Category: Energy

It’s not yet certain why there has been continued delay in project approvals in the oil and gas industry. It is often attributed to the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). But an expert insists that non-passage of the bill should not be the reason the government cannot carry out periodic bid rounds, AMBROSE NNAJI reports

Oil prospecting licence is granted by the Federal Government to a company or joint venture (licensee) to conduct extensive exploration activities, remove and dispose of commercially feasible petroleum discovered during prospecting.

A prospecting licence is granted for a period not exceeding five years to be determined by the Minister of Petroleum after the limited time it was granted. If the company has not discovered or performed its obligation, the licence will be resigned back to the government.

A lot of benefits are gradually being swept away in the oil industry by inefficiency, delays in project approvals including bid rounds and the fact that the environment is not conducive. Vandalisation is common, especially in the oil producing regions, with lots of money lost.

There are also community unrest as a result of the poor economy and mismanagement of oil proceeds. Therefore, the government has been advised to wake up to its responsibilities and ensure that project approvals are given on time because time is money.

The Director, Energy and Mineral Resources Limited (EMR), Seye Fadahunsi, who spoke with The Nation in Lagos, argued there should be licensing rounds, at least, every three to five years. Everything starts from licensing, which is the permit for you to explore, develop and produce. Once you there is no  licensing, people basically exploit what they have. There has to be licensing because it stimulates the industry, he insisted.

“When you have bid rounds and licensing rounds, new players will come in, more money also comes into the economy and it helps to grow business, that’s one thing nobody can understand why there’s no licensing round.

“Things have to be efficient, you cannot pay for a licence or farm-in or anything of that sort and you are waiting for years, the money you paid will be tied down and time is money, if that money was in the bank you will be earning interest; so you are eroding value,’’ he said.

Yes, approval processes of licences or licensing process is a challenge and there are things that have to come into play, whether marginal field, deep-water, divestments, among others. Things have to come on; new investors will be interested in seeing whether it’s of value and they will bring the money, he explained.

On passage of the industry bill, Fadahunsi said it shouldn’t be any reason for not granting bid licenses; the bill is a different issue entirely, he added.

“It’s like you are going to invest and you don’t know what will be the terms of engagements, you cannot even plan your cost and that’s the challenge. I think if you license and people live in uncertainty because the bill is not passed. They may not invest but you have to license first, not passing the bill will discourage investments that’s the challenge because nobody likes uncertainty,” he added.

“If you are not going to pass the bill just say so, it’s not a problem, ideally there should be room for review. But if you are not passing it, people will know you are not passing it, but if you are passing it pass it but when you don’t pass it and you are not saying you are not passing it people live in uncertainty and the business climate doesn’t like uncertainty,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Fadahunsi has expressed the need for the country and stakeholders to understand that new sources of energy were coming into the market that will compete with oil and gas. He said the sooner we started getting efficient way to exploit the resources the better, adding oil is not going to be there forever.

He also urged the press to be assertive in their reporting so as to influence policy, commend good performance and castigate poor performance. According to him their reporting must be fairly accurate and correct, otherwise, they lose credibility. The press is much more powerful than they realize, he added.

Mrs Audrey Joe-Ezigbo is the president of Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) and co-founder/executive director, Falcon Corporation, an indigenous oil and gas company. In this interview with EMEKA UGWUANYI on how natural gas has fared in Nigeria’s 59 years of independence, she says there is a difference from where we were as a country.

How do you assess the gas industry in Nigeria’s 59 years of independence?

The gas industry in Nigeria has come into its own. There was at time  gas was not recognised for its own merit as a critical resource for industrial development, but was rather seen as a nuisance byproduct of crude oil. Today, under the ambit of a dedicated National Gas Policy as was passed in June 2017, gas is recognised fully as an independent fiscal resource and industry in its own right.

Granted, it took us too long to come to this point and we have lost billions of dollars equivalent directly to gas flaring in the process, as well as other billions of dollars lost indirectly through the industrialisation and contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) that could have otherwise happened if the flared gas was channelled into productive use over the years.

