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Bonny Gas Transport (BGT) Limited, that provides ship chartering and operating services for NLNG. Another wholly-owned subsidiary, Nigeria LNG Ship Manning Limited (NSML) provides personnel for all of NLNG’s Shipping Vessels.

Our LNG is delivered to an ever-expanding list of ports in cities around the world.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LNG WORLD NEWS

Chief Sylva: Nigeria will remain in the World’s List of Top LNG Suppliers

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he Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has said that Nigeria will remain on the top list of LNG supplier globally. This statement comes in-line as the long awaited NLNG's Train 7 Project was signed.

The minister said: "This is a historic moment.

Nigerians have long awaited the take-off of the Nigeria LNG Limited's Train 7 Project because of its significance for the nation.

"With the award of the EPC Contracts, the construction phase of Train 7 can now commence in earnest. With its realisation, Nigeria will retain her pride of place in the world’s list of top LNG suppliers, and the government will receive added revenue through dividends, taxes and levies.

"The Train 7 Project will help NLNG to further deepen its domestic LPG market stimulation efforts, an initiative it took on some years ago that has been of immense benefit to Nigerians.

"In addition, the award of an EPC contract in the LNG industry is welcome news anywhere in the world. Although it might mean more competition for industry operators, it ultimately promises greater availability of cleaner energy necessary for the sustainability of the environment.

"It is therefore proper to thank the Shareholders of NLNG for making this aspiration become reality. They have shown commendable tenacity, foresight and business acumen. It is their persistence over the years that has culminated in a time like this.

"The tenacity is even more commendable when one considers that they have not allowed the challenges and uncertainties arising from COVID-19 to deter them. They realised early on that in moments of adversity the world needs every piece of positive news to help it endure and to serve as one more reminder of the resilience of the human spirit.

"I assure the Management and staff of NLNG of the continued support of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari. We are all involved and indeed every well-meaning Nigerian should be involved in doing whatever we can to help make delivery of the Train 7 Project a reality within budget and within the stipulated time frame."

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Chief Timipre Sylva

Nigeria: Gas is our main hope for the future – Tony Attah The Managing Director & CEO, Nigerian LNG Limited (NLNG), has said that gas is Nigeria’s main hope for the future.

“Scope for Nigeria to become a leader in the market is massive. Nigeria has a huge advantage because we have gas in abundance,” he said.

During a sportlight live interview session on Train 7, at the DMG Africa Energy Series Webinar, which was anchored by Pat Roberts, Managing Director of LNG Worldwide, Attah said, ” Nigeria has ridden on the back of oil for over 50 years but now the time has come for Nigeria to fly on the wings of gas. Gas is our main hope for the future! It’s time for gas!”

Speaking on the impact Train 7 would have on local content, he said that the project is expected to create over 12,000 new direct jobs, especially in the construction phase, noting that, “The FID for Train 7 and award of its EPC contract is therefore very reassuring as it renews our hope that Nigeria LNG will maintain a significant market share in the global gas market and will continue to reap the potential benefits in the market.”

He noted that Nigeria is a gas country with some oil, adding that “We must therefore find a way to bridge the gap between where we are today, and where we desire to be. This is the role that gas is expected to play in the medium and long term.”

He stated that Nigeria’s scope to become a leader in the gas market is huge, as the country holds the 9th position globally on countries with proven gas reserves; and has the potential to become number four.

“Available records show that with 200TCF, Nigeria ranks at No 9 on the list of nations with proven natural gas reserves, with potential to be No 4 in the world from the additional 600TCF unproven reserves.”

The NLNG MD while speaking on energy transition said: “There is an increasing push for energy transition from fossil fuels to new energy. The industry fully recognizes the case for this switch and the need to be involved in the protection of our planet whilst still ensuring we support the provision of adequate energy to fuel the growing world population and economies. “Whilst a quick switch to renewables and other cleaner energy sources is desirable, current data indicates that the practical reality is that it cannot be achieved on a global scale as quickly as many parties are pushing for.”

Attah who also spoke on the country’s gas industry and its competitiveness in the future, said that the country has a big role to play in the global LNG market.

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LNG WORLD NEWS

Is 2020 really the Year of Gas for Nigeria?

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he Honourable Minister for Petroleum Resources, H.E. Timipre Sylva, declared 2020 as the Year of Gas for Nigeria. The year started off with plans to harness Nigeria’s gas by tackling some of the barriers including the passing of regulatory framework for the upstream sector and the launch of the Nigerian Gas Transportation Code to further drive gas based industrialisation.

As March approached, the industry experienced a sharp drop in oil price at $24.63 Brent and then to $16.95 Brent in April. Covid-19 had impacted lives and business in unprecedented measure. Many plans were put on hold and a new global mantra of cost cutting for survival emerged.

The news of Nigeria LNG awarding a $4 billion EPC contract for the Train 7 project to Saipem, in a joint venture with Daewoo E&C Co. Ltd. and Chiyoda Corp., was highly welcomed as is any news of the progression of plans to further develop the industry, and therefore world economies.

The awarding of the contract signified a key milestone in the advancement of the project and sparks plenty of optimism for Nigeria amidst a global pandemic.

Once operational, Train 7 will add around 4.2 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of capacity to the Bonny Island facility, along with expansion plans, taking the total to around 30 mtpa. This moves Nigeria’s global position to the 3rd largest exporter of LNG. Tony Attah, MD & CEO of Nigeria LNG, speaking on the EPC contract during the dmge Africa Energy Series: Spotlight Interview stated that: “The FID for Train 7 & award of its EPC contract is… very reassuring as it renews our hope that Nigeria LNG will maintain a significant market share in the global gas market and will continue to reap the potential benefits in the market.”

When asked about the role of gas in the energy transition, Mr Attah commented that: “Whilst a quick switch to renewables and other cleaner energy sources is desirable, current data indicates that the practical reality is that

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it cannot be achieved on a global scale as quickly as many parties are pushing for. We must therefore find a way to bridge the gap between where we are today, and where we desire to be. This is the role that gas is expected to play in the medium and longterm.”

In addition to increasing Nigeria’s presence in the global LNG market, opportunities to harness the gas for domestic consumption have long been discussed by industry stakeholders. Barriers to contend with includes gas pricing for the domestic market, limited infrastructure for distribution and a commercially viable market.

Mr Attah highlighted the vast opportunities availed by Nigeria’s huge gas reserves in comparison to crude and highlighted the various opportunities the Train 7 project will offer the country.

“We have proven 200 tcf of gas and we have another 600 tcf that we know about but need to prove under the SEC rules. Today as number 9 in the world in terms of gas reserves, if you prove the 600, you go straight away to number 4 ahead of Turkmenistan. For me, that is a major, major opportunity to really jumpstart the sector….

A lot depends on the fiscals and how the government is able to incentivise gas development, which must happen.”

In addition to increasing Nigeria’s footprint in the Global LNG market through the execution of Train 7, Nigerian LNG also has plans to take advantage of opportunities to develop a domestic gas market and spur gas-based industrialisation. Similar to what has been achieved in developing a domestic

LPG market, Mr Attah confirmed the organisations intentions to extend efforts to develop a domestic LNG market.

“We are currently looking at bringing LNG in-country… With the global market dwindling, we see very high demand for gas and other forms of energy in Nigeria and in deed in Africa. As you know, more than 50% of the population that does not have access to energy in the world is in Africa. So, the domestic LNG project that we are looking at is to be piloted in Nigeria and then we will go regional and then look at Africa as a whole.

It’s a project that’s already on. As we speak there are a few people that have already indicated interest and we are working with them to see how much capacity they are able to develop to make this real.

We have just established that the price is no longer within anybody’s forecasts, view or control, we perhaps have a future where we have to be a market maker for this to be able to have the essence of the full value chain coming to fruition in country.”

In closing, Mr Attah’s sentiments were clear and rang in unison with the proclamation made by H.E. Timipre Sylva at the beginning of the year.

“Nigeria has ridden on the back of oil for over 50 years but now the time has come for Nigeria to fly on the wings of gas. It’s time for gas.”

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

LOCAL CONTENT

NCDMB Celebrates 10 Years of Nigerian Local Content Achievements While speaking about the achievements, Onyesoh, pointed out the achievements and key projects that was successfully done in compliance with the NOGICD Act which includes; Completion of 17-Storey Head Office Complex of NCDMB, Establishment of an FPSO Integration Facility, Establishment of World-Class Pipe Mills, Pipe Coating Capacity in-country, Manufacturing of Electrical Cables, Establishment of Oil & Gas Parks Scheme, Development of Local Supply Chain, Increase in Oil and Gas Asset Ownership, Launch of $50m Research and Development (R&D Intervention Fund), Human Capacity Development (HCD) Initiative, Catalyzing Businesses among others.

Engr. Simbi Wabote

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n April 22nd, 2020, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Nigeria's Local Content Achievements in the oil and gas industry. April 22nd is usually a day to remember when the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act was enacted On 22nd April 2010. Since then, Nigerian Content is growing rapidly and leading the way across the oil and gas value chain in Africa.

Over the past years, upstream oil and gas industry in Nigeria had remained an enclave that provided no stimulus to the domestic economy as key industry services and products were procured abroad on the pretext that infrastructure, technology and capacity were deficit in the domestic environment.

The NOGICD Act established the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to NCDMB to implement and enforce the requirements of the Act in Nigeria's oil and gas industry. This Act inaugurated an enforceable legal regime to underpin the promotion of local content practice in the industry, reverse over 50 years of total foreign dependency, which had resulted in huge capital flight of about US$380 billion, two million job losses, and less than five percent in-country value addition from Nigeria's hydrocarbon resources.

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The law also mandated the NCDMB to deepen the participation of Nigerians and indigenous companies in the oil and gas industry, by facilitating local capacity development and ensuring that the execution of large components of any project is domiciled in-country.

Prior to the Act, there were only 44 registered PETAN companies, the association of leading indigenous service companies in Nigeria. Currently, the number of PETAN companies alone has risen to 93, which adds to over 8,000 other Nigerian oil and gas service companies captured on the NCDMB's JQS portal. Indigenous service providers now dominate services in Nigeria's oil and gas industry, creating jobs and capital retention in-country.

In his statement, Naboth Onyesoh, Manager, Corporate Communication & Public Affairs of NCDMB said that the 10th anniversary of Nigeria's local content practice in the oil and gas sector ought to be celebrated, but the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and lockdown of activities literally eclipsed the date. Yet, the symbolism of the anniversary must always be remembered.

He explained: "April 22nd is reminiscent of selfemancipation; a day that Nigeria manifested the irrevocable decision to rewrite the history of its hydrocarbon development, signaling a paradigm shift from rent seeking proclivity to in country value addition via domiciliation and domestication of oil and gas activities".

Onyesoh further explained that the Board will actively pursue the completion and commissioning of the modular refineries beginning with Waltersmith, which will be commissioned this year and Azikel refinery in 2023. The Board is poised to accelerate the incubation and maturation of Project 100 companies, and to ensure they begin to take on and deliver bigger services.

