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Tag: Kachikwu

  • Kachikwu to speak at marginal field workshop

    Kachikwu to speak at marginal field workshop

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, will deliver a keynote address at the marginal oil field workshop/B2B matchmaking event on October 19th, 2017 at the Civic Centre in Lagos.

    The workshop is being convened by Businessday Media and Meiracopp Nigeria Limited (MNL).The Federal Government plans to farm-out dozens of marginal oil fields geared towards growing the participation of indigenous firms in the upstream sector. The forthcoming marginal oil field bid round is particularly strategic for a number of reasons, which underscores the anxious posture of both the oil and gas community in Nigeria and the Federal Government.

    The last major bid round was 14 years ago (in 2003), with several proposed award rounds that were deferred by past governments and which consequently heightened the anxiety.

  • Why Nigeria’ll resist oil cut, by Kachikwu

    Why Nigeria’ll resist oil cut, by Kachikwu

    • Fed Govt seeks exemption till March next year

    In another 10 days, Nigeria’s exemption from production quota will be reviewed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria. The Federal Government plans to plead with the cartel to grant it a seven-month grace to stabilise its oil production.

    NIGERIA will resist any attempt to curb its oil production, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has said.

    The minister spoke ahead of the countries meeting with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia before the end of the month.

    Nigeria and Libya, two members of the oil cartel enjoying exemption from oil production cut deal have been invited to an OPEC Committee meeting scheduled for September 22 in Vienna, Austria.

    But 10 days ahead of the meeting where the latest developments in the oil sectors of both countries would be reviewed, Kachikwu gave reasons Nigeria must not be told to cap its oil production quota.

    Kuwait’s Oil Governor Haitham al-Ghais told Al-Rai newspaper penultimate week that the oil cartel will be consulting with Nigeria and Libya to review the latest development in their oil sectors.

    He said the group will hold a technical committee meeting on September 20, looking at the continued effects of the United States (U.S.) shale oil on the global market and the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

    Ghais said: “The amount of production affected by the hurricane is estimated at 700,000bpd, which may strengthen the status of the market.”

    He added that U.S. production had increased by 500,000bpd so far this year, compared to last year’s.

    It was learnt that the September 20 meeting will be followed by another meeting on September 22, where a committee overseeing the deal, composed of oil ministers from Kuwait, Russia, Venezuela, Algeria, Oman and Saudi Arabia, would be in attendance.

    The Nigerian position may pose a threat to the cartel’s effort to cut global supplies and boost crude prices towards $60 a barrel. The price prices hovered around $54.42 yesterday.

    Kachikwu told the Financial Times that Nigeria’s energy sector was still suffering from years of violent disruptions and needed more “recovery time” before joining a supply deal agreed last year between some of the world’s biggest oil producers.

    The minister, who was at OPEC meetings, said in an interview, that Nigeria would not consider sealing its production until at least March next year.

    According to him, there has been no proof that the country’s rebound in production would last.

    “We have a nine-month exemption period within which to come back to the table,” Kachikwu said, referring to the decision to extend the near two million barrel a day supply cut deal from June.

    “You need that timeframe to see if any recovery is sustainable,” the minister explained.

    His stance puts Nigeria on a potential collision course with other OPEC members as the country’s output has rebounded strongly in the past 12 months, blunting the effectiveness of a deal between 24 countries to shave almost two per cent of global oil output.

    Nigeria and Libya were exempted from the cuts due to disruptions of oil production by militants in the Niger Delta. The agitations of the restive militants and the internal crisis in Libya, led to serious drop in oil output in both countries.

    However, productions have improved following negotiations with leaders from the region. The Pan Niger Delta Development Foundation (PANDEF) has been negotiating with the Federal Government as part of efforts to restore peace to the oil producing region.

    Nigeria’s production rose by 50,000 barrels a day in June, according to a Bloomberg survey.

    Abdulsamad Al-Awadhi, a London-based analyst and Kuwait’s former representative to OPEC, said capping Libya and Nigeria might help but would not cut the supply by much.

    Al-Awadhi said: “OPEC needs to have better compliance, and it must respect the right of Libya and Nigeria to go back to the market.

