Sweetcrude Weekly Feburuary 13, 2019

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ews Wires -- Despite the oil market glut and a collapse in charter rates for oil tankers, experts see a turn around in the market and good times for the tanker charter business.

The shipping industr y ’s prospects are actually turning a little more bullish, reports Bloomberg, quoting analysts.

The analysts’ optimism stems from a conviction that

Oil tanker market shrugs off concerns, remains bullish the world’s refineries will have to process more crude in order to supply ships with new kinds of fuel in 2020 under rules set out by the Inter national Maritime Organization, IMO. On top of that, reports said, historic trade flows are at risk of disruption as the Organization of t h e Pe t r o l e u m E x p o r t i n g

Countries, OPEC, and allied producers curb output of one type of crude at a time when American drillers boost supplies of another.

“Despite the latest meltdown, we remain bullish about the tanker market mainly because we believe IMO 2020 requirements will push for oil

production growth, which will support freight rates” from the second half of this year, said Espen Fjermestad, an analyst at Fearnley Securities AS in Oslo. “Refineries will need to increase runs to meet increased demand.”

The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, a wide measure of charter rates mostly for moving crude, has

plunged almost 30 percent in the past three months. OPEC and allied producers agreed late last year that they would cut more than 200 million barrels of total output through June -- large portion of which would normally be delivered by sea.

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A Review Of The Nigerian Energy Industry facebook.com/sweetcrudereports

WEEKLY

February 13, 2019

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UU PP D D A A TT EE SS WEEKLY BASKET PRICE FEB-08 FEB-01 JAN-25 JAN-18 JAN-11 JAN-04 DEC-28 DEC-21 DEC-14 DEC-07 NOV-30 NOV-23 NOV-16 Daily | Weekly | Monthly | Yearly

61.93 60.47 60.76 58.34 58.04 53.40 51.34 55.20 59.05 59.95 58.80 62.83 66.52

61.37U$

72 70

Oil rig, barrels and a road without electricity

68 66 64 62 60 58 54 52 50

NOV18

DEC18

JAN18

FEB19

Army destroy six illegal refineries in Rivers MKPOIKANA UDOMA

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ort Harcourt -- The Nigerian Army Sixth D i v i s i o n , Po r t Harcourt, says it has destroyed six illegal refineries in Bille, Degema Local Government Area, LGA, of Rivers State.

The Army said it has neutralised two mostwanted kidnappers in Southern Ijaw LGA in Bayelsa State, as well as clamped down on kidnappers and ar med robbers terrorising AhoadaWest axis of the East-West road.

Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, said troops currently were conducting aggressive confidence building and anti-pipeline

CONTINUES ON PAGE 02

Power outage forces drop in Nigeria's oil export volume L

agos -- A power outage at the Qua Iboe export facility in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, has forced a drop in Nigeria's crude oil loading and export volume.

Power went down at the export terminal operated

by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited - the ExxonMobil subsidiary - last week, causing a fall in Nigeria's export volume, oil differentials and the actual price of the nation's crude in the international market.

S p e c i f i c a l l y, t h e development has seen the pace of crude oil loading at the facility drop.

Loading to supertankers went down to about 25,000 barrels an hour instead of the normal rates of around 30,000 barrels per hour, according to Reuters.

As at the weekend, March loading for Qua Iboe crude was offered at a premium of between $1.80 and $1.90

a barrel above dated Brent, down from around $1.95 by Thursday last week and from around $2.15 at the start of last week, traders said.

An overhang of unsold cargoes also helped bring down prices of Bonny Light and Qua Iboe which had been indicated at more than $2 a barrel above dated Brent throughout February.

The oil trading company Vitol sold a cargo of Qua Iboe, though, according to Reuters, the identity of the buyer was not immediately clear.

Spanish oil major Cepsa was reported to have bought a cargo of Usan from Chevron.

Before the report of the power failure at the Qua Iboe terminal, Nigeria's oil grades were said to have been doing

well in the market.

It was gathered that demand for Nigeria's oil was on the high side as cargoes for March was almost sold out.