"The Board will start full implementation of the harmonized framework for marine vessel categorization; commence the upgrade of more Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) centers across the country; establish additional ICT Laboratories and train another batch of 1,000 science teachers to promote STEM education nationwide.

"The Board has also gone into similar investment with Rungas for the establishment of LPG Cylinder manufacturing in Polaku, near Yenagoa; establishment of a 168,000 MT/per annum LGP loading and offloading terminal with Chimons Gas Limited in Koko, Delta State and establishment of a 48,000 liters/day plant in PortHarcourt for the production of base oil by Bunorr Integrated Energy Limited.

"The 10th year anniversary of NCDMB should be seen as wake-up call for Nigerians to embrace local content philosophy as an economic imperative for our national survival. Otherwise, if any other pandemic takes the world by storm like COVID-19, any nation that fails to strengthen its local supply chain and activate its manufacturing base may not fare well. This is the message that NCDMB has continued to propagate since its inception. It is a message that Nigerians can no longer afford to ignore,� he concluded.

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LOCAL CONTENT

Nestoil Delivering Exceptional Value to Nigerian Content of Nigeria. PIRATX is about 1,396 tonne with offshore dredging capacity. The Dredger is deployed to the second Niger bridge for one of its client Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. Andy Njoku-Obi noted: "The second Niger Bridge isn't just a bridge alone but it is an 11kilometer highway that also aborts the bridge. And, what we are doing here isn't just dredging sand in the land. We are also dredging into the road alignment."

Hammakopp Consortium is another Nestoil company. Hammakopp is a one-stop-shop for Civil Construction, Heavy Structural Works, and Maintenance Services.

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stablished in 1991, Nestoil emerged from a trading business at a time when the oil and gas industry was exclusively preserved for the International Oil Companies (IOCs).

Today, Nestoil has become one of Nigeria's largest indigenous Engineering, Procurement, Construction Companies in the oil and gas sector. With about 3,000 employees, Nestoil continues to redefine industry standards in Pipeline Construction, Repairs & Maintenance, and Associated Facilities for Fabrication, Dredging, Engineering Design, Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Civil Engineering, River Crossing, and Shoreline Protection. Over 95 percent of its employees are Nigerians, effectively making the face of Nestoil to local content development in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, Founder and Group Managing Director of Nestoil explained: "The journey started from Idumagbo in Lagos where we had a trading business and our first office. We had just one room. But, by the time we started understanding the oil and gas business, we moved from Idumagbo to Festival road in Victoria Island where we had our second office.

"It took five years of presentations, spending money, talking to the oil and gas industry to convince them more especially the IOCs that a Nigerian company can afford to do this business.

"As an organization, you must have 5 Core Values which is very important for an organization namely; Innovation, Leadership, Team Work Attitude, Integrity, Excellence. These are some of the things that we look at.

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“One thing I know which I have also experienced is that hard work pays by the end of the day. We are the face of local content in Nigeria's oil and gas industry. We are here to deliver exceptional value," he added.

As confidence grew in the industry, Nestoil began to take on some complex pipeline jobs in very difficult terrain.

Speaking about the projects, Dr. Chukwueloka Umeh, Executive Director of Nestoil commented: "Nestoil is the king of the swamps. We have been involved in one of the toughest projects in the Niger Delta area. Now, we are involved in the OBI3 Gas Pipeline Project for the Nigerian Government. Part of the Nestoil Scope in the construction of the OBI 3 pipeline is set across up to 48 parameters under the sea bed of River Niger of about 2 kilometers. It has never been done anywhere in Africa” Energy Works Technology (EWT), is a Nestoil Company, focused primarily on Fabrication. Dr. Tunji Olanipekun, Managing Director of EWT, said: "We are unique in terms of our capabilities. Our wheeling capacity which is about 130 LM. “We are unique to the extent that our cutting capacity which we use in fabrication can do up to 200 meters. We can take in 100 tonnes of vessels and other materials” B&Q Dredging is another Nestoil company, providing all types of Dredging & Marine logistics services to respective clients across the country.

Hammakopp has installed its own Asphalt Plant in Okija, Anambra State with the capacity of tunning out 1000 Tons of TopGrade Asphalt Products per day.

One of the reasons why Nestoil continues to deliver on projects that require precision on Engineering Design as well as operation and maintenance works is IMPAC Engineering & Operations Management Company Limited, another Nestoil company.

Chuka Chukwudebelu, Managing Director, IMPAC Engineering explained: "IMPAC is all about understanding the problem, finding optimal solutions, and assisting the end-user in achieving their goal.

Obinna Ufudo, Executive Director Operations of Nestoil noted: "We operate to the highest quality standards. Today, Nestoil has ISO 90001 2015 certification which speaks to the quality of service that we provide to our customers."

Speaking further, Nnenna Obiejesi, Group Executive Director of Nestoil said: "The next thing now is how do we keep this beautiful bride for the next generation. What we are trying to do is put in the proper corporate governance structure so that this company that was founded by one person and supported by all of us will be handed over to the next generation.

Nestoil's operational base in Abuloma Port Harcourt sits on 59 hectares of land and it is the operational base virtually for all its subsidiaries and sister companies.

Recently, it took delivery of PIRATX, one of the biggest Dredges that birth on the shores

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LOCAL CONTENTS

ENG Rypac Provides Technical, Engineering Solutions to Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector

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NG Rypac Limited, a Nigerian based company, is making headway as an indigenous service provider, providing engineering and technical services to the upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors in Nigeria. With its head office in Lagos, ENG Rypac has grown steadily and now maintains offices and facilities in the important oil city of Port Harcourt. The company services include; Project Management & Engineering Services, Civil & Electrical Consultancy Services, Fabrication & Assembly Services, Inspection, Maintenance & Repairs (IRM) Services, Fabric Maintenance Services, Testing & Calibration Services, Joint Integrity Management Services, and Corrosion and Integrity Management Services and use this flexibility to develop unique industrial relations that will give material benefits to the customers as well as to the Company, shareholders, and employees.

ENG Rypac also provides onshore and offshore fabric maintenance services, incorporating planning and assessment, and on-site project management. The company successfully delivers life-time extension programs from entire structural coating systems, through to one-off specialist applications.

When it comes to Inspection, Maintenance & Repairs (IRM) Services, ENG Rypac provides turnkey IRM services designed to maximize the life expectancy and performance levels of offshore and onshore facilities, pipelines, and other systems. The company has established a manufacturing and fabrication facility strategically located within 5 km of Onne Port that covers up to 16,200 sq.

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Major Clients

On the other hand, ENG Rypac also offers rental services for industrial and construction sites such as Scaffolds and Scaffolding Accessories, Diesel and Electrical Engine Air Compressors, Manlifts, Air Tanks, Self-Loading Trucks, Airless Spray Machine, Bolt Tensioning Equipment, QAQC Test Kit, Hand tools for Fabrication.

ENG Rypac is growing rapidly and aims to be universally competitive and be an industry leader in the quality of goods and services that they provide. Some of its clients include; Shell Petroleum Development Co. Ltd, Nigeria Agip Oil Company Ltd, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Total E & P Limited, Addax Petroleum Nigeria Ltd, Oando Energy Services, Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited (PHRC), among others.

As part of its objectives, ENG Rypac looks to achieve growth through strategic developments in the oil & gas and energy Industries through the usage of the latest technologies and recruiting and training the best people at all levels of its operations.

Whilst consolidating in the areas of its present operations, the company has said that it will continue to seek new opportunities where it will leverage its skills to create increased value for all its clients.

ENG Rypac has set a standard to become; - A multi-industry company with a strong brand.

- A provider of solutions that combine products, services, engineering, and customer-application expertise.

- An engineering, innovation, and technology-driven firm.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

Equinor Advocates for Stronger Climate Policies, Backs Out from IPAA misaligned with Equinor’s climate policy and advocacy position,” the company said in its review of industry associations.

Specifically, Equinor cited the IPAA’s support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) roll-back of U.S. federal methane regulations, which the company opposes.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration last year proposed to rescind Obama-era limits on oil and gas industry emissions of methane, one of the main pollutants scientists link to climate change.

The IPAA said that membership of its association was “a company-by-company business decision”.

Eldar Sætre, president and CEO of Equinor

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quinor is advocating for stronger climate policies, and leading the way to demonstrate further industry leadership on climate change and strong support for the goals of the Paris Agreement. The company has climate at the core of its business strategy and has set short - medium and long-term climate-related targets for the company’s emissions to drive performance.

"Equinor is developing as a broad energy company, with oil and gas, renewable energy and low carbon solutions as integrated parts of our business. We see our low carbon strategy as a competitive advantage which creates long term value for our shareholders. The actions we announce today make us even more competitive in the energy transition, and support the goals of the Paris Agreement. We welcome the constructive engagement and appreciate the collaboration with investors as part of Climate Action 100+," says Eldar Sætre, President and CEO of Equinor.

Early this year, Equinor launched a new climate roadmap aiming to ensure a competitive and resilient business model in the energy transition, fit for long term value creation and in line with the Paris Agreement. The company aims to reduce the net carbon intensity, from initial production to final consumption, of energy produced by at least 50% by 2050; grow renewable energy capacity tenfold by 2026, developing as a global offshore wind major, and strengthen its industry leading position on carbon efficient

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production, aiming to reach carbon neutral global operations by 2030.

“Equinor’s strategic direction is clear. We are developing as a broad energy company, leveraging the strong synergies between oil, gas, renewables, CCUS and hydrogen. We will continue addressing our own emissions in line with the emitter pays principle. But, we can and will do much more. As part of the energy industry, we must be part of the solution to combat climate change and address decarbonisation more broadly in line with changes in society,” says Sætre.

In 2026, Equinor expects a production capacity from renewable projects of 4 to 6 GW, Equinor share, mainly based on the current project portfolio. This is around 10 times higher than today’s capacity, implying an annual average growth rate of more than 30%. Towards 2035, Equinor expects to increase installed renewables capacity further to 12 to 16 GW, dependent on availability of attractive project opportunities.

Recently, Equinor announced that it will quit the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) lobby group over a disagreement on climate policy, Reuters reported. Equinor is undertaking a review of its memberships of industry associations under an agreement with a group of institutional investors, the Climate Action 100+, signed in 2019.

The Washington-headquartered IPAA represents thousands of independent oil and natural gas producers and service companies across the United States. “We believe that IPAA’s lack of position on climate leaves the association materially

“Our membership, represented by our national board of directors, determines the association’s policy positions,” a spokeswoman said.

Equinor also said it would remain a member of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) despite “some misalignments” with the company’s climate policies.

The group said it expected API to make further progress in strengthening its support for the Paris climate agreement, tightening methane emissions regulations and marking out a clearer stance on carbon pricing.

“We will also encourage APPEA to take a clear stand on supporting carbon pricing in Australia and not supporting carry over of credits from the Kyoto protocol to the Paris Agreement,” it added.