We are here now, so it is important we also remain forward looking. I always say that rather than focusing on the things that didn’t work, being mindful of the lessons inherent therein, the greater imperative is for us to intentionally ramp us the pace and scale of gas development programmes and projects that will move our industry forward in a more strategic and focused manner.  Today we are also at the point where we see more of a focus on domestic in-country opportunities for gas development and utilisation, as distinct from where we were decades back where besides flaring the only other focused use for gas was as an export revenue earning resource. I believe it is clear now that the industry and nation recognise aas as the key to unlocking our economic potentials and overcoming a great many of the challenges that we currently face.

 How do you assess the prospects and challenges of the industry?

The gas industry is one that has a lot of challenges, no doubt. As the Nigerian Gas Association,  we have been speaking for years as to what some of these challenges are, from issues around sanctity of contracts, to the imperative to attract investments into the sector so as to deal with the gross infrastructural deficit that is affecting the ability of gas to be moved into productive activity across the nation, to the humungous illiquidity issues that are impacting on investments in the gas industry and particularly as a fallout of the power sector illiquidity issues, to the need for enhanced security. We have advocated extensively on the need for a reduction of government’s interventions in the sector and particularly with reference to pricing on tariffs and the need to allow for a ‘willing buyer-willing seller’market-led framework to evolve. We have advocated continuously for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to enable clarity as to the fiscal framework underpinning gas industry investments, and so much more. It is unfortunate that many of these same sets of challenges continued to buffet the industry.

That said, the gas industry is again one that has significant prospects, and I repeat that they’re prospects that have the potential to transform the landscape of economic development in Nigeria. It is a well proven fact that there is a correlation between the amount of natural gas that is used and consumed in-country and the level of economic development of any nation. Indeed, it is said that every $1 of gas that is consumed in-country contributes an extra $3 to the GDP.

Opportunities abound for us to ramp up the pace of industrialisation in this country by building infrastructure to take gas across the country for use in power generation, as fuel and or feedstock in various gas-based industries, such as methanol plants and fertiliser plants. These industries allow us to create value addition and earn export revenue.

These industries also create thousands of jobs that can absorb a significant chunk of our teeming mass of unemployed youths, something that we need to be thinking through as a nation if we are to avoid what is clearly an impending social implosion.

There are opportunities for investment in pipelines, pipe mills in various midstream transportation, processing and storage facilities and in the transportation sector, among others. The huge infrastructure deficit, which we face also, constitutes a huge investment opportunity. The question is how attractive is the industry at this time and what kinds of signals are we sending to existing and potential investors in the sector? A lot of work needs to be done, that is for sure.

 What do you think are the requirements to move the gas industry forward?

Let me start my response from the last administration. In the last administration, we saw the articulation of the 7 Big Wins, the petroleum sector reform, with an emphasis relating to our industry specifically, that is Big Win 3, the Gas Revolution. Between Big Win 3 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), we saw clear articulation of government’s intention to use gas as an enabler for industrialisation, to achieve flares out, power sufficiency and energy security, among others. That said, what is clear is that if we are to move the industry forward, many things need to happen.

The government does not have the resources to deliver on the infrastructure investments required. Only private sector can do this. We need government to step out of its traditional price regulation mentality and allow for market-led pricing and competition. The industry cannot thrive if we don’t allow for sanctity of contracts. There must be discipline in this regard. We have to address the power sector liquidity and structure issues. We have to deal with the significant losses gas companies face as a result of their transacting in dollars at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Rate Fixing (NAFEX) and being paid in Naira at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate. We need for the government to stop making sectoral interventions without robust stakeholder consultation and rigorous analysis of how those interventions will impact on the rest of the value chain. And it is critical that the Petroleum Industry Bill is passed so that we are clear as to what the fiscal regimes underpin investments in the gas sector. These are just some of the things we need to deal with to make sure that by the next anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, we will have a better story to tell.

A subsidiary of the Bhojsons Group – Bhojsons Powerhub – one of the emerging power solution companies and sole distributor of Kirloskar Green, one of the best selling power generating sets, has unveiled the Kirloskar Remote Management System (KRM). The unveiling of Kirloskar Green generators with remote monitoring controls was held in Lagos, JENNIFER OKECHUKWU was there

A subsidiary of the Bhojsons Group – Bhojsons Powerhub – and sole distributor for Kirloskar Green generating sets has unveiled the Kirloskar Remote Management System (KRM) in Nigeria.