    “Other countries that raised output while Libya and Nigeria are out should do more and give space to these two countries to go back to the market.”

    The decision to grant Libya and Nigeria exemptions to production cuts was a collective decision, and any proposal to include them in OPEC’s plans will also require a joint decision, Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo told reporters at an event in Istanbul.

    OPEC and non-OPEC members agreed to cut oil production at its meeting in Austria on November 30 last year. The decision followed an agreement by OPEC members at a meeting in Algiers, Algeria on September 28 to limit supply with special conditions given to Libya, Nigeria and Iran, whose output has been hit by wars and sanctions.

    The agreement was tagged ‘Algiers Accord.’ The production cut agreement, which began January 1, compelled OPEC’s 14 members and 10 non-OPEC countries, led by Russia, to cut a combined 1.8 million bpd in output through March.

     

    Militants rescind threat

    A coalition of militants in the Niger Delta, who had previously vowed to attack oil and gas pipelines if their demands were not met by October 1, has agreed to rescind their threats on the fossil fuel infrastructure in the oil-bearing region.

    The Presidency held talks with the coalition last week, after which the group declared its loyalty to the PANDEF, which is negotiating with the Federal Government to increase the proportion of oil revenues used to develop the oil-rich delta.

    A statement by the group reads: “Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the coalition of Niger Delta agitators, which comprises over 250 groups with their leaders and representatives present at yesterday’s (last week) meeting, officially withdraw our quit notice issued to the Northerners and Yorubas living in Niger Delta region; call off planned resumption of attacks on oil and gas installations across the Niger Delta region and beyond from September 10, 2017; suspend the October 1, 2017 declaration of the Niger Delta Republic; declare support for the Pan Niger Delta Forum.

    “We have also resolved to work with PANDEF and give it our maximum support and we urge the federal government to continue a dialogue and implement the 16-point demand presented by PANDEF on behalf of the Niger Delta region.”

    The news of the rescinded threat came as foreign companies start reinvesting in Nigeria after a year of high militant activity in 2016.

    Shell has begun pumping natural gas from the second phase of development at the Gbaran-Ubie Niger Delta project at the end of last month. The gas from the expanded project will go to both the local market and export markets and will be transported via a new pipeline connecting the central processing facility at Gbaran-Ubie to a non-associated gas plant.

     

    Hurricane concerns

    Oil prices rose yesterday after OPEC forecast higher demand in 2018 and said its output fell in August.

    The cartel has agreed that its production-cutting deal with non-member countries could help reduce the global crude glut.

    In its monthly report, the OPEC also said the two hurricanes that hit the U.S. in recent weeks would have a “negligible” impact on demand.

    The market was assessing Hurricane Irma’s effect on demand, even as key refinery restarts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey boosted expectations for crude oil consumption.

    Weekly U.S. inventories data will shed light on the hurricanes’ impact. Analysts forecast crude inventories last week rose while products drew down.

    The American Petroleum Institute’s (API’s) data report was due last night and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports expected today.

    This week’s numbers might be incomplete indicators of the longer-term supply and demand outlook, said Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank.

    “Over the next two to three weeks, the EIA inventory numbers will be rather sloppy because you have production disrupted, refineries going offline and online,” he said, adding that OPEC figures are a better signal. “That’s why you have to look out further.”

    Brent crude LCOc1 rose 43 cents or 0.8 percent to $54.27 per barrel by 1:14 p.m. (1556 GMT). During the session it traded as low as $53.42.

    U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 was up 21 cents or 0.2 percent to $48.40 a barrel. It hit a session low of $47.73.

    Output by OPEC’s 14 member countries fell in August by 79,000 barrels per day (bpd) from July to 32.76 million bpd.

    Should OPEC keep pumping at August’s rate, the market would see a small supply deficit next year, versus a 450,000-bpd surplus implied by last month’s report.

    OPEC said inventories were falling and an increased premium of Brent crude for immediate delivery over that for later supplies raised hopes that the market was rebalancing.

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration said it expects U.S. crude oil production in 2018 to rise by more than previously expected.