Under its agreement with Climate Action 100+, Equinor has committed to make sure that all memberships in more than 100 industry associations, including oil, gas and renewable energy, align with its support for the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Climate Action 100+ is an investor initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change. More than 320 investors with more than $33 trillion in assets collectively under management are engaging companies on improving governance, curbing emissions and strengthening climate-related financial disclosures. The companies include 100 ‘systemically important emitters’, accounting for two-thirds of annual global industrial emissions, alongside more than 60 others with significant opportunity to drive the clean energy transition.

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WOMEN IN ENERGY

Dr. Oby Ezekwesili Charges Women to Engage in Personal Development for Professional Excellence

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former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has charged women, especially those in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, to engage in personal development for professional excellence.

“We are in a race against time and we are set out to ensure that more women optimize their potential,” she said while discussing Gender Equality at the Society for Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) 2019, where she talked about the challenges women face in taking up important roles in society, and more especially occupying senior roles for companies.

Ezekwesili stated that even though the lot of women has started improving in recent years, their involvement in oil and gas industry is not encouraging, noting that the involvement level is about 20 percent while involvement at the management level is close to 17 percent, according to a recent research.

“Women face similar challenges in almost all industries, between engineering and science. Globally, there is a theory that is saying that the lot of women is becoming better, giving women a rise in percentage involvement of about 50% - however if you look at women involvement in specialied industry like Oil and Gas, it is remarkably appalling. A recent research shows that the involvement level is about 20% while the management level is close to 17%.

“Now what strategy could be deployed to close this big gap between men and women which would be 80% of men and 20% of women? Although due to society structure, some men are very uncomfortable with this horrible statistics, many others, however feel that nothing is wrong with it after all,” she said.

According to her, there are two factors that account for the low representation of women in science and engineering. She said that they are External barriers and Internal barriers.

Explaining External barriers, she said they include: Sexual harassment; Disposition of high quality jobs to men than women; Relegation of women; Male orientated ideas; Different standard for both women and men; and Difficulty for women to

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Dr. Oby Ezekwesili advance into management due to male stereotyping.

Speaking on the Internal barriers, she said: “The Internal barriers are the ones that are self -imposed and are inherent in humans whether be male or female. So these internal barriers would either be the easiest set of barriers to remove or the toughest to deal with, depending on the angle we consider it.The third party power can try to override some of the external barriers but what if the individual who is the cause decides not to stop it, what would you do?

What women should be doing in this age is taking personal responsibility in the field of engineering to use it as a medium to break forth.This radical change does not start from the outside - in fact, real change does not first begin from the outside - change starts from the inside.”

She called on women to be excellent in what they do. “Excellence is the quality of being outstanding and very superior; displaying extreme brilliance; the ability to set and achieve a set determined goal, one to which we are committed,” she said while defining it.

Ezekwesili urged Women to be consistent, passionate about what they do, maintain self-respect and be courageous.

She told women to admit and own themselves, commit and submit to an intensive professional psychosocial

evaluation and diagnosis that can analytically uncover all of their self constructed barriers.

In closing, she said: “We need diverse thinking. We cannot afford to leave any talent untapped. Why are you wasting talents? You are just a bush man if you think that because somebody is a woman then she shouldn't be given the opportunity to sit in the same office as you. In fact, know that you are the problem. If you are a Manager here, know this: Companies with increase gender inclusion have greatly increased in their rate of turn over. Companies that are breaking all fronts in goal attainment are deliberate in assembling gender diverse teams.”

Dr. (Mrs) Obiageli Ezekwesili is a Public Policy Analyst / Senior Economic Advisor, AEDPI and Co-Founder of #BringBackOurGirls Movement, Nigeria as well as the #RedCardMovement. A Chartered Accountant/Consultant. She holds an MA in International Law and Diplomacy, an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She is a founding Director of Transparency International. Dr Ezekwesili was Vice President of World Bank (Africa Region) and former Nigerian Minister of Education, Minister of Solid Minerals, head of Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit as well as Chairperson of NEITI.

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CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: Africa’s Journey, Inspiration, and Development

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t's over 4 months since the WHO declared the Coronavirus as a global pandemic. Coronavirus has paralyzed the world extremely great and there is barely anywhere in the world that the virus hasn't been affected. While the global death toll now stands at nearly half a million and up to 10 million people have been infected with the virus.

In response, Governments have taken actions that we have never witnessed before, shutting down their economies and a huge portion of global trade and travel is on hold putting hundreds and millions of people out of work.

Alongside the tragic loss of life and global economy downtime which hasn't been witnessed like this before even in times of world war have brought all industries to their knees. Businesses and multinational companies are all affected. The virus doesn't discriminate against the poor and the rich. The poorer you are, the virus will kill you.

This article is focused on Coronavirus Pandemic in the African region, highlighting the latest developments and key recommendations from industry experts on how Africa can navigate through the Global Pandemic in a post-COVID-19 recovery in the oil and gas industry.

COVID-19 also known as Coronavirus started as an outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In Africa, Coronavirus was confirmed on 14 February 2020. The report shows that there are more than 300,000 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, over 140,000 recoveries, and more than 8,000 deaths across the African continent.

As the world waits for a COVID-19 Vaccine, industry experts have raised serious concerns following the Coronavirus outbreak in Africa, saying that this pandemic is an opportunity for Africa to develop a strong dynamic economy system that will be Independent and less vulnerable to a pandemic shock in the sense that there will be an established framework for an economic recovery growth plan that will strengthen its domestic financial institution to fully support local content development in their countries and it will require radical government intervention.

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By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

Facts about African Continent Ø Africa holds a huge resource base of about 128 billion BOE. Ø Africa's hydrocarbon resources to increase up to 74 percent in 2050. Ø Nigeria launches 2020 Marginal Field Bid Rounds. Ø Uganda set to make FID on Tilenga and Kingfisher Project. Ø Cameroon to host Oil & Gas Business Mission

by June 2021. Ø Liberia auctions oil blocks online. Ø African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) to be ratified by 2021. Ø Equatorial Guinea has moved on to grant tax reliefs for services companies in the country. Ø Mozambique in need of experienced service providers.

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TOP STORY

They advised the African Government to work with the private sector to develop favorable policies that will support indigenous companies, create more jobs, and skills development in their respective countries. And, there should also be digital connectivity in Africa in terms of creating an enabling environment for the tech industry to thrive as there is a lot of potential in the region which haven't been fully utilized.

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Africa can also be a Contributor to combating Global Pandemic.”

A new report published by the Internet Society explains the steps African countries can take to bring faster and less expensive Internet connectivity to the African region.

The report titled "Anchoring the African Internet Ecosystem: Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria's Internet Exchange Points Growth" noted that better connectivity represents a key opportunity for countries to continue to develop more resilient digital economies.

It reveals how a vibrant Internet ecosystem is critical to bringing faster, and more affordable Internet to Africa. It stated that Internet exchange points (IXPs) are locations where Internet service providers (ISPs) and other network operators meet and exchange Internet traffic. They are a critical piece of technical infrastructure that improves Internet access by keeping Internet traffic local.

Without a local IXP, Internet service providers have to use expensive international Internet connectivity to exchange and access content (which is usually hosted abroad). Allowing traffic to remain local results in faster and more affordable Internet access.

The Society disclosed that the growth of the IXPs in each country was exponential, as were the cost savings from exchanging traffic locally rather than using expensive international transit.

It noted that Kenya's KIXP grew from carrying peak traffic of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) in 2012 to 19 Gbps in 2020, with cost savings quadrupling to USD six million per year. In Nigeria, IXPN grew from carrying just 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) to peak traffic of 125 Gbps in 2020, and cost savings increased 40 times to USD 40 million per year.

"Kenya and Nigeria are in a better position than ever before to cope with – and contribute to – the digital revolution that COVID-19 has accelerated as the Internet becomes a lifeline for many people.

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"It's clear Africa is ready to embrace the digital revolution to spur economic development. But reaching this goal will depend on our community of passionate people on the ground, policymakers, regulators, and businesses embracing IXPs and working in collaboration to create these essential local traffic anchors," explains Michuki Mwangi, Senior Director of Internet Technology and Development for the Internet Society.

compete globally and build resilience into the Pan-African Supply Chain. They explained that the implementation of AFCFTA will also serve as an enabler to strengthening regional collaboration within the continent. And, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is a major resource to combat Global Pandemic. The AFCFTA was scheduled to launch in July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it has been postponed till 2021.

The rapid pace of Internet development in both Kenya and Nigeria underscores the critical role that IXPs and the accompanying infrastructure play in the establishment of strong and sustainable Internet ecosystems.

Africa had over 600 million people without access to energy. Despite the challenges, Africa still holds a huge resource base and there are more hydrocarbon discoveries throughout the continent.

The achievement is a significant step towards the vision set by the peering community in Africa 10 years ago: for 80 percent of African Internet traffic to be local.

According to the report, there are about 128 billion barrels which stands at 7.5 percent of world proven oil reserve, 503.3 TCF (86.8 billion BOE) which stands at 7.6 percent of the world's proven gas reserves and 26 billion barrels of shale oil - Libya 5th globally.

Algeria ranks third globally of about 707 TCF which stands at 121.9 billion BOE. It has been estimated that Africa's hydrocarbon resources will increase by up to 74 percent by 2050.

Among the reasons cited in the report for Kenya and Nigeria's progress, is that the governments in both countries adopted policies that made it easier for an Internet ecosystem to thrive. Both governments not only made it easier for different service providers to develop sub-marine cables, but they also adopted data protection regulations that spurred confidence and attracted international service providers.

Both countries count on the Internet to develop their service economies, that thrive on financial, trade, and professional services. Kenya, for example, is a 40 percent service economy with many essential government services that have moved online.

Moreso, experts also revealed that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) is a key factor that should be playing a vital role during this period, noting that the AFCFTA will provide a platform for local content to thrive as well as African companies to position themselves to

Following the agreement of the OPEC+ Production Cuts to stabilize the oil market, along with other African producing countries, Nigeria has joined other OPEC+ counterparts in a historic curtailment of crude oil production to rebalance and stabilize the global oil markets. Nigeria, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, CongoBrazzaville, Gabon, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique are key oil and gas producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nigeria stands as Africa's largest oil producer and is expected to become the largest refiner and exporter of petroleum products in Africa by 2022 as soon as the refineries come on stream. The Nigerian Government has reconfirmed its commitment to comply with OPEC+

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TOP STORY

Production Agreement, subscribing to the concept of compensation by countries that are unable to attain full conformity (100%) in May and June to accommodate it in July, August, and September.

According to Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Nigeria joined OPEC+ to cut supply by up to Ten (10) Million Barrels per day between May and June 2020, Eight (8) Million Barrels per day between July and December 2020 and Six (6) Million barrels per day from January 2021 to April 2022, respectively.

a toll on the Federal Government income.

