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Oil Theft: NNPCL, security agencies destroy barge loaded with stolen crude

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has destroyed a barge loaded with stolen crude.

The NNPCL in a statement said the barge destruction was carried out in collaboration with private security contractors and government security agencies on Saturday.

A barge refers to a flatbottomed inland waterway vessel used to transport goods or petroleum products on waterways.

The NNPCL noted that the operators of the barge were arrested in December 2022.

“The barge, named MT Brighton 1, which was loaded with stolen crude, was apprehended in one of the creeks running into the Ramos River in Agge Community, a border village between Delta and Bayelsa states,” it said.

The statement added that the security intervention team demolished a filling station, named Blessed Corporate Oil & Gas Services Ltd in Opete, Warri, Delta State, for allegedly being in the custody of trucks laden with stolen crude and discharging the illegal content into its underground storage tanks.

In recent years, Nigeria has recorded a surge in oil theft incidents in its oil-producing region, a development that had worsened the nation’s revenue challenge.

In a bid to curb crude oil theft, the Nigerian government launched an application in August last year to monitor cases of theft.

The NNPC also awarded a multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract to a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Government Tompolo.

President Buhari promises to support Burundi with petroleum products

Abubakar Yunus Abuja

As Nigerians continue to battle the ripple effect of fuel scarcity, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, promised fuel delivery assistance to Burundi.

Mr Buhari made the promise at the State House on Tuesday while hosting the special envoy of the president of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye.

According to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the president pledged that in the spirit of African solidarity and brotherliness, Nigeria will support the Republic of Burundi in diverse ways as necessary.

The Nigerian president thereafter promised to support the Burundian people with fuel supply.

“On request for assistance in the area of energy provision, particularly fuel, by the Burundi leader, President Buhari said he knows what it feels like for a country to suffer from energy shortage, and promised that he would get the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to look into the request,” the statement said.

In his speech, Audace Niyonzima, Minister of Finance, Budget, and Economic Planning of Burundi, said the Burundian president sent goodwill for the New Year to Nigerians and Mr Buhari. He also wished the country well in the general elections scheduled for February and March.

“We pray that the polls would be peaceful and successful so that Nigeria would maintain her reputation as a bastion of peace and stability,” the Special Envoy said.

Mr Buhari made the promise as Nigerians continue to face an energy crisis that has thrown households into darkness and crippled businesses across the country.

In recent years, fuel scarcity worsened in Nigeria, causing queues at filling stations and leaving millions unable to fuel their cars and generators.

In recent months, especially since the government announced plans to remove fuel subsidy, Nigerians have had a hard time getting petroleum products at filling stations.

The scarcity has persisted despite the government’s repeated claims it had enough petroleum products in stock.

In many parts of Nigeria, operators of filling stations where petroleum products were available, sold at prices higher than the government’s pump price.

In December, in a bid to help alleviate the stress faced by Nigerians daily, the State Security Service in December issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and fuel marketers to resolve the ongoing petroleum scarcity in the country.

The secret police said it would “commence operations” around the country if the problem persisted after two days.

But the threats notwithstanding, fuel scarcity persisted as motorists and other end-users continue to lament scarcity of petroleum products even during festive periods.

Presidential Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tunubu, APC Governor’s and Other stakeholders, during the Party’s Presidential Campaign Rally, at Sani Abacha Stadium, yesterday in Kano.

Elon Musk’s Starlink begins preorder sales in Nigeria

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

Elon Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet service, has announced the prices for its starter kits as preorder sales begin in Nigeria.

Starlink made the announcement in a statement seen by Peoples Daily on Thursday.

The development follows the company’s plans to roll out and expand its services to Nigeria this year.

According to the statement, interested customers can preorder the starter kits at the price of $600 (N438,000 at the current parallel market exchange rate) for the hardware.

Starlink also said customers will pay $43 (N31,390) per month for subscriptions to its services.

“Order now to reserve your Starlink. Starlink expects to expand service in your area (Nigeria) in 2023. You will receive a notification once your Starlink is ready to ship,” the statement said.

“$43/month for service and $600 for hardware.”

Meanwhile, after the journalist tried to make a preorder, it was learnt that customers who buy at this time will receive notifications via emails on the status of their shipments.

The notification reads thus: “Starlink is currently limited in your area and hopes to expand service soon. The timeline for service availability is dependent on regulatory approval. You will be notified via email prior to shipment once your Starlink is ready.”

“You will have seven days to confirm your order otherwise your deposit will be automatically cancelled and fully refunded.”

In 2021, Peoples Daily reported that the company, which saw Nigeria as a critical market, was in talks with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to secure licences needed to launch.