    The agency forecast that 2018 crude oil output will rise 590,000 barrels per day to 9.84 million bpd. Last month, it expected a 560,000 bpd year-over-year increase to 9.91 million bpd.

     

  • Why we okayed $200m outlay from NCIF, by Kachikwu

    Why we okayed $200m outlay from NCIF, by Kachikwu

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who is also the chairman, Governing Council, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has said the inability of Nigerian oil firms to access funds from banks, at reasonable lending rates, necessitated the approval to disburse $200 million to such firms from the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund).

    Kachikwu said over the years, Nigerian companies have been finding it difficult to compete with their counterparts from jurisdictions where funding is accessible at five per cent or less, compared to our market where bank lending rates hover around 20 per cent, adding that the development hampers their productivity.

    According to him, some Nigerian banks are still unable to provide long-term financing required by the local supply chain to build needed capacity; the banks also lack sufficient knowledge of the oil and gas sector. The pedigree and operating model of the Bank of Industry (BOI) is expected to close this gap.

    It is as a result of BoI’s pedigree that the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement the $200 million NCI Fund. The MoU is significant for the oil and gas industry and the Nigerian economy because the NCI Fund has been long expected and will go a long way in addressing the funding challenges, which hamper the growth and success of indigenous manufacturers, service providers and other key players in the sector, he added.

    The Minister said: “It is a known fact that the exorbitant cost of funds in our market is partly responsible for the high cost of service delivery by Nigerian Oil and Gas Service Providers (NOSPs) and this feeds into the unacceptable high cost of our crude oil production.

    “At the SPE conference in Lagos recently, I directed all players in the oil and gas sector to work assiduously to cut the cost of producing a barrel of oil, which current stands at $32 per barrel. I am optimistic that the NCI Fund, which will be accessed at a single digit interest rate, with a tenor of five years, will help in this regard.

    “The NCI Fund is a portion of Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), which was established by Section 104 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and is drawn from one per cent of all contracts awarded in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

    “Although the Board began in 2012 to collect the funds, it has not been very successful with utilizing it to support the operations of indigenous service companies in the industry. This has created a lot of frustration among stakeholders who felt that the purpose of the NCDF was not being achieved.

    “The Governing Council of the Board, of which I am the Chairman, approved this transaction at our last meeting with an initial outlay of $200million. This is to ensure that a wide spectrum of NOSPs access the Fund. We are also desirous of catalyzing the growth and development of Nigerian Content in all its facets, including manufacturing, asset acquisition, contract financing and Contract financing for community contractors. The Governing Council’s approval is in keeping with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, which recognises access to cheap funds as a key enabler for industrialization.”

    He said NCDMB and BoI would leverage their respective strengths and track record of achievements to make the NCI Fund a resounding success and advised companies that will successfully access the NCI Fund to be diligent in utilisation and faithful in repayment. There is a tendency for companies to assume that it is free money and decide not to repay. To forestall this, NCDMB and BOI must adhere strictly to the detailed operating model, to ensure that only serious companies with bankable business plans and prospects of repayments access the funds, he added.

  • Buhari, Kachikwu And The Feeling Of Fulfillment

    I sat transfixed on my chair, as the hall erupted into a rapturous mood, when the recipient of this particular award, bowed his head twice before the cream of dignitaries staring at him. And a voice vibrating in stillness, howled; “I dedicate this award to President Muhammadu Buhari for giving me the opportunity to contribute my quota in serving my country and to my team.” The noticeably adorable simplicity, humility and frankness were potent tools to disarm the most hardened of hearts and strike instant admiration.