According to Bloomberg, total earnings by the federal government from January to May were N1.48 trillion ($3.8 billion), which was 56% of targeted revenue for the period, quoting the Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, during a presentation to lawmakers.

Also, earnings from crude sales accounted for about half of the total revenues with non-oil income contributing to the balance.

"Although Nigeria's total production capacity is 2.5 million barrels per day, current crude production is about 1.4 million barrels per day – in compliance with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) production quota – and an additional 300,000 barrels per day of condensates, totaling about 1.7 million barrels per day," Ahmed had said.

Oil production will average 1.86 million barrels a day in 2021, rise to 2.09 million barrels a day in 2022, and 2.38 million barrels in 2023. The report said on the expenditure side, N1.25 trillion was spent on debt service and N1.32 trillion for personnel cost, including pensions, Ahmed said.

Chief Timipre Sylva "Based on reference production of Nigeria of October 2018 of 1.829 Million Barrels per day of dry crude oil, Nigeria will now be producing 1.412 Million Barrels per day, 1.495 Million Barrels per day and 1.579 Million Barrels per day respectively for the corresponding periods in the agreement.

"It is expected that this historic intervention when concluded will see crude oil prices rebound by at least $15 per barrel in the short term, thereby enhancing the prospect of exceeding Nigeria's adjusted budget estimate that is currently rebased at $30 per barrel and crude oil production of 1.7 Million Barrels per day.

"It is therefore pleasing to note that despite the production curtailments that this historic agreement will entail, all planned industry development projects will progress as they will be delivered after the termination of the 9th OPEC/NonOPEC Ministerial Meeting Agreement on adjustments in April 2022," the minister added.

Nigeria misses a 5-month oil revenue target and could only collect about half of its budgeted revenues in the first five months of this year as low oil prices and output took

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World Bank has also forecasted that Nigeria will lose up to 70 percent of its earnings from crude oil sales in 2020, cutting total general government revenue to 5.3 percent of GDP for the year following the impact and outcomes of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

In a recent World Bank report titled: 'Nigeria Development Update 2020,' the Bank stated that prices of crude oil which accounts for the majority of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings were expected to remain low, supported mostly by a persistent supply glut and slowed recovery of the economies of Nigeria's trading partners.

According to the Washington-based institution, the pandemic forced Nigeria to revise its benchmark on oil production and price from 2.3 million barrels a day (mbd) and $57/b to 1.9mbd and $28/b.

"Oil prices are expected to stay below prepandemic levels in 2020–21 because of slowed economic activity and a persistent supply glut. After averaging $65 per barrel (bbl) in 2019, the baseline scenario for this report assumes that prices of Nigerian crude oil will average $30/bbl in 2020 and $40/bbl in 2021.

"Oil prices are projected to begin recovering gradually in the second half of 2020, but accumulated inventories will continue to push prices down through 2021 even as global demand recovers, and the Covid-19 crisis subsides," it added, suggesting that

with the right pace of reforms, sustained economic recovery was possible for Nigeria despite downside risks.

It noted that in a baseline scenario in which oil prices in 2020 average $30/b, the Covid19 outbreak in Nigeria was contained, and the authorities carry out a package of economic-relief policies in 2020, the country's economy would still contract by at least three percent.

It further stated that faced with large and widening fiscal deficits, mounting pressure on health spending, and less room to borrow, "Nigeria can be expected to cut capital spending, especially sub-national, further diminishing its already low levels of investment and limiting service delivery at all levels."

"Falling domestic demand, which is sensitive to oil-dollar liquidity, will cause the non-oil economy to contract. With manufacturing and services hit hard by COVID-19 in April–May 2020," it added.

It explained that the pandemic has sharply curtailed both oil and nonoil revenue streams at a time when fiscal resources are urgently needed to contain the virus and support economic activity, adding that by April Nigeria's crude oil prices had fallen to $20 a barrel; down nearly 70 percent in three months.

"After this extraordinary oil-price shock, which led to a steep drop in oil production, oil revenues are expected to fall from 3.2 percent of GDP in 2019 to about 1 percent in 2020.

"Though oil production is expected to stabilize, it would not immediately contribute much to growth because investment in the sector is likely to remain subdued until the price outlook becomes more favorable," the Bank noted.

In a bid to boost the country's oil output and bring in much-needed revenues, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, recently launched the 2020 bidding round for 57 marginal fields after over 16 years of a successful marginal fields bid round in 2003.

The Marginal Fields is open to indigenous companies and investors interested in participating in Exploration and Production (E&P) business in Nigeria.

Interestingly, DPR has approved Subsurface data providers Geoex and Bilview to use their platform to showcase a portion of Nigeria's national well data portfolio at reproduction cost to pre-qualified bidders of the 2020 marginal fields bid round.

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TOP STORY The bid round's custom data pack comprises of core wells located in the estimated marginal fields.

The core data pack includes more than 50 wells and will be available to successful applicants at reproduction costs only during the data prying stage of the bid round. Also, further two packages will be on offer under interesting pricing conditions.

These advanced sets will include in fill wells and other complementary data in and around the marginal fields.

Executive vice-president of Geoex Ltd, Jean-Philippe Rossi, said: "Pre-qualified companies will be able to access the data without paying premiums associated with a regular data license, making them an excellent source for evaluation of these marginal fields. This is a one-time opportunity for the indigenous Nigerian companies, which Geoex and Bilview are offering in support of the ongoing bid round."

He said his companies have carefully designed these well packages to offer a flexible price schedule to interested parties.

"We are being mindful of the current industry situation and want to allow prequalified companies to use our data to their advantage," Rossi said.

help to predict when the next bid round will be after assessing the commercial viability of these basins. "NAMSTRA will also help to determine how prolific such basins will be in a bid round process," they said.

In another development, there is an ongoing licensing round in Uganda up to 5 blocks that were launched in 2019 and will be available until September 30th, 2020.

The national well data are available to the industry all year round via a dedicated www.geoinfoweb.com portal, where companies can browse, select, and request data information. The full portfolio comprises high-quality workstation-ready well logs, correlative well information, and on-demand log suites for more than 7,000 wellbores. The web portal showcases the well repository since 2011.

The Nigerian government noted that its major objective for the ongoing marginal field program was a win-win value proposition for government, Nigerians, indigenous and foreign investors.

The Nigerian government is also working on establishing a National Acreage Management Strategy (NAMSTRA), a body that would be responsible for putting in place strategies to determine the nation's periodic bid rounds.

According to them, NAMSTRA has become necessary since the last bid round was about 17 years ago.

He stated that with the nation's available seven basins comprising the Benue (central), Sokoto (north-west border), Chad (north-east), Bida (central, along the Niger valley), Dahomey (South-West) and Anambra (South-East) Basins and the Niger Delta (South coastal) including the deep water, the establishment of NAMSTRA will

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Peninah Aheebwa Peninah Aheebwa, Director of Technical Support Services Petroleum Authority, Uganda, has confirmed that there are currently three active exploration licenses given to Armour Energy and Oranto Petroleum. While Uganda's most prospective basin is The Albertine Graben which is open for investment and only a 10% license has been issued while 90% is unlicensed.

She said: "The blocks are attractive as we currently have up to 6 investors that have shown interest on these blocks. But, we are encouraging investors out there to take advantage of these blocks.

"There are about 21 oil and gas discoveries in Uganda's oil and gas industry with an unprecedented drilling tax rate of about 88% and a resource base of around 6 billion

barrels of oil in place.

"Uganda has issued over 14 licenses to CINOOC, Total, Tullow among others.

While the country is estimated to have about 1.4 billion barrels of recoverable resources.�

Moving forward, Cameroon oil and gas is a growing industry with enormous potential.

The country has been a producer and exporter of oil over seven decades. Though it is not ranked among the largest oilexporting nations, it remains an important oil and gas exporter in Central Africa due to its favorable geology, dynamic relationship with other foreign oil operators, host government, and its legal framework.

The Government of Cameroon has set out to further develop and expand the industry and within its mandate to attract investment in its oil and gas industry, the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) has launched the promotion of nine blocks in the hydrocarbons rich Rio del Rey Basin (RDR) and the highly prospective Douala/KribiCampo (DKC) Basin.

The Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin covers a total area of 19000 km. It is the northernmost basin in the South Atlantic and it lies between the prolific petroleumproducing Niger Delta to the North and the Rio Muni Basin to the South. Source rocks have been identified from several stratigraphic levels including the Aptian/Albian, Upper Cretaceous, Oligocene/Miocene (Soullaba), and Paleocene/Eocene (N'kapa). All the oil properties indicate that oil originates from terrigenous dominated source rocks deposited in a marine environment. There is abundant oil at the basin margins.

Hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs have been encountered at nearly every stratigraphic level from the Miocene (Souellaba) down to the Albian/Aptian (Upper and lower Mundeck) and across a variety of depositional systems from continental to deepwater.

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TOP STORY While The Rio Del Rey (RDR) basin is a divergent margin basin formed as a result of the Aptian to Albian opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. The basin sedimentary fill corresponds to the easternmost edge of the prolific Tertiary Niger Delta complex. It is separated geographically from the Douala/Kribi-Campo basin by the Tertiary Cameroon Volcanic Line.

Concerning LNG business, over the years, Cameroon set a remarkable record when it became the second country in the world, and the first in Africa, to commission a floating LNG facility located offshore Kribi.

Golar LNG's 1.2mtpa Hilli Episeyo FLNG vessel is now receiving gas from the Perenco operated Sanaga gas field, and its processed LNG has been sold to Gazprom's trading arm for eight years.

Other key existing energy infrastructure in Cameroon includes the 42,000bpd Limbe refinery, owned at 66% by the government via Sonara, the 1070km Chad-Cameroon pipeline, one of Central Africa's landmark projects and Globeleq's 216MW Kribi power station.

Furthermore, Mozambique is at the forefront of becoming a top ten LNG supplier globally. The country has over 150 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven natural gas reserves. Mozambique has excellent relations with its neighbors, signing Governmental MoUs with African countries and major consumer nations, including China, and signing a technical services agreement with Trinidad & Tobago.

They further explained that oil had served as the key enabler to the economic transformation of many nations like Norway, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar among others.

They stressed that African governments more especially oil-producing countries need to create an enabling environment to make the industry private sector driven, just like in Europe, Middle East, and America, which has led to a massive economic boost.

They continued: "Africa should be independent in a way of domesticating oil and gas technology in the continent and encourage local content development in areas of human capital, infrastructure and data sharing in its oil and gas industry."

Currently, the demand for experienced service providers is very high in the exploration, production, storage, and transportation of natural gas, with the current transport network consisting of the Mozambique-South Africa pipeline and the new distribution network.

Industry experts have said that the natural resources in Africa could be harnessed to meet the continent's social and economic needs. They made the call for a stronger collaboration among African countries to maximize the continent's oil and gas potential for the benefits of its citizen.

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Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk, has said that, amid the ongoing CoronaVirus ravaging the oil and gas industry, the year 2020 and beyond contain huge opportunities for African oilproducing countries if properly addressed.