With the launch of the new technology, Kirloskar Green power generators with remote monitoring controls will become accessible to consumers.

The company also stated that the introduction of the 1,000 KVA range of the generator was to meet the growing demand for higher capacity generators. The new technology and 1,000 KVA range were launched at the Power Nigeria Exhibition at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

At the exhibition, the Business Unit Head, Bhojsons PowerHub, Rajneesh Gupta, noted that Kirloskar Remote Management (KRM) system offered a unique experience for users as it availed them the opportunity to real-time monitor of their generators. With the KRM, the end user or customer can monitor their generators across the country from “one room,” he said.

Gupta said the KRM technology was an innovation from Kirloskar Green, which gives users an edge by putting them in control of their generators. He said the system would enable organisations, especially large corporations with large number of generating sets in various locations, to monitor the use, performance and health of their generators in one control room, thereby ensuring efficiency, reducing costs and maximising productivity.

On the advantages of the KRM system, Managing Director, Bhojsons Plc, Vishant Dalamal, said: “Your generator will be used most efficiently as its health meter will always be at the finger tips making it possible to monitor the health from anywhere, the close monitoring will also help in reducing operating costs, thereby, guaranteeing a better return on investment and maximum productivity”.

Dalamal explained further that the new range of Kirloskar generators with the KRM has complete monitoring panel that has been designed to enable customers view all critical indicators on either the laptop screen or their mobile with an added advantage of receiving alarms for critical parameters of their Kirloskar generators.

On the technology, the Product Head, Bhojsons PowerHub, Balaji Thiruvenkatam, stated that KRM provides real time data of several critical parameters of the generator that include fuel level, engine oil pressure, battery monitoring, engine speed, generator run hours, voltage usage and routine maintenance. According to him, the KRM technology gives necessary indication or signal to end-users particularly when there is low fuel level, low lubricating oil pressure, fuel theft, engine speed, high engine temperature and low/high battery voltage. It sends real time alerts to your maintenance team, as well as our Bhojsons care team, if configured, to address the issues before they become critical.

Thiruvenkatam stated that the new 1,000 KVA range was designed to meet the yearnings of the customers obtained through deep customer feedback and market insights. “It is easily adapted to any configuration, such as standalone, interlocked, synchronised or grid connected. It is also built on globally renowned design and has patented winding design that helps withstand operating harsh conditions. Apart from that, it is quick and has affordable door step service coverage,” he added.

The Service Manager, Bhojsons Care, Naveen Joshi, said the company delivers 24×7 after sales service and support to its customers at their door step, emphasising that business has a Pan-Nigeria service network coverage. The company has trained engineers besides our own technical staff at our offices across the country to provide after-sale support or breakdown assistance to customers anytime anywhere.

By Agency Reporter

Ikeja Electric Plc has reassured customers of improved experience and commitment to providing exceptional service delivery.
In a statement by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Anthony Youdeowei, the Ikeja Electric brand stated it is driven by an endless desire and resolve to offer customers an extraordinary experience as the company will stop at nothing to ensure that each interaction across all its touch points culminates in something more for the customer.

“As a responsible customer centric organisation, we are determined to ensure that provision of quality, reliable and improved services to our esteemed customers remain our priority,” he said

Youdeowei said the 2019 Customer Service Week theme “The Magic of Service” underscores the company’s acknowledgement of the strategic importance of its customers, which according to him is the reason why Ikeja Electric will continue to creating sustainable initiatives that will foster improved customer services.

Read Also: Magodo residents praise Ikeja Electric for improved supply

At the Corporate headquarters in Alausa, the company used the opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate customers around, while customers were also provided the opportunity to share useful insights on their experience with the services of Ikeja Electric.

The Disco CEO also pointed out that the company has embarked on optimisation of its network for improved power supply while employees are also undergoing various training that ensures strict adherence to the company’s values for excellent service delivery.

The company recently commissioned its franchise centres at Olowora, Ikosi, Arepo, Bariga, Ketu and Ogudu as part of its strategy to extend its customer footprint and provide ease of access to services.