Market reports as at Tuesday, indicated that less than five cargoes were left as a result of high demand by European refiners.

Shell denies frustrating Bayelsa community over oil spill compensation MKPOIKANA UDOMA

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ort Harcourt -- The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, has denied that it is frustrating a negotiation for the payment of compensation to Aghoro community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, following the Trans Ramos Pipeline spills of May 17, 2018.

The company stated this while reacting to allegations raised by legal counsels to Aghoro community, accusing it of frustrating the compensation procedure for the oil spill.

Media Relations Manager, SPDC, Mr. Bamidele Odugbesan, told our correspondent that Shell was not in anyway frustrating the community's efforts to get redress.

"SPDC is not frustrating any post-JIV (Joint Investigative Visit) activities, including negotiation for the payment of compensation," Odugbesan said.

It will be recalled that on May 17, 2018, a leak on the Tr a n s R a m o s Pi p e l i n e spilled over 1,000 barrels of crude oil into Aghoro creeks.

The spill, which occurred at

CONTINUES ON PAGE 02

SWEETCRUDE WEEKLY, 13, FEBRUARY, 2019

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02

Oil tanker market shrugs off concerns, remains bullish

Oil

Eni adds 13,000b/d to Angola's oil output

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ews Wires -Multinational company Eni has launched a new production well in the Vandumbu field offshore Angola, the Italian oil and gas company has announced.

The start-up of the VAN-102 well, located about 217 miles (350 kilometres) northwest of Luanda and 80 miles (130 kilometres) west of Soyo in the West Hub of Block 15/06 offshore Angola, achieved a performance of 13,000 barrels.

VAN-102 is a step further in developing the Vandumbu field and will be completed in first quarter 2019 with the start-up of the water injection

Eni platform well.

In December 2018, Eni started oil production in the Vandumbu field.

The start-up of the VAN-102 well together with the start-up of another production well in the Mpungi field will bring Block 15/06’s production to a

Baru total of 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Block 15/06 is developed by a joint venture formed by Eni who is a 36.84 percent operator, Sonangol P&P (36.84 percent) and SSI Fif teen Limited (26.32 percent).

Gas Lack of commitment responsible for unending gas flaring – Owan, others IKE AMOS

Mr. Ransome Owan

L

agos —Former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Mr. Ransome Owan, and other experts have blamed lack of commitment for the inability of the country to tackle the issue of

Power

gas flaring.

The pioneer NERC chairman and the experts made this assertion in Abuja at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, NIPS. Owan disclosed that gas flaring persists in Nigeria because the countr y has not made a commitment to ending the infraction and noted that a major factor promoting gas flaring was the absence of the requisite infrastructure to harvest gas in most of the oil fields in the country.

Owan added that Nigeria had not been able to effectively utilise the West African Gas Pipeline to evacuate gas to Ghana and other countries along the pipeline, arguing that this might negatively affect the country’s quest to supply gas to Europe through the proposed Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project.

Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Dayo Adeshina, Programme Manager, National Liquefied Petroleum Gas Expansion Plan, lamented that there was a huge disparity in Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, supply in Nigeria.

According to him, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, currently supplies LPG to three main terminals in Lagos, while the majority of LPG consumed in the country was transported to remote locations through roads by trucks.

He called for the setting up of the necessar y infrastructure to deepen LPG penetration across the country, thereby, promoting gas utilisation.

On the contrary, Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Saidu Mohammed, argued that gas producers and pipeline operators were committed to ending gas flaring by boosting gas supply.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01 Undeterred, shipping analysts surveyed by Bloomberg have, since early November, raised their forecasts for what every class of mainstream crude carrier will earn this year.

Two of the tanker-market’s biggest pureplay stocks -Euronav NV and Frontline Ltd. -are overwhelmingly dominated with buy recommendations.

Very large crude carriers, also known as VLCCs, will earn $29,200 a day in 2019, analysts’ estimates compiled by B l o o m b e r g s h o w. T h a t

compares with $28,200 a day that they predicted in early November. The vessels’ average earnings slumped to $15,561 a day last year, the lowest since at least 2009, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd. The freight market will benefit from IMO 2020 later this year, say firms including Clarksons Platou and Evercore ISI. The measures, designed to limit sulfur emissions, are expected to boost the amount of crude being processed because refineries will need to make more diesellike fuels.