Mr. Bank Anthony Okoroafor, former PETAN Chairman and CEO/Managing Director of CB Geophysical Solutions Ltd, a seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation company, has also said that Africa resources have the potential to alleviate poverty on the continent. He explained: "540 million people in resourcedriven countries could be lifted out of poverty by effective development and use of reserves, more than what China achieved in the past 20 years".

NJ Ayuk He noted that some oil-dependent African nations will suffer reduced revenue. He used Angola as an example, whose national budget was pegged at an oil price of USD$55. He said that most African producers have learned from past experiences and have adjusted themselves to respond to price crashes.

5 major IOCs are already investing in exploration, and proceeding with the construction of platforms for drilling and storing natural gas.

The race in the Rovuma basin started in 2017 and the contracts signed are already worth more than $20 billion within 2 years.

Several liquefied natural gas trains are planned for the Rovuma Basin concessions, with a combined annual capacity of over 15 million tonnes, with LNG production starting in the next four years.

"There is a need for strong regulation by governments on the continent to address issues surrounding regulatory and fiscal conditions. And, there is a need for regional integration to broaden the market and attract investments in the continent's petroleum sector."

Bank Anthony Okoroafo

“

Government across Africa, especially the oil and gas producing countries, should provide necessary incentives to attract private sector investment across the entire value chain.”

"For Africa to move beyond exports and make the most of its resources there is a need for strategic investment in infrastructure in areas such as refineries and petrochemicals.

“

The progressive economic diversification the African continent has witnessed in recent years will also contribute to minimizing the impact of this situation.”

He stressed that if 2020 is showing itself challenging for African energy, 2021 will be a year of opportunity, stressing however that for that to happen, APPO has to start adapting now; laying down the policies that will allow members to take advantage of future opportunities.

Ayuk said that this is the time for African nations to position themselves correctly, and that will require close attention to international developments and close cooperation, to be able to take advantage

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TOP STORY

of new opportunities.

The African Energy Chamber and the IAGC have recommended several mitigating measures on behalf of the oil and gas industry to ensure sustainability in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. These measures are intended to mitigate the expected loss of jobs and abandonment of erstwhile viable projects in the African oil and gas sector in the face of a global recession.

In their words, they said that, While African oil producers might not be able to change the current market and global health dynamics individually, they have the ability as regulators to positively influence the business environment in their respective countries with innovative policies.

They called on African governments to take swift action to ensure stability in the African oil and gas industry, especially in the geophysical & exploration (G&E) subsector, to maintain a pipeline of projects that will maintain or even increase output levels. Such key demands and measures include waiving taxes on service companies for six months; waiving withholding taxes, especially for not resident companies, for six months; urging banks to provide no interest loans and loan guarantees for local service companies with ongoing projects with IOCs; granting extensions on all exploration projects for 24 months; extending the non-exclusive geophysical data confidentiality periods to a minimum of 15 years where such is not already in place; waiving part of the work project commitments for exploration companies; setting up and implement government and private sector discussions on revising some of the fiscal terms in the PSC that make it difficult for explorers to meet commitments in today's market environment and aid capital fundraising; cutting in half (50%) fees due to the state like training funds, surface rental, social projects etc.; bring champions of the industry by encouraging various farm-in and farm-out discussions on current licenses; ensuring state backing on midstream projects so FID's are not cancelled; making diversification of the economy a priority; looking at local content measures that are not working and try to encourage or implement a more regional African content approach; and considering cutting departmental spending and reduction of unnecessary travel expenditure.

"As the voice of the African Energy industry and it is at the core of our mandate to fight for the comeback of the African Energy industry post-COVID-19 and the price war by making practices on how to navigate the

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current crisis. We are bullish by the response so far from many African oil producers that include adopting some of our proposals above. However, we call for everyone to continue doing more. Our American friends from the IAGC have been a strong and steadfast ally in helping us make a case for Africa and its energy sector" said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.

On her part, Ms. Nikki Martin, President of the IAGC highlighted the importance of the geophysical and exploration (G&E) industries in maintaining a stable energy industry. "National Authorities should be working to maintain expected timelines for licensing rounds, including all review periods and award announcements which contribute to business certainty and a stable pipeline for future oil production. Energy security for the continent will only be ensured with continued exploration," she said. "The G&E industry provides the key to unlocking energy resources that will allow for rebuilding economies when the COVID19 virus has run its course, however, to rebuild, there must be a viable energy industry when that time comes."

More interesting, some African countries are already offering tax reliefs and fiscal packages to companies to mitigate any adverse impacts on exploration and production activities in their countries. For instance, the Government of Equatorial Guinea has moved on to grant tax reliefs for services companies in the country. The Government took this action to support oil & gas services companies in the country as part of its response to the oil price drop caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons, H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, said that the unanimous decision to waive its fees for services companies will last for a period of three months.

In another development, Oneyka Ojogbo, Associate Attorney at Centurion Law Group pointed out that the current market situation has extremely affected companies as they are now faced with a myriad of financial issues that have led to force majeure on projects.

She stressed that for companies to mitigate all associated risks on contracts and local operations, they have to reconsider and take all necessary actions to reevaluate their positions under oil contracts. IOCs and foreign service providers may also be unable to meet their capital spending commitments due to production cuts which could affect their ability to meet up with repayment obligations under financing instruments.

She advised companies to review all contracts including the terms and condition such as Capex Commitment in Joint Venture or Production Sharing Contracts, other financial instruments in a post-COVID-19

recovery, political and economic stability in the host country, policies that affect the stability of the current contract, local content obligations, and the overall cost of the project before making any commitments.

Concerning Employment contracts, Oneyka Ojogbo underscored the need for companies to consider their current employment regulations and ensure strict compliance.

Oneyka Ojogbo

“

It may be illegal to terminate the employment contract at this point but the company should consider the option of Furlough.

“It is important to discuss with labor experts in the country and closely monitor the proclamations of the authorities for any changes in laws or regulation affecting labor” Across oil & gas basins, drilling projects are being put back on the shelves or terminated due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic.

The oil and gas industry will only work for Africans when there are fair policies and an enabling environment that will treat oil and gas companies as partners who drive progress in the region. And, this is why industry experts are advocating for measures that will support the continuity of business operations and future sector growth. They strongly advocate for tax relief on services companies, reforms of upstream fiscal regimes, banking and financial support, regional content development, incentives to infrastructure projects, and bold actions on removing fuel subsidies.

“

We have the tools in our hands to quickly open new markets for our oil and gas businesses and create new jobs for our continent."

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FEATURED CONTENT

OilServ: Building A Gas Pipeline Network in Nigeria ...the company has what it takes to develop and build a gas pipeline network for the oil and gas industry After seven years of rigorous processes that moved from policy conception through implementation strategy designs, master-plans and solid implementation programmes, the Federal Government of Nigeria has approved and awarded the contract of the construction of AKK Gas Pipeline Project to OilServ, the biggest gas pipeline infrastructure project in the country’s recent history, writes Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme.

Fully supported by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, Oilserv Limited is a major indigenous oil pipeline Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Installation & Commissioning (EPCIC) company in Nigeria based in Port Harcourt, River State.

Oilserv has expanded its operations beyond Nigeria, and offering services in Sub-Saharan African Region especially in Uganda and Ghana. This move has continued to optimize the company's growth using its resources as well as through alliances and joint ventures with international Companies in specific areas of the industry.

OilServ Limited is built around an

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The OB3 gas pipeline project is a critical component of the Nigeria Gas Master Plan meant to deliver gas from the rich reservoirs in the eastern Niger Delta to the established markets in the west of Nigeria. While the AKK gas pipeline project will transport natural gas from Ajaokuta, in Kogi State to Kano, through several states and urban centers, as part of the Trans Nigeria Gas Pipeline.

experienced team of highly qualified Engineers, Technicians and other support Personnel to provide Total Quality Services (TQS) to the Multinational, Local Oil & Gas and Power Companies and major industries for Onshore & Offshore project.

The first phase of the Nigerian Gas Masterplan, the Obiafu/Obrikom to Oben (OB3) Node Gas Transmission Pipeline System was built by Oilserv. Before then, Oilserv had developed the entire gas distribution network in Lagos, powering industries in the state. Oilserv has also built major gas pipelines across South-South gas pipeline, 128 km, from the western end of Akwa-Ibom to Mfamosing, very close to Cameroon, that has made it possible for UNICEM cement plant to be able to operate.

Project OilServ is exceptional when it comes to delivery of oil and gas projects and has been a local content champion in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The company is involved in the biggest pipeline projects in Nigeria namely; Obiafu/Obrikom to Oben (OB3) Node Gas Transmission Pipeline System and Ajeokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project.

Conceptualized as an integral part of the Nigerian Gas Master Plan (NGMC), a gas infrastructure blueprint, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2008, the AKK has received serious attention from the President Buhari Administration leading to the award of the Engineering Procurement and Construction Contract (EPC) of the project by the Federal Executive Council in 2017.

Engr. Emeka Okwuosa, OilServ CEO

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FEATURED CONTENT Within the last 12 months the project received extra stimulus from the current NNPC leadership led by Mallam Mele Kyari, which deftly removed the impediments that have stalled the project over the years.

The AKK pipeline would be the biggest gas pipeline infrastructure development in the country’s recent history. It is a 614km-long natural gas pipeline set to be laid between Ajaokuta and Kano in Nigeria and forms the first Phase of the Trans-Nigeria Gas Pipeline (TNGP) project. The TNGP project is an integral part of the proposed 4,401kmlong Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) to export natural gas to countries in Europe. It will also mark a significant shift in the nation’s energy policy; from revenue, targeted export programmes to development focused domestic supply programmes.

The AKK pipeline is slated to originate from Ajaokuta and pass through Abuja and Kaduna, before ending at a terminal gas station in Kano. The project among other benefits will curb gas flaring and further boost industrialization and development in all regions in Nigeria.

promote the use of gas in the domestic market. These include the Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System – 2 (ELPS-2), Obiafu – Obrikom – Oben (OB3) pipeline and the AKK. The government have made it a priority to ensure that revenues from oil and gas resources are utilized to support the emergence and growth of other non-oil sectors of the economy.

On June 30th, 2020, President Buhari performs the flags-off ceremony of the construction of the 40-inch x 614km $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline project virtually from the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The project, expected to be completed within a 24-month timeline, is a section of the Trans-Nigeria Gas Pipeline (TNGP) with capacity to transport about 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

AKK Potentials The AKK gas pipeline project would also unlock 2.2 billion cubic feet of gas to the domestic market, support the addition of 3,600 mega watts of power to the national grid and revitalize textile industries which alone boasts of over 3 million jobs in parts of the country. It would run parallel to the existing Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company’s 16 inch-crude oil and 12 inchproduct pipelines wherever possible.