    The awardee was Nigeria’s Minister of state for Petroleum Resources’ and Chairman Board of Directors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), the effervescent and perpetually fabulous Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. In the short poetic remarks, the feeling of fulfillment and recognition of team work assailed my senses. I felt in Dr. Kachikwu, the exhibition of the assets of positive leadership traits and inclination, quite rare with our people- Nigerians in such exalted positions of authority.
    I strayed into The Dorchester, from North of Westminster City that Friday evening, where I am a resident migrant to spend the weekend with an old acquaintance. That was when I had clues of the celebrations packaged by Nigerians, who operate the London-based online tabloid, The Nigerian. My host also intimated me that the programme advertisement also indicated some awards to eminent Nigerians and public institutions which have distinguished themselves in public service back in my home country.
    The revelations instantly arouse my interest and resurrected the “Naija” instincts in me. I remember we do freely gatecrash at events. So, I promised myself to experience the ceremony, even though I was not invited. “I don’t think, any Nigerian in a foreign land, can send away another countryman from an occasion simply because he has no IV card,” I assured myself.
    At the venue, I met warm, friendly and hospitable organizers. But I sat in the hall a loner, because I could hardly identify a face I knew closely. But the fraternity of Naija sustained me, anyhow.
    Of all the array of personalities recognized and feted with awards, Dr. Kachikwu’s mien and humility fascinated me most. I have never met him. But I have read much about him online about his efforts to sanitize the operations of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
    I have not been in Nigerian since his appointment to manage NNPC, Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, and his later elevation as Minister of State for Petroleum to deputize President Muhammadu Buhari who retained the Petroleum portfolio as Minister. But encountering Dr. Kachikwu online gave me an impression that he must have been a pretty focused man and good for the job.
    I could still remember vividly how management of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector had been in total ruins, with successive administrations until the Buhari Presidency. We are a country blessed with abundant oil resources, but embarrassed with scarcity of petroleum products frequently. Crude oil revenues were reportedly missing or remained unaccounted most times.
    Nigeria’s oil and gas sector was surrendered by a ravenous and rapacious cabal, which left a supposedly rich nation impoverished by choice. It heightened militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region; the source of this crude oil, after years of neglect and demeaned us as people and the worth of our country in the estimation of sane nations.
    My thoughts stretched far, half concentrated on the event and also, thinking about the fate that had befallen my country. I knew President Buhari’s retention of the Portfolio of Petroleum minister was an expressed intention and determination to cleanse the management of NNPC and the oil and gas sector from its opaqueness. But presidential schedules are quite tight sometimes and it was expected that President Buhari would appoint a capable hand to oversee the day to day administration of this all important sector of the economy. And Dr. Kachikwu berthed on the scene.
    The appointment of Dr. Kachikwu, though a Niger Deltan was understandably devoid of the usual resounding applauses that greeted such appointees. President Buhari had hit the oil cabal below the belt, by opting for the choice of an assistant with a track record of excellence in the management of international oil business, outside the nominees of the cabal that had caged the oil and gas sector and chained Nigeria’s economy in perpetual stagnation. It was an unnerving experience.
    And quite impressively, in the last two years, the narrative of the management of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria has changed considerably. I learnt Dr. Kachikwu has launched reforms and innovations that have ensured transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s oil resources and accountability for proceeds of crude oil sales, hitherto alien to operations of NNPC.
    I have heard that scarcity of petroleum products has ended in our dear country; I understand, pricing for petroleum products have been stabilized’. I am informed our moribund refineries have been revitalized and efforts have intensified to make them function to full capacity; while modular refineries are in the offing.
    What has gladdened my heart the more is that from a zero point, Nigeria’s foreign reserve has risen to over $31 billion in less than two years. Nigeria has been economically reinvented despite the sharp drop in the prices of crude oil in the international market, which nosedived to as low $28 dollars per barrel and in an economy deeply plunged in recession.
    Fortified with these facts, I was thrilled at the Westminster City celebration by The Nigerian raised for me a platform to experience this man firsthand. And in his persona, I saw a radiating spirit of a man with a deep -fathomed appetite to further serve his country; a leader who perceives this opportunity as rendering service to humanity, as against the general norm of personal enrichment and selfishness, peculiar to most of our privileged people.
    And in Dr. Kachikwu’s administration of the oil and gas industry, those who have keenly monitored him speak of a Minister who is not tied to the strings of ethnicity or party affiliations. There were testimonies that he operates on the tenets of merit, honesty and competence in his interface with all Nigerians who besiege him as the helmsman of the oil industry, the country’s main cash cow. He exuded every each the portrait of a de-tribalized President Buhari, which perhaps, accounted for his choice to serve in this sensitive sector, to say the least.
    The forum was beneficial to me in a number of ways, as it effortlessly served me great lessons about my country. In Dr. Kachikwu’s performance, it was easy to gauge the performance of the Buhari Presidency and how the nation has fared under his stewardship.
    And it was glaring that it took the President some bit of care, to wittingly dodge the implanted vicious cabal in the oil and gas sector to engage an impartial Dr. Kachikwu from the private sector. He is immune from the weird entanglements of the oil cabal in the country, which explains why he has made the difference.
    Today, Nigerian can proudly boast of a nation, whose oil wealth is not mindlessly squandered by a few elite and the political class, but devoted to the service of all Nigerians. It has rebirthed development across the country. The people of the Niger Delta region have mellowed on their restiveness and militancy because a committed and focused son and brother, Dr. Kachikwu has shown promise to teleguide the Buhari Presidency to solve the endemic problems of underdevelopment, impoverishment and the degradation of the ecosystem as a result of years of neglect of the region from exploration of its natural resources.
    I departed the venue of the celebrations, more elated, after attending the symposium lecture, which dwelt extensively on the economic prospects of Nigeria in the age of fading oil wealth. It was really incisive, insightful and instructive.
    What the lecture canvassed ardently was something akin to saying Dr.Kachikwu’s win in the management of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is a celebration of the Buhari Presidency’s triumph in the prudent management of Nigeria’s resources and the anti- corruption war which has earned him unreserved international recognition and accolades.
    Dr. Kachikwu struck me as a leader who pleasantly invades the mind of every personality that comes in contact with him. He is certainly a fulfilled man; a sense of fulfillment that buds from the expression of satisfaction with his service by a country and humanity he is rendering selfless and transparent leadership, like his boss, President Buhari.