Shell denies frustrating Bayelsa community over oil spill compensation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

an oilfield operated by SPDC, had impacted and polluted an estimated area of 113.03 hectares.

A Joint Investigation Visit report of the incident had concluded that the leaks on the pipeline occurred at three spots and were caused by equipment failure.

But, the community had recently alleged that SPDC was frustrating the community's efforts to get redress following established templates of computing spill compensation rate based on volume of spill and damage assessment.

Legal consultant to the community, Furoebi Akene, in a letter to the Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, had claimed that officials of SPDC were frantically trying to breach scientific procedure in spills response.

Akene, who is the Principal Partner, FASF Associates, said rather than await the outcome of a joint post impact and damage assessment being carried out by regulators, SPDC officials were foisting a negotiation method on the people before the assessment report.

Army destroy six illegal refineries in Rivers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 01

vandalism patrols in its area of responsibility.

Iliyasu explained that the destruction of the six illegal refineries and the clamp down on kidnappers and armed robbery suspects in Bayelsa and Rivers states took place between February 5 and 6. " Tr o o p s d e p l o y e d t o checkmate anti illegal oil bunkering activities at the 29 B a t t a l i o n Ta c t i c a l Headquarters, Bille, in Degema LGA Rivers State in conjunction with other security agencies on

February 5th 2019, discovered and destroyed six illegal refineries in the area.

"The team also impounded an empty barge suspected to be used in carrying illegally refined products around the area," he said.

Iliyasu also said troops conducted a sting operation following an intelligence report on the criminal activities of armed robbers and kidnappers in Ahoada West and along the East-West Road and its environs which has disrupted free flow of activities in the area.

Eko Disco marketers now field representatives OPEOLUWANI AKINTAYO

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agos -- Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, says its marketers tasked with the role of door-to-door revenue collection would henceforth be known as Eko Field Representatives, EFR. Mr. Godwin Idemudia, General Manager, Corporate Communications of EKEDC, disclosed in Lagos that the name change was due to the ongoing

reorientation of staff members.

According to him, the development signified the dawn of a new era of staff ’s dedication to ensuring customer satisfaction.

Idemudia said the wide orientation was one of several efforts to improve its services and fulfill its duty to customers while safeguarding the interests of the company.

He went further to explain that the reorientation includes etiquette training, customer

relationship management, legal knowledge, and business performance skills, to mention a few.

“Some of our esteemed customers have bad perceptions about our field officers due to one unpleasant experiences.

“However, steps have been taken to reduce these unpleasant experiences and curb illicit practices to ensure the success of this initiative.

“It is pertinent that our

customers view these field officers in a new light, thus a name of change is needed to usher them into the new era," he said.

The EKEDC spokesman said the roles of the field representatives remain reading customers meters, bill generation, revenue collection, customer interaction, and taking load inventory, amongst others.

Mr. Godwin Idemudia

SWEETCRUDE WEEKLY, 13, FEBRUARY, 2019

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Power

Investment opportunities for discussion at Powering Africa Summit 2019 OPEOLUWANI AKINTAYO

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agos -- Investors from across North America, Africa, and Europe will gather in Miami, United States, between February 25 and 27, to discuss energy projects and investment opportunities, and build relationships in the international power community.

The event is the Powering Africa Summit 2019 organised

by EnergyNet Limited, an international organisation that facilitates energy conferences and investment drive.

It hold at JW Marriott Miami,

and will be co-located with the third Latin American Energy Forum, LAEF. The summit will present an opportunity to engage and network with senior decision makers from professional services, financial institutions, developers, gover nment’s representatives, technology providers, law firms, nongovernmental organisations, and distribution companies.

According to the organisers, the event will provide answers to pressing questions challenging businesses in Africa while participants will meet with some of the solution

providers behind many of Africa’s and Latin America’s energy projects.