The pipeline would be fed from the existing domestic Infrastructure with a capacity of over 1.5 billion cubic feet per day and is being expanded by Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System II (ELPS II) and Obiafu-ObrikomOben (OB3) gas pipeline (under construction) that will double the capacity to over 3 billion cubic gas per day.

Sustainable Development Harnessing and commercializing the Nigeria’s vast gas reserves was an enabler for rapid economic development and diversification of the economy, and the Ajaokuta-KadunaKano (AKK) Gas Pipeline project is part of President Buhari Administration’s efforts to ensure sustainable development and growth of the nation’s Economy. The project, when completed, would provide gas for generation of power and feedstock for gas-based industries, and also facilitate the revival of moribund industries and the development of new ones along transit towns in Kogi State, Abuja (FCT), Niger State, Kaduna State and Kano State.

The AKK is ultimately designed to complement other major domestic gas transmission systems namely: the Western System, that is, the existing 36-inch Escravos-Lagos Pipeline I and II with 2.2billion cubic feet per day capacity and the On-going East-West connection via the OB3 pipeline featuring 2.4 billion cubic feet per day capacity. It will significantly curb gas flaring in the Niger Delta and guarantee better air quality in the oil producing region.

Also, the Nigerian government is committed to expanding the key critical gas infrastructure in the country to

AKK project would support the development of Petrochemicals, fertilizer, methanol and other gas-based industries

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thereby generating employment opportunities and facilitating Balanced Economic Growth.

According to report, the EPC contract for the 614km AKK gas pipeline project was awarded at a total contract sum of US$2.592 billion to Messrs. Oilserv Plc/China First Highway Engineering Company (Oilserv/CFHEC Consortium) for the first segment covering 303km and Messrs. Brentex Petroleum Services/China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (Brentex/CPP Consortium) for the second segment covering 311km under a debt-equity financing model with loan from Bank of China and SINOSURE, to be repaid through the pipeline transmission tariff and supported by a sovereign guarantee.

The NNPC has confirmed that all the required conditions precedent for closing the debt financing have been provided and the process of obtaining internal approvals by the Lenders is in progress to enable financing close by August 2020.

Local Content President Buhari's administration has shown dedication for the development of Local Content and Capacity through the Ajaokuta Kaduna Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project. President Buhari is at the forefront of driving progress in the oil and gas sector particularly for given opportunities to indegineous companies to carry on major projects in the country. Oilserv involvement in the AKK project is an indication that the Federal government means well for the local content development.

The AKK project is also a celebration the successes of the Nigerian Content Policy goals. The project would be a turning to reality some of the Nigeria’s long term economic aspirations of boosting domestic

OIL AND GAS REPUBLIC I SPECIAL EDITION

FEATURED CONTENT energy infrastructure, deepening the local gas market, creating industrial corridors with cleaner fuel, and commercializing the country’s abundant gas resources.

According to Oilserv all the engineering works on the project are done by certified Nigerian Engineers as this is part of the efforts to promote local content in the oil and gas sector.

The company said it’s going to ensure revegetation after the project to return the environment to it’s original form before the commencement of the project. So far OilServ has maintained a good relationship with it’s host communities that had allowed the right of way for the laying of the gas pipes.

Job Opportunities: OilServ has said that during the construction of the AKK Gas Pipeline Project that the company will employ and absorb about 3,000 workers to complete the project. The company will lead the workers including Engineers to complete a 303 kilometers part of the project in record time of 12 months and commisioned within 18 months.

OilServ has also confirmed that it is going to

complete it’s own part of the project which runs from Ajaokuta to some kilometers after Abuja faster than the 24 month period expected by the Federal government for the completion of the project.

Moreso, the project will create numerous direct and indirect employment opportunities while fostering the development and utilization of local skills and manpower, technology transfer and promotion of local manufacturing.

The 303 km part of the project will also involve running an inbuilt tracking sensor gas pipe of 40 inched diameter to ensure protection, safety and Maintenance on completion of the project.

Part of the safety and quality measures which Oilserv has deployed for the project include the automated machines for the welding component of the project to ensure a good quality job and of international standard at the site of construction.

The choice of Oilserv Limited seems to be deserving as the company has performed various key projects relating to platforms, production facilities, and installation of Bulklines, all of which involve engineering, project management and construction

services.

The company’s antecedent includes being the first and only Nigerian indigenous company to fabricate, install and commission the largest Oil manifold station for Shell Petroleum Development Co. Ltd. (S.P.D.C.), while also having successfully designed and constructed the largest Gas Transmission Pipeline System in Nigeria and Africa – the Obiafu/Obrikom to Oben Node Gas Transmission Pipeline System, which forms a part of the Nigerian Gas Master Plan.

OilServ has successfully delivered over 17 similar challenging projects in Nigeria.

Among other challenging projects, Oilserv is also a major company executing pipeline repairs and rehabilitation work for S.P.D.C and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Oilserv Limited is part of The Oilserv Group, an Engineering, Oil & Gas, Power, Agricultural & Mining Conglomorate.

Oilserv Group of Companies include : Oilserv Limited, Frazimex Engineering Limited, FrazPower Limited, FrazOil E & P Limited, Ekcel Farms Limited and Crown Energy Resources Limited.

REAN Commends FG Over Planned 5 Million Solar Home Systems Deployment

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he Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria, REAN, has commended the Nigerian government over its planned development of 5 Million Solar Home Systems as part of the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan, NESP. Describing the plan as a landmark in achieving Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs which is Sustainable Energy for All, the group in a statement signed by its president, Segun Adaju said it is positioned to support the government towards realising the goals of the initiative.

In his words, "We have establsihed our own SHS Committe within the Association that will work directly with the relevant agencies of the Federal Government to support the government in ensuring that this initiative succeeds and delivers the expected outcome, with strong local content consideration.

With 5 million households and connections within 12 months, over 25 million Nigerians will be impacted, thereby reducing the huge numbers of Nigerians who rely on inefficient energy sources such as kerosene lanterns, candles, etc as sources of power.

The NESP clearly indicated that the objective to be achieved by this component of the plan is to create 250,000 jobs while providing affordable energy through solar power to rural communities that have little or no access to the national grid.

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By creating these jobs, the multiplier effect of it would result in many more Nigerians being pulled out of poverty as articulated by this administration.

The plan also indicated that private sector installers of solar systems will be supported with access to low-cost funding from development finance institutions and the CBN in order to install solar systems at an affordable price to the beneficiaries," he said.

Speaking further, he said the provision of "further palliative measures such as temporary waiver of import duty for imported components, access to affordable financing and lessening of administrative bottlenecks should be mainstreamed into the delivery of this project in order to achieve the objective of this initiative".

REAN is the umbrella body of stakeholders in the nation's alternative energy industry

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FEATURED CONTENT

President Buhari: Nigeria will Support Adesina for his Re-election as AFDB President

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resident Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria will stand solidly behind Dr. Akinwumi Adesina in his bid to get re-elected as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

In a statement made known to Oil and Gas Republic, The President made this declaration at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday 2nd June 2020, while hosting Dr. Adesina on a courtesy visit.

“In 2015, when you were to be elected for the first term, I wrote to all African leaders, recommending you for the position. I didn’t say because you were a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Minister, and I belonged to the All Progressives Congress (APC), so I would withhold my support. I’ll remain consistent with you, because no one has faulted the step I took on behalf of Nigeria,” said President Buhari.

The President pledged that Nigeria would work with all other leaders and stakeholders in AfDB to ensure that Dr. Adesina was elected for a second term built on the record of his achievements during his first term.

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The African Union had already endorsed the incumbent AfDB President as the sole candidate for the continent, but some other stakeholders are trying to ensure that Dr. Adesina is re-investigated on some allegations, and rendered ineligible to run.

Giving a background to what was happening in the bank, Dr. Adesina, a former Nigerian Minister for Agriculture, said the 16 allegations raised against him were trumped up, “and without facts, evidence, and documents, as required by the rules and regulations of the bank.”

He added that the Ethics Committee of the bank cleared him of all the allegations, and calls for a fresh investigation by the United States of America were against the rules.

exonerated, and any other investigation would amount to bending the rules of the bank, to arrive at a predetermined conclusion,” Dr. Adesina said.

Stressing that the motive was to soil his name, and that of the bank, the AfDB President said he was proud to be Nigerian, and thanked President Buhari for his unflinching support.

“You helped me to get elected in the first place, and you have supported me robustly all along, and the African Union unanimously endorsed my re-election” he declared.

While commiserating with President Buhari on the death of the former Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, Dr. Adesina described Professor Ibrahim Gambari, new Chief of Staff as “a man of integrity, and of global standing.”

“My defense ran into 250 pages, and not a single line was faulted or questioned. The law says that report of the Ethics Committee should be transmitted to the Chairman of Governors of the bank. It was done, and the governors upheld the recommendations. That was the end of the matter, according to the rules. It was only if I was culpable that a fresh investigation could be launched. I was

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The High 5 agenda – five priority actions for the African Development Bank and for Africa – is the AfDB’s channel for focusing and scaling up its 2013-2022 Ten Year Strategy, to bring about the social and economic transformation of Africa. The High 5s are designed to deliver the twin objectives of the Ten Year Strategy: inclusive growth that is shared by all; and the gradual transition to green growth. The High 5s are: Light up and power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

Le Top 5, c’est-à-dire les cinq actions prioritaires pour la Banque africaine de développement et pour l’Afrique, constituent le moyen utilisé par la BAD pour concentrer et étendre la mise en oeuvre de sa Stratégie décennale pour la période 2013-2022 visant à transformer l’Afrique sur le plan social et économique. Le Top 5 a pour but de réaliser le double objectif de la stratégie décennale : une croissance inclusive partagée par tous ; et la transition progressive vers une croissance verte. Le Top 5 est constitué des priorités suivantes : Éclairer l’Afrique et l’alimenter en énergie ; Nourrir l’Afrique ; Industrialiser l’Afrique ; Intégrer l’Afrique ; Améliorer la qualité de vie des Africains.

APPO INTERVIEW

What Africa Must Do to Address the Challenges Facing its Energy Industry - Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, APPO's Secretary General developed. I am sure you are aware that Africa has some of the best scientists, technologists and innovators in Europe and the US. They excel when they go there. But when they are here, they are unable to excel.

The challenge is to create the enabling environment for these people to excel in Africa. We will also create the enabling environment for Europeans and Americans to come and do their innovations here.

Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim

Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Nigeria’s former Governor for OPEC, is the newly appointed Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO). Farouk succeeded Mahaman Laouan Gaya as APPO Secretary General. APPO, with 15 active Member Countries and three observers, is a continental intergovernmental energy organization. Its mission is to promote cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons of its Member Countries and other global institutions to foster fruitful collaboration and partnerships while utilizing petroleum as a catalyst for energy security, sustainable development and economic diversification in Africa.

In this interview, Farouk spoke with OPEC's Bulletin about APPO and his plans for the Organization on the sidelines of the 178th Extraordinary Meeting of the OPEC Conference, held in Vienna, Austria.

Question: Many APPO Member Countries are also OPEC Member Countries. How do these Organizations differ?