    Owolabi, PhD is a University teacher and contributed this piece from the United Kingdom.

  • Kachikwu’s metamorphosis

    Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State is back once again to the old game of foretelling. Recall that he prophesied moments after the federal government hived off subsidy that petrol price would come crashing after six months? Never mind that the May 2016 prophecy never came to pass, last week was for him an occasion to roll out another audacious prophecy that product  prices will crash in the next four to six months! Like one reading from a crystal ball, he saw “competition inherent in the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price modulation”, relative stability of the market, and, the three refineries are working simultaneously, although at 50 % of their capacity – for which we all must be glad that the good times are here – finally!

    To be sure, Kachikwu is no prophet; but even if he was, I’ll probably have taken him on, all the same – mindful of course of the story of that fellow in the Bible who ran into trouble after daring the prophet as told in the book of 2 Kings 7: 2. The no-nonsense Prophet Elisha it was that pronounced the cessation, within hours, of the terrible famine which reduced Samaria to a cannibal colony. A palace aide, obviously flustered by its sheer audacity had quipped “Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”  Well, sure as he said, the word of the prophet came to pass barely 24 hours later while the poor fellow died – trampled afoot – but not before witnessing ‘live’ its fulfilment exactly as the prophet had foretold!

    Six months of course barely 180 days from now – in which case, the miraculous could still happen. However, considering that Nigerians had just about twice the space of time to get the earlier prophecy fulfilled to their frustration, they ought to be forgiven for taking this latest voyage in futurology with a pinch of salt! For while Minister Kachikwu cannot be said to be new to the oily business, for the hard-nosed technocrat drafted by President Muhammadu Buhari to clean up a graft-ridden industry a little while ago, his metamorphosis would seem about now complete with his latest induction into the club of mealy-mouthed politicians.

    Remember how he started out: he wanted the refineries sold – if need be – as scrap. Later he demurred – arguing that they could be fixed with private funds. Now he’s drum major – if you like the champion – of the quest to get the government put scarce funds into the bottomless pits!

    Unfortunately, had the minister not been too eager to cart home the trophy before the game is called, we probably might be looking more dispassionately at the current state of the industry as against what he inherited.

    Left to the minister and his boss, progress is supposed to be served in tokens; from the sink holes described as refineries to the incurably obsolete pipelines right up to the dysfunctional dry depots, progress must come as incremental, snail-paced; that is supposed to be the rule at a time hydrocarbons are increasingly dated.