The Senior Marketing E x e c u t i v e , Pa r t n e r s h i p s , EnergyNet, Monique Bonnick, said: “Powering Africa Summit 2019 will address the needs of Latin America’s evolving energy sector as well as exploring the evolution of the region’s energy mix and the role of gas in supporting the increased use of nonconventional renewable.

Investors from North America, Africa, and Europe are expected to present energy projects, discuss investment opportunities and build relationships within the international power community.”

Electricity sub-station “The summit will host case studies and exclusive presentations on the Cerro Dominador 210mw solar project in the Atacama Desert in Chile by the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Fernando Gonzalez and ‘Waste-to-energy: a niche in

the energy mix’ by Wieland F. Uchdorf, Facility Engineer, Resources Recovery Facility, Department of Solid Waste Management, Miami-Dade Country,” she also said.

Finance

Venezuela shifts oil ventures' accounts to Russian bank

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ews Wires -Venezuela’s staterun oil company PDVSA is telling customers of its joint ventures to deposit oil sales proceeds in an account recently opened at Russia’s Gazprombank AO. This is according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters.

PDVSA’s move comes after the United States imposed

Gazprombank

Labour

tough, new financial sanctions on Januar y 28 aimed at blocking Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s access to the country’s oil revenue.

Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader and selfproclaimed interim president Juan Guaido said recently that a fund would be established to accept proceeds from sales of Venezuelan oil.

The United States and dozens of other countries have recognised Guaido as the nation’s legitimate head of

Number of contributors to Nigeria's pension funds hits 8.4m SAM IKEOTUONYE

L

agos -- The National Pension Commission or PenCom says the number of contributors to Nigeria's pension fund has grown to 8.41 million.

Ms Aisha Da hir- U ma r, PenCom's Acting DirectorGeneral, disclosed this at the public hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee in Abuja.

The committee is mandated to investigate activities of Pe n C o m a n d a l l e g e d violation of Acts establishing it.

Dahir-Umar, who

announced that the total pension fund assets have grown to N8.63 trillion as at December 2018, said the fund had an average monthly contribution of N29.15 billion, while the total pension assets were equivalent to 7.40 per cent of the Nigerian re-based GDP. She said that the number of registered contributors grew to 8.41 million as at December 2018.

According to her, this figure represents about 12.09 per cent of Nigeria’s working population and 4.29 per cent of total Nigeria population.

She said that the

C o n t r i b u t o r y Pe n s i o n Scheme, CPS, had simplified the process of payment of retirement benefits through the issuance of effective regulations and guidelines for accessing such benefits.

Dahir-Umar also disclosed that 260,808 persons had retired under the Scheme as at December 2018 and were currently receiving pensions as and when due with an average monthly pension payment of N10.18 billion.

“To date, about 200,000 private sector employers of labour are implementing the CPS and have contributed about 60 per cent of the total

pension fund assets," she also disclosed.

Ms. Aisha Dahir-Umar

state. Maduro has denounced Guaido as a U.S. puppet seeking to foment a coup.

PDVSA also has begun pressing its foreign partners holding stakes in joint ventures in its key Orinoco Belt producing area to formally decide whether they will continue with the projects, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks.

The joint venture partners include Norway’s Equinor ASA, U.S.-based Chevron Corp, and France’s Total SA. “We would like to make formal your knowledge of new banking instructions to make payments in U.S. dollars or euros,” wrote P D V S A’ s f i n a n c e v i c e president, Fernando De Quintal, in a letter dated February 8 to the PDVSA unit that supervises its joint ventures.

SWEETCRUDE WEEKLY, 13, FEBRUARY, 2019

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Freight

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Master mariners move to rid industry of quacks

L

agos -- The Masters Mariners Association, MMA, is making plans to sanitise the industry and rid it of quacks masquerading as captains and mariners, president of association, Captain Tajudeen Aloa, has revealed.

Aloa disclosed this in a statement, in which he also lamented that the nation's upcoming general elections have slowed down activities in the maritime industry.

According to him, ridding the industry of quacks would ensure efficiency of the

system and safeguard the image and integrity of professional captains and mariners.