Answer: Many people have asked me this question. One difference is that OPEC is an intergovernmental organization that has membership and presence in four continents, namely Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.

APPO, on the other hand, is a continental organization. All our members come from the African

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continent and our headquarters is also located in Africa.

Another difference is that OPEC focuses on stabilizing the global oil market for the good of all — producers, consumers and investors.

It is doing a wonderful job. What APPO does is to focus on the peculiar challenges of the oil and gas industry on the African continent— challenges that are not necessarily global. We think that we should find solutions to our own problems. By stabilizing the market, yes, OPEC is helping us, but fighting continental energy poverty or poverty of technology and finance in Africa is outside the mandate of OPEC. Question: What are the key challenges that Africa faces in the oil and gas sector?

The third challenge is financing of energy projects. God has endowed us with natural resources and human resources. We need to create an enabling environment that will support the growth of knowledge, technology and investment.

Question: How do you plan to improve investment climate given the current market challenges?

Answer: A few years after APPO was founded in 1987, the APPO Fund for Technical Cooperation was created to support technical cooperation and mobilize finance for energy projects on the continent. This is similar to the OPEC Fund for International Development. Along with the reorganization of APPO, we have reorganized and reformed the APPO Fund and it is now called the African Energy Investment Corporation (AEICORP).

For the first time, we are bringing private investors into the system and the contributing governments will hold a minority share.

This is all part of the major reforms that we are embarking on to change the whole mandate of the organization to be able to better focus on addressing the peculiar energy challenges facing the African continent.

Answer: There are basically three challenges we have to address. The first one is infrastructure. We need to put in place energy infrastructure that cuts across the continent: pipelines, for crude as well as products and gas, refineries and petrochemicals to serve sub-regions or a cluster of countries.

Question: More and more African countries are producing oil. And yet most countries in Africa have to import petroleum products from outside the continent. Why is that?

The second is technology. Our oil and gas industry is unarguably the most dependent on foreign technology. We have generally bought into the misleading belief of technology transfer, that the developed world will transfer technology to us. While it is possible to have technology transferred, it is always the archaic technology that is transferred while the latest is kept by those who developed it, until a better one is

Answer: That is one of the biggest challenges we have on the continent.

Nigeria for instance, produces something like 2.2 million b/d, yet imports about 30 to 40 million litres of petrol on a daily basis. It doesn’t make sense. Nigeria has four refineries and none of them is working at 30 per cent of its nameplate capacity. You have the same problems in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and a number of other African countries.

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APPO INTERVIEW

These facilities are very capital intensive.

We need to be able to come together and have refineries and pipelines that can transport products across borders. What we are trying to do at APPO is to ensure we have the cross-border infrastructure and to do this, we need to pool our resources.

Question: Despite the need for energy in Africa, much of its petroleum is exported to non-African markets. Could that change?

Answer: This is a part of Africa’s colonial legacy. When you go to many African countries, you see railways running from the hinterland to the coast. The railways take agricultural and mineral resources from where they are produced in the hinterland to the ports to be exported outside Africa.

No one thought about doing a network of roads or rail lines across the countries so that food produced in one region can be sent to another region of the country or continent where there is a shortage of food.

It is the same thing with minerals and our oil and gas.

When African countries make discoveries, nobody asks how much should be retained domestically so we can energize our people, and export the rest. We look at how much it will bring to the national budget in foreign exchange. These are some of the challenges we are going to be looking at, and that is why the African Energy Investment Corporation, AEICORP, is going to be run as a business, a business but with a human face. Our objective is to expand access and reduce energy poverty to the barest minimum.

AEICORP is to provide a platform for raising funds to execute major energy projects on the continent. We will strive to change the situation, and with the support and commitment of African leaders and the industry, we will get there.

Question: Tell us more about what APPO is doing to alleviate energy poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7?

Answer: As a continental energy organization with huge challenges but very limited resources, we have decided that we need to optimize the benefits of the few resources we have. We therefore avoid duplication of activities. Where other organizations embark on projects we have on our work programme, or we find very useful to our cause, we approach them to partner with them. That way we are able to get the same result by spending much less. I was in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, last month where ECOWAS Ministers received the reports of three studies commissioned

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by ECOWAS, APPO and the African Refineries Association, ARA. The studies were on popularization of LPG as domestic energy. It aims to get rid of the use of firewood and other unhealthy forms of energy in the West African sub-region, and replace them with more environmentally friendly LPG. The second study was on the standardization of vehicle emission limits in the sub-region. And the last was a feasibility study on extending the West African Gas Pipeline Project from its current terminal point in Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Sénégal, Mali and Burkina Faso.

APPO contributed finances to conduct these studies.

Furthermore, with AEICORP in place, we expect to be able to raise required financing for key energy projects on the continent, projects that would otherwise not get the huge financing to take off.

Question: Don’t you need to improve the energy infrastructure in order to make real progress on expanding energy access?

Answer: Absolutely. We need energy infrastructure to make any meaningful and positive impact on the lives of our people.

The infrastructure should be intracontinental, not limited by boundaries. We should have infrastructure that will allow us to move energy from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity. I have already mentioned the West Africa Gas Pipeline project, whose contribution to alleviating energy scarcity in Ghana and Benin and Togo is legendary. In East Africa there is the Uganda-Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline (UKCOP), and there are others in North Africa.

The fight against energy poverty in Africa is a serious one. Average energy access in Africa is 43 per cent compared to the global average of 87 per cent. In other words, Africa is less than half the global average. In the past, each African country attempted to address its energy challenges in isolation.

But none of them has the required finances, technology or even the human resources.

We have come to the realization that we can effectively tackle that challenge only if we pool resources.

Question: What is APPO’s view on the socalled energy transition?

Answer: The world is gradually telling us that the era of renewables has come and, by implication, the era of hydrocarbons is coming to an end. This is happening when a number of African countries are just beginning to find oil.

Twenty years ago, five or six African countries had oil.

Today, over 20 countries have oil and more are going to be producing in the next five years or so. If the world has decided to move on, it means that the technology for finding, processing and using oil is likely to go because those who have the resources, technology and science are not going to be investing in producing or finding crude oil anymore.

Question: Africa is rich in petroleum resources and renewable energy potential.

Are you also looking at using solar energy, for example, in the petroleum production process?

Answer: One reason we changed the name of APPO Fund to AEICORP is that we want to have all forms of energy. We can do a lot with solar, hydro, wind, etc.

But our fear is that the world is moving on with the Paris Agreement and we are not really ready. We don’t have what it takes to make the quick switch from the resources that God has endowed us with to renewables.

For now, climate change comes secondary to the lives of the people of Africa. We need to first provide them with the energy with which to make a better life. We are finding more and more oil in Africa, but at the same time we are being told that we cannot use that oil.

The world is against oil and gas, it is against emissions. We believe that where there is a will there will always be a way. If the world has the will to eliminate emissions from oil and gas, it can do so. Technology is being developed to address emissions. We should not throw away the baby with the bathwater.

Question: How does the new APPO intend to intensify cooperation and collaboration with OPEC? Answer: The first concrete action we are working on is the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in common interest action areas such as information and data management, global oil market trends, project funding, etc.

At the technical level, we are planning with the Data Services Department of OPEC a series of working sessions to design a new information system for APPO in line with international best practices. Also, we will take advantage of the experience of OPEC, to periodically publish an APPO Bulletin of information on the African energy market.

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COUNTRY REPORT

PIB Will Come Out With A Lot Of Sweetness Later This Year - Chief Sylva product side as well, to address demand and limited domestic production.

“Because for so long Africa has been importing the finished products, you really need to be delivering on the doorstep,” he said.

He noted that in Nigeria, the Dangote refinery project will start operations soon and the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery was expected soon as well.

“We are also discussing on reviving the Warri and Kaduna refineries. And we are discussing the possibility of developing some petrochemical and fertilizer projects,” he said.

In terms of addressing energy poverty, Chief Sylva noted that there has to be a collective effort across Africa.

He also pointed that the development of the West African Gas Pipeline as a major step to improve energy access across the region.

Other projects are also in the works, including a pipeline to carry oil from Nigeria to Algeria.

Chief Timipre Sylva

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hief Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has said that the country is expecting a rise in investor interest in the energy market once the government’s Petroleum Investment Bill (PIB) is approved, as expected, later this year.

The minister made the announcement at the 178th Extraordinary Meeting of the OPEC Conference held in Vienna, Austria recently.

The minister said: “The PIB has been in the making for about 20 years now,” said Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. “It’s been a long time coming and we think that when it comes out later this year, it will come out with a lot of sweetness. We are very mindful of the fact that it’s a very competitive environment right now

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and we are taking that on board in the new law.”

“The Nigeria-Algeria pipeline has been in the plan for a long time. We believe that it is only by trying to collectively come together that we can reduce energy poverty.”

“We are expecting that everybody will be interested because Nigeria is not just a brownfield, it has a lot of greenfield opportunities,” he said. “We believe the investment world will be quite pleased when we do come out with the bid round.”

More so, Nigeria has joined other OPEC+ counterparts in a historic curtailment of crude oil production to rebalance and stabilize the global oil markets.

The PIB will provide a more stable investment framework in the sector. “Things have remained quite stagnant and that’s why we believe that with this bill it will bring a lot of certainty to the investment framework and people will get interested and come,” he said.

The Minister said the country needed to ensure energy security for its growing population and economy.

According to the minister, Nigeria will continue its commitment to the framework of the Declaration of Cooperation entered on 10th December 2016 and further endorsed in subsequent OPEC meetings as well as the Charter of Cooperation signed in July 2019.

“Nigeria will now be producing 1.412 Million Barrels per day, 1.495 Million Barrels per day and 1.579 Million Barrels per day respectively for the corresponding periods in the agreement"

He also said Nigeria was focusing on the

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COUNTRY REPORT

Cameroon Launches Exploration Opportunities in two Producing Basins

• The Shale Ridge Province in the Southwest: the overburden of deltaic and continental sediments triggered squeeze flow of underlying mobile shales of the Akata Formation forming diapirs (shale domes, mud volcanoes, shale ridges).

• The Delta Toe-Thrust Belt in the South central area: zone of compressional/ transpressional thrust structures.

• The Eastern Province in the Southeast: slightly deformed foreland area juxtaposing the Cameroon Volcanic Line.

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ithin its mandate to promote and valorise hydrocarbon resources in the mining property of the Republic of Cameroon, the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) has launched the promotion of nine blocks in the hydrocarbons rich Rio del Rey Basin (RDR) and in the highly prospective Douala/KribiCampo (DKC) Basin. These blocks are Ndian River, Bolongo Exploration and Bakassi (in RDR), Etinde Exploration, Ntem, Elombo, Tilapia, Bomono and KombeN'sepe (in DKC).

Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin The Douala/Kribi-Campo Basin, covering a total area of 19000 km², is the northernmost basin of the South Atlantic rift. It lies between the prolific petroleum producing Niger Delta to the North and the Rio Muni Basin to the South.