    That is why the so-called “competition inherent in the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price modulation” is supposed to be big deal; something that would ordinarily be deemed as ordinary in an industry driven by volume. Never mind that the fundamentals have not changed in any significant manner. Or the question of whether the costs are truly going down or are there other dynamics at play? We are supposed to roll out the drums that the club of traders have, after flooding of the market with imported white products, are offering marginal discounts as one would in the normal run of business!

    The truth of course is that story of steady climb-down in the price of petrol is more farcical than real. While it is true that some stations sell for N143 per litre as against the official price of N145, the development is neither widespread nor has it proven to be sustainable to warrant the minister’s exaggerated notice.  As for diesel –a product which admittedly has ceased to be the high-priced commodity that it was in recent past, the reason is not far-fetched: the refineries – although in fits and starts – have lately been pushing limited quantities of the product into the local market; which of course explains why the price returned to the upward climb as soon as Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries went out of action, leaving Warri Refinery, which itself is only now returning into operation after a break.

    Howbeit, Nigerians only need to recall that the current stability in supply was purchased at a princely cost of a hike in fuel price of nearly 80 percent if only to appreciate the true measure of the ‘achievement’.  Moreover, considering that the Jonathan administration, its predecessor never enjoyed the luxury –one would have expected that the administration to be less exuberant in staking such as achievement.

    Like the refineries, the other pressing issue in the industry is the state of the pipelines and depots. Last week, I did a quick enquiry. Here is what I found: The Satellite Depot in Ejigbo, Lagos has been out of action in the last six weeks; during the period, it has remained – dry. The one in Ibadan is said to have managed to receive some quantities of white products, but is yet to resume operations. The same with the depot in Ore and Ilorin; at the moment, no loading is going on in the two depots leaving Sagamu (Mosinmi) in the entire western zone in operation! As for the pipelines, while the federal government is said to have done a heroic job of tending to them, the reality today is that they are not yet in the fuel supply matrix. Rather than address those critical infrastructures considered as the life-wire of the downstream sector of the oil industry, the government, true to its character continues to sell the dummy of an imminent price crash.

    Six months will be here, soon enough.

  • Kachikwu’s traducers

    In a recent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview programme Hardtalk, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu said with absolute certainty his plans to get Nigeria stop the importation of petrol by 2019 would work out fine. When prodded further, he promised to quit his current appointment if by the said deadline he failed to deliver.

    Kachikwu also spoke on some of his achievements in office which among others included deft negotiations with militants resulting in resumed uninterrupted oil production as well as positioning the NNPC as a profit-making organization for the first time in its history. He also told his audience that he got some of our refineries back to produce seven million litres versus zero that was hitherto the situation and signed an agreement with Agip to build a new refinery in the country.

    Not long after reeling out these achievements, the petroleum minister was last week, again in the news. This time, for a different reason altogether. It was neither an update on progress on these promises nor the breaking of new grounds by the ministry. It was a battle to dissociate himself from campaign posters on the streets of Abuja faking his intention to contest the 2019 governorship election in his home state, Delta.

    Apparently, worried by the development, the ministry had to issue a statement denying any link with the campaign posters. According to the statement, “the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has not indicated any interest in running for any elective political office in Delta State. Kachikwu is focused on delivering on the reforms currently being implemented in the petroleum sector. He remains committed to effectively representing his state of origin, Delta in the federal cabinet to institutionalize transparency, accountability and productivity in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector”.

    This is not the first time unknown persons have sought to disparage the integrity of the minister. Not long ago, there also arose unproven allegations especially in the social media that one of his brothers was involved in running the affairs of the NNPC and collecting monies for onward transmission to a rival political party. As if that was not enough to achieve the devious objective of its peddlers, came the flooding of campaign posters on the streets of Abuja linking Kachikwu with a political ambition whose time is yet to mature.

    He has denied any link with the posters. For him, what is uppermost in his mind now is how to deliver on the reforms being implemented in the petroleum sector and as well offer very effective representation to his state – Delta –  in the federal cabinet. That is the way to go. By these, he has said unequivocally that those behind the posters have objectives that are less than ennobling. They are fifth columnists rooting to achieve self-serving objectives through hook and crook.