One year later, Elon Musk, SpaceX founder, announced that Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service, has been approved in Nigeria.

According to SpaceX, Starlink was launched as a low-earth orbiting (LOE) constellation of satellites to provide low latency, high bandwidth internet to consumers across the globe.

A low latency network connection is one that generally experiences small delay times, while bandwidth refers to the amount of information that a connection to the internet can handle at a given time.

Starlink internet is said to work by sending information through the vacuum of space, where it travels much faster than in the fiber-optic cable.

The internet service was slated to commenced operations in Nigeria by the end of last year but was stalled by regulatory constraints.

In July, 2022, Musk had revealed via Twitter that Starlink would become active in Nigeria in August 2022, going further to ask potential users to begin ordering the starter kits at $99.

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NNPC: Niger, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe have oil prospects

By Abubakar Yunusa

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) says it is taking coordinated steps for more frontier exploration across the north.

The company said this in a document, on the frontier exploration services activities of NNPC from 2020 to 2022.

According to the document, some prospective states where oil is expected to be discovered include Niger, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Gombe states.

Beyond the north, the Anambra basin was listed as another area where the NNPC is striving to find more oil.

Prospecting is the first stage in discovering oil and gas field, under which seismic surveys are carried out.

Here are highlights of exploration activities by Nigeria’s oil company in two years.

The NNPC document showed that 2D seismic acquisition has been completed at the 700 line kilometre (LKM) in Sokoto basin, where crop compensation payment has been completed.

According to NNPC, postacquisition has reached 70 percent on the 600 LKM in Bida basin, while acquisition activities have been suspended on the southern Chad basin, due to undisclosed circumstances.

To ensure the continuation of activities on the southern Chad basin, it said security clearance was received from the defence headquarters on November 7, 2022.

NNPC said it also requested for a waiver from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for environmental impact assessment (EIA) to commence operations in the aforementioned basin.

Meanwhile, for the oil prospecting licence (OPL) 813A 3D in southern Chad basin, post-acquisition was at 65 percent completion.

In Nasarawa state, the NNPC document revealed that the 86km2 Keana west 3D seismic data was fully acquired but post-acquisition activities was yet to commence.

The NNPC said it is prospecting for oil in phase 13 in Wadi, Yobe state, where a 168km2 likely area is being appraised.

In Adamawa, it noted that it is on phase 14 of Kinasar prospect, spanning 170km2 as well as phase 15 of Ziye prospect, spanning 172km2 all in the Borno basin, adding that both prospects have been completely assessed for security risk.

In addition, it said while the contract agreements for phases 13 and 14 have been executed, that of phase 15 is yet to be executed.

Highlighting the progress made in the drilling of prospective well sites, the national oil firm said it has reached the drilling stage for six sites in the frontier basins.

Gas distributors seek private sectorled industry to unlock new investment

The association of local distributors of gas (ALDG) in Nigeria says government’s regulation of tariffs in the sector has continued to hinder new investment in the industry.

Joseph Ezigbo, chairman, board of ALDG and managing director of Falcon Corporation Limited, said this in the latest edition of the association’s publication.

Ezigbo also noted that since the federal government failed to fund the much-discussed “decade of gas”, the private sector must be encouraged to take the lead.

He said the Nigerian gas industry is plagued with many challenges, including legacy issues and unfolding ones, due to the current state of the industry and the impact of global events.

“Infrastructure is and has remained a key challenge. Nigeria has a gross inadequacy of gas infrastructure, and we are not seeing new investments coming into the space. There are, of course, many reasons behind this,” Ezigbo said.

“A key issue is tariff regulation. Regulated gas price limits investors’ confidence in the commercial viability of projects. The government still regulates the domestic price of natural gas, an act that many industry players say promotes inefficiency as pegged prices are not reflective of actual costs.

“The tariffs must be cost reflective and accommodate acceptable investor returns, and in this regard, the market must be allowed to determine the acceptable and competitive tariff levels that encapsulate value chain cost from production, processing, transportation, and distribution.”

Ezigbo also said the cost and tenure of gas infrastructure funding, if any, are also a major constraint, with local financing institutions struggling to provide the quantum and tenure of funding required.

The ALDG president said Nigeria’s financial landscape needs to evolve towards a country that has access to long-term and single-digit local currency credit, as its gas infrastructure is extremely capital intensive.

Under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), he said the implementation of the midstream and downstream gas infrastructure fund (MDGIF) and other gas infrastructure development incentives are key to unlocking investments in the domestic natural gas market.

Ezigbo said the right way forward is to bring the private sector into the ownership of the ‘decades of gas’ programme pursued by the federal government.