Source rocks have been identified from several stratigraphic levels including the: • Aptian/Albian • Upper Cretaceous • Oligocene/Miocene (Souellaba) • Potential Paleocene/Eocene (N’kapa) All the oil properties indicate that oils originate from terrigenous dominated source rocks deposited in a marine environment. Abundant oil seeps exist at the basin margins. Hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs have been encountered at nearly every stratigraphic level from the Miocene (Souellaba) down to the Albian/Aptian (Upper and Lower Mundeck) and across a

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variety of depositional systems from continental to deepwater fans.

Rio del Rey Basin The Rio Del Rey (RDR) Basin is a divergent margin basin formed as a result of the Aptian to Albian opening of the South Atlantic Ocean.

The basin sedimentary fill corresponds to the easternmost edge of the prolific Tertiary Niger Delta complex. It is separated geographically from the Douala/KribiCampo Basin by the Tertiary Cameroon Volcanic Line.

The basin has four structural provinces, defined on the basis of deformation types: • The Growth Fault Province in the North: differential loading of deltaic and continental sediments on underlying prodelta marine shale generated E - W trending synsedimentary faults.

The general stratigraphy (see stratigraphic summary chart) is equivalent to that of the Niger Delta and is made up of three main diachronous formations in the basin, as described in the table below. Only one well penetrates the Cretaceous section, made up of sand and shales with source rock potential.

SNH is a public industrial and commercial company with financial autonomy, created in 1980. It has the mission to promote and valorize the national mining domain and manage State interests in the hydrocarbons sector.

To accomplish these missions, SNH is notably empowered to: • conduct studies related to hydrocarbons; • collect and store related information; • conduct negotiations of oil and gas contracts, and much more...

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COUNTRY REPORT

Ghana Looks to Enter a New Era in Upstream Sector as Government Urges Springfield, Eni to Sign Unitization Agreement

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ollowing study of technical evidence from Springfield E&P (SEP)’s West Cape Three Points 2 (WCTP2) License and Eni’s Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) License offshore Ghana, the Government of Ghana has declared earlier this year that the Afina-1x Cenomanian reservoir and the Sankofa Cenomanian reservoir are “one and the same”. This conclusion calls for a Unitization Agreement between both operators in order to develop the reservoir that straddles both of their blocks.

This Unitization Agreement of the Afina and Sankofa Fields was requested by Minister of Energy, Hon. John-Peter Amewu, in a letter sent to SEP and Eni in early April 2020. The government’s direction then requested unitization talks to be completed within 120 days (four months). Shall both parties fail to comply with the government’s directive to agree on a Unitization Agreement, the Minister

of Energy is empowered to stipulate the terms and conditions of such an agreement per Regulation 50(6) of L.I. 2359. Both operators have until August 2020 to complete their negotiations.

According to Africa Energy Chamber, The Unitization Agreement will be the first between an International Oil Company and a Ghanaian operator in the country, ushering a new era for Ghana’s upstream sector. The conclusion of such an agreement would ensure efficient reservoir exploitation, avoid unnecessary competitive drilling and maximize economic recovery of the hydrocarbons reserves from both licenses.

meters, and consequently more than doubling its proven oil reserves to 1.5 billion barrels and adding 0.7Tcf of gas.

SEP is a majority interest holder (84%) and operator of the WCTP2 License, with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and its exploration company, EXPLORCO, holding the remaining interest. SEP drilled the Afina-1 well in October 2019, making two gas and light sweet oil discoveries at a water depth of 1,030

On the other side, Sankofa is a part of the Enioperated OCTP Block, where Eni holds a 44.44% interest, Vitol 35.56 %, and GNPC 20%. The OCTP Block is reported to have reserves of about 40 billion cubic metres of unassociated gas and 500 million barrels of oil, and has been producing since 2017 from the John Agyekum Kufuor FPSO.

Evy Maffini

Glacier makes appointment in Norway to grow local business

Equatorial Guinea Award Contracts for Development of Africa’s diversify our economy, provide First Offshore Gas Mega Hub opportunities for our local companies, and quatorial Guinea continues to lead the development of natural gas production and monetization in the Gulf of Guinea, with the award of a new contract for a new Gas Master Plan to support the ongoing development of its offshore Gas Mega Hub.

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In collaboration with Marathon Oil Corp and EG LNG, the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH) awarded a contract for the development of a Gas Master Plan to British company Gas Strategies on Tuesday. The work is part of the development of Equatorial Guinea’s Gas Mega Hub, for which Definitive Agreements towards the monetization of the Alen unit were signed in April 2019.

from the Alba Field, declining output requires to gather gas from additional fields and reserves in the region.

H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, said: “Equatorial Guinea has given natural gas a priority in terms of development and monetization, and we believe gas is the key to industrialization and jobs creation. With key initiatives such as LNG2Africa, the ongoing offshore Gas Mega Hub and the Year of Investment 2020, we are going to complete key gas projects in upstream, midstream and downstream that will further

create jobs for our citizens” Under the development, Punta Europa is set to become a gas processing center for all stranded gas fields in the Gulf of Guinea, and could open up economical avenues to monetize offshore gas in Cameroon and Nigeria as well.

The new Gas Master Plan represents an important step towards the realization of this vision, and will help in accelerating and coordinating offshore gas developments, which could eventually lead to the construction of additional liquefaction capacity on Punta Europa.

The offshore gas mega hub will be the first such venture offshore Africa and aims at pooling stranded gas across the Gulf of Guinea by maximizing existing infrastructure at Punta Europa.

While key facilities there, such as EG LNG and Marathon’s methanol plant, have traditionally been relying on gas feedstock

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H.E. Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima

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COUNTRY REPORTS

Madagascar gets €4 million from African Dvt Fund for Sahofika hydropower project

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he African Development Fund has approved a 4.02 million euro loan with a grant component to finance the Government of Madagascar’s 30 million euro equity investment in the Sahofika hydropower project, which will generate affordable, clean energy benefitting some 8 million people.

The Sahofika project is located on the Onive River, 100 km southeast of the capital Antananarivo. It entails the construction of a 205 MW hydroelectric power plant on a Build-Own-OperateTransfer basis and includes the construction and rehabilitation of 110 km of access roads and construction of a 75 km, 220 kV transmission line. Once commissioned, the Sahofika project is expected to contribute to the avoidance of 900,000 tons of CO2 equivalent annually.

The Government of Madagascar is committed to plough back the returns from the project to reduce electricity tariffs for the people of Madagascar. Additional funding for the project is expected to come from the European Union and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

Dr. Kevin Kariuki, the Bank’s VicePresident for Power, Energy, Climate Change & Green Growth, commented: “The support to the Sahofika project exemplifies the Bank’s commitment to delivering quality, affordable energy access across the continent for sustainable and inclusive growth, while helping member countries to

responsibly harness their vast, yet underdeveloped renewable energy resources.

As the largest hydro power project under development in the country, the Sahofika project will unlock Madagascar’s hydropower potential, and diversify its energy mix in favour of renewable at 90%” “The Sahofika project is a cornerstone of the Bank’s strong support to the power sector in Madagascar. The commissioning of Sahofika would enable national utility (JIRAMA) to save around 100 million euros annually in fuel costs, while phasing out the need for state subsidies,” said Mohamed

Cherif, the Bank’s Country Manager for Madagascar.

The Sahofika project is aligned with the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa, and the Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan, whose collective goals include expanding green energy infrastructure for sustainable and inclusive growth. It is also in line with the Government of Madagascar’s energy policy. The African Development Fund (ADF) is the concessional financing window of the Bank Group that provides lowincome Regional Member Countries (RMCs) with concessional loans and grants in support of projects that spur poverty reduction.

Uganda welcomes $20 billion FID as Total and Tullow finalizes Farm out Deal

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he Government of Uganda has applauded the agreement reached between Total and Tullow, which will see Total acquire Tullow’s entire interests in the Uganda Lake Albert Development Project.

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development Hon. Kitutu Mary Goretti Kimono welcomed the news. “This is a significant milestone in Uganda’s Oil and Gas Sector and is a critical development that takes the sector towards the Final Investment Decision (FID) that the country

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is waiting for. FID is expected to bring an investment of over USD20 Billion” she observed.

Mr. Robert Kasande the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development acknowledged that the government and the oil companies have principles agreed on the tax treatment of the transaction.

He further noted that the government has received the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) from the oil companies which is being reviewed to facilitate grant of the neæssary approvals and conclusion of the transaction.

The government is also aware of the preemption rights of CNOOC Uganda Ltd.

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COUNTRY REPORT

Namibia Diversifying its Energy Sector for Sustainable Economic Growth

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amibia is largely a consuming country, it is working to grow its upstream industry, improve energy security through diversifying its energy mix.

In achieving this, the country is looking forward to collaborating with the private sector to review its policies in order to attract further investment.

With the recently introduced reforms in Namibia’s renewable energy sector and the growing presence and entry of international oil companies entering the hydrocarbons sector, the Ministry of Mines and Energy is optimistic about the country’s energy future.

During a webinar hosted by the African Energy Chamber in partnership with Africa Oil & Power, Namibia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Hon. Tom Alweendo said: “There are very positive and encouraging signs when we talk about the hydrocarbons sector. We have had a couple of investors that are keen on entering the market and potentially finding something. On the renewable energy sector, we have been able to introduce some reforms that have made it possible for independent power producers to come into the sector and produce clean energy, especially through solar and wind."

Hon. Tom Alweendo, Namibia’s Minister of Mines and Energy

Liberia Auctions Oil Blocks Online Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

On other key projects, Minister Alweendo said the 37,500 bpd barge-mounted refinery in Walvis bay was due to finalize in March this year but, was deterred by the pandemic.

Despite this, the ministry is exploring other avenues in order to reach completion on the $370 million project by the end of 2020.

The Angola-Namibia cross border Baynes hydroelectric dam is currently undergoing feasibility studies and is planned to commence with construction in June this year. The 600MW output will be split in 300MW for Angola and 300MW for Namibia.

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he Liberian Government is seeking interest from companies on participating in the offshore licence round, which was open since April 10, 2020. But, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has decided to move the bidding rounds online in order to restrict coronavirus transmission.

Early this year, President Dr. George M. Weah announced the opening of the entire Harper Basin. The President said that the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA), will open up the entire Harper Basin at the next Licensing Round and Nine (9)

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offshore blocks will be put up, allowing competent and reputable local, international oil and gas companies to bid with the hope of recommencing exploration programs, following years of inactivity.

The country has 33 blocks in the offshore, with 24 blocks in the Liberia Basin and nine in the Harper Basin. The licence round will be focused on the nine blocks of the Harper Basin, Weah said in his state of the nation address in January. Nine blocks will be on offer in the Harper Basin, one of the last unexplored and undrilled regions offshore West Africa: LB-25, LB26, LB-27, LB-28, LB-29, LB-30, LB-31, LB-32, LB-33.

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