    This is one minister that has put his job on the line vowing to quit if by 2019 Nigeria does not generate its domestic consumption of petrol locally. He insists that the measures he has put in place will surely end fuel importation by that deadline. What this suggests is that he will be around to see these measures through. Could he be staking his job and at the same time, nurse the ambition to abandon this commitment for a yet to be lifted ban on politics of 2019?

    But that is beside the point. Assuming he nurses a governorship ambition, will it not amount to political suicide for a serving minister to flood the streets of Abuja or any other place with campaign posters even when the ban on such activity is yet to be lifted? And what target audience would a prospective contestant for the Delta State governorship post appeal to in Abuja? The logical inference from these poses is that the campaign posters were sponsored by characters eager to get even with Kachikwu for whatever reasons.

    Their motivation could vary from envy to a desperate bid to get him out of his current position so as to pave the way for those who will not let go, their thirst to milk the nation dry. Their intention is to reverse whatever achievements that have been recorded in that sector since Kachikwu came on stream. The strategy is to create a conflict of interest between the achievements of the minister and their simulated ambition for the Delta governorship post.

    In their little calculations, once those posters are sighted around Abuja, it will immediately create doubts in the minds of Kachikwu’s bosses that he nurses divided interest and can no longer function effectively in his current position. Too cheap! It is nothing but sheer blackmail aimed at putting his office in jeopardy so that a preferred candidate can take over. We saw much of that intrigue while he combined the office of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC with that of the minister of state.

    Having taken away the former, vested interests are at it again. They will stop at nothing to assume effective control of the oil sector especially given the ill disposition of President Buhari who is the substantive minister of petroleum resources. And given the place of oil as the main source of our revenue earnings, it is not surprising why the blackmailers are on Kachikwu. But he should not be distracted as we are not entirely new to such moribund antics.

    It has become a fad for sundry hirelings to print fake posters of prominent persons in this country to smear their integrity and create disaffection between them and their bosses. Each time such posters emerge, those targeted are either politicians of considerable war chest or public functionaries of exceptional qualities. That has been the trend. So Kachikwu should neither lose sleep nor be distracted by the mischievous antics of such faceless groups. By now our leaders should have got used to their devious style.

    Not long ago, campaign posters of Atiku Abubakar/Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the 2019 presidential campaign appeared in some states of the north. Okonjo-Iweala was so embarrassed that she had to issue a statement that she has nothing to do with them. In the said statement, her media aide denied any link with the posters. She is not alone in this embarrassment.

    When recently Bukola Saraki campaign posters for the presidency surfaced, the Kwara State All Progressives Congress APC disclaimed it as “fake and photo-shopped” banner. Hear the Kwara APC: “Before this fake and photo-shopped banner becomes an object of political mischief, on behalf of Saraki and Kwara APC, we dissociate the senate president from the fake banners and whatever they represent”.

    We can go on and on with instances of these fake posters and banners. So the issue is not new in this clime. What puzzles one is why the habit has festered even when it is clear most of those purportedly involved have nothing to do with them. Why splash posters of a purported governorship candidate for Delta State in Abuja instead of Asaba where the target audience is? And why posters of a serving minister when the ban on political campaigns is yet to be lifted?

    There does not appear to be any plausible explanation for this except mischief of the highest order. It is not mischief just for itself but with the intent to discredit the public officer in the eyes of his bosses and the larger public. The calculation is that the posters will put the job of the minister on the line and possibly pave the way for preferred candidates of its sponsors.

    It is on account of the injury such unsolicited campaign posters could inflict on the career of public officers and politicians that they make haste to dissociate themselves from them. By now, we should have got used to such phoney posters to dissipate valuable energy dignifying then with a response. But since silence in such matters could be misconstrued as acquiescence, the predicament of those who have found time to refute them could be understood.

  • Kachikwu denies campaign posters

    Kachikwu denies campaign posters

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu,  yesterday dissociated himself from his 2019 governorship campaign posters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    He denied any knowledge of the poster, stressing that he has not indicated interest to run for any position in Delta State.