“One clear thing is that the government does not have the resources, nor is its structure aligned enough to ensure continuity and timely delivery of the objectives of the programme,” he said.

“The government needs to allow for the gravitating toward a completely private sector-driven industry where its role remains at the level of oversight of the PIA provisions and its attendant regulations.

“Where the country is today and the many socio-economic headwinds we are grappling with, we need the private sector efficiency and capacity to come to play and enable the industry to move forward at a much faster pace.”

According to Ezigbo, the liquidity crunch in the gas-to-power value chain remains a huge concern, with the mounting debts as gas suppliers continue to suffer from payment defaults and liquidity constraints that erode investors’ confidence.

This is a major problem for the gas sector given that power offtakes the bulk of gas delivered into the domestic market, he said.

“There are many attendant challenges stemming from the general micro and macro environment, amongst which are inflation, insecurity, human capacity constraints, and so on, which also have implications for gas development in Nigeria,” Ezigbo explained.

“These notwithstanding, several opportunities exist for potential players to fully harness as enabled by the PIA.”

He added that opportunities exist for potential investors to play in domestic liquefied natural gas (DLNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), auto gas/natural gas vehicle (NGV), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), wholesale gas trading and natural gas distribution.

L-R: Vice Presidential Candidate of APC, Senator Kashim Shettima, Presidential Candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tunubu, APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, deputy Governor of Kano state, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna and Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Simon Bako Lalong, during the Presidential Campaign Rally at Sani Abacha Stadium yesterday in Kano.

LCCI to FG: Sustain interventions in manufacturing, insecurity for steady economic growth in 2023

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the federal government to sustain its targeted interventions in selected critical sectors like agriculture, tackling insecurity, and freeing more money from subsidy payments to ensure economic growth in 2023.

The chamber gave charge in a statement signed by Chinyere Almona, director general, LCCI.

In the statement, titled ‘the LCCI new year statement on the economy 2023,’ the body projected that sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, transport, telecommunications, and trade will be major drivers of economic growth.

It said the aforementioned sectors would deliver a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate above 3 percent in 2023, higher than the 2 percent recorded in 2022.

“In 2023, we expect to see growth in sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, transport, telecommunications, and trade. With Nigeria having the third largest subscriber base in Africa (after South Africa and Egypt), the telecoms sub-sector is expected to record growth above the 10.1 percent achieved in the third quarter (Q3) 2022 driven by the growing deployment of payment service banks (PSB) by the telcos, increase in subscribers using more telcos’ services, and the expected innovation coming with the launch of the 5G technology,” the statement reads.

“The government needs to be more sensitive to the regulation of the ICT sector to promote growth and support private sector operations.

“In 2023, government’s intervention through targeted financing support to the agro sector can boost agricultural production, create jobs, and lower the spiking food inflation that has been responsible mainly for the rising headline inflation all through 2022.

“The manufacturing sector which suffered headwinds such as scarcity of forex for import of inputs, weakened consumer demand due to weak purchasing power, high energy cost, logistical challenges, policy uncertainties, and harsh regulatory environment in 2022, may likely record a growth in the sector away from the negative growth of -1.9 percent it recorded as at third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

“With lowering imports due to forex scarcity, local manufacturing could rev up in growth to meet the growing unmet local demand for hitherto imported finished products.”

LCCI, however, stated that the expected growth would only happen if the government would address current issues like rising inflation, scarcity of forex, high energy costs, high-interest rates, and logistics challenges due to insecurity in most parts of the country.

Speaking on fuel subsidy, the chamber projected that removal by the new administration might bring some shocks to the economy in the short-term with the possibility of adjusted pricing and demand in response to market forces in the long run.

However, it said “the Dangote refinery coming into operations by mid-year will boost production levels and support growth in the manufacturing sector”.

“Nevertheless, the contribution of manufacturing to GDP may fall from the 8.2 percent recorded during the third quarter of 2022 unless the government takes urgent and targeted financing support to critical productive infrastructure in the country,” it added.

LCCI said in 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria in response to the spiraling inflation rate, deployed a tightening monetary policy to stabilise prices.

It said the rates rose from 11.5 percent in January and peaked at 16.5 percent in November 2022.

“This is expected to rise further during the monetary policy committee meeting in January to 17 percent to curb the persistent inflation and prevent capital flight,” it said.

“The chamber had earlier recommended that rate hikes alone would not curb inflation except the real factors like food supply disruptions, high energy cost, scarcity of forex, and the security challenges around agricultural production locations that have fueled low production and high logistics cost.

“In 2023, we need fiscal interventions to support strategic sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, transport logistics, and more allocation of forex to productive sectors.”