Aloa decried the loss the industry was suffering from the shut down resulting from the general elections, saying such was not good for the sector, where key positions in parastatals and agencies were being occupied by politicians.

"At this period, the political parties are having political campaigns and rallies in p r e p a r a t i o n f o r elections…There is no leadership, their

Captain Tajudeen Aloa

concentration is on being relevant politically," he said.

Aloa called on the Federal Government to established a national shipping company and appoint experienced people, who understand the shipping business, into strategic positions to manage it.

The master mariner also advised that since the country does not own new ships and lacked the wherewithal to acquire new ships, removing waivers to oil companies should be carried out in phases.

Community

Ogoni: HYPREP handover of 16 sites to contractors, ‘monumental fraud' - ERA MKPOIKANA UDOMA

P

ort Harcourt -- The Environmental Right Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has described the recent handover of 16 oil-polluted sites in Ogoniland by the H y d r o c a r b o n Po l l u t i o n R e m e d i a t i o n Pr o j e c t , HYPREP, to contractors for remediation, as a monumental fraud.

H Y P R E P, t h e Fe d e r a l Government agency r e s p o n s i b l e f o r implementing the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, Report on Ogoniland, had one month

ago handed over 16 polluted sites - tagged as less complex sites - in Ogoni to contractors to commence remediation.

But, the Executive Director of ERA, Dr. Godwin Ojo, at the media stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt, argued that the exercise is a monumental fraud, as it will be impossible to carryout any form of remediation in Ogoniland without the setting up of an Integrated Contamination Soil Management Centre and a Centre of Excellence as recommended by UNEP. Ojo, who highlighted HYPREP deviation from UNEP recommendations for the cleanup of Ogoniland,

regretted that up till date HYPREP has not really defined its role in the exercise, adding that HYPREP was yet to provide water which UNEP recommended as emergency measure.

While unveiling 100 community independent monitors, trained and equipped by ERA to provide qualitative and scientific progress reports on the cleanup process when it begins, Ojo urged the Federal Ministry of Environment and HYPREP to be transparent in the cleanup of Ogoniland.

"The multiple claims that contractors have mobilized to site and that cleanup has

Oil polluted water in Ogoniland commenced is false as there is no visible sign of contractors going by reports from our independent field monitors who are closely monitoring the process and were there this week.

"The discovery is unfortunate,

SPDC celebrates senior citizens in host communities

Shell platform

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ort Harcourt -- The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, has celebrated senior citizens in its land assets communities, which is made up of over 200 communities.

The event tagged, 'SPDC

Management Day Out with the Elderly in Land Hub Communities', started with free medical checkup for the senior citizens. There was also dance, jokes and lecture session as well as distribution of gift items and foodstuffs to the elderly people.

SPDC Asset Manager, Land Hub, Mr Sam Ezugworie, who disclosed that the event was in its third year, said it was imperative to celebrate and appreciate the elders and that it was not only when there was crises that they should be sought after.

Ezugworie explained that every community within Shell’s land asset in Nigeria was well represented at the event.

According to him, “This is an initiative we took three years ago, where we just pull out elders and key representatives from our neighbours and the areas where we operate to

EDITOR Chuks ISIWU

WEBSITE:

appreciate them.

“It is not only when we have problem that we run to them, it is good to also appreciate them when we don’t have problems, so that when we have problems either with our neighbours or stakeholders, we can easily go to them and with the goodwill that we have created, then they will be able to listen to us because indeed we truly care.”

Also, the Principal Environment Adviser, SPDC, Prof Eunice Nwachukwu, counselled the senior citizens on dangers of plastic pollution.

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false and fraudulent, why is the Federal government and its agent, HYPREP, playing with the emotions of concern persons across the world, Nigerians, the affected communities and people of Ogoniland?

"HYPREP should stop the deceit and get serious with the people with the commencement of the implementation of the emergency measures which includes, the provision of potable water, building of the livelihood measures, the construction of the centre of excellence and the Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre, ICSMC, before the cleanup exe r c i s e p r o p e r, a s recommended by the UNEP report," he said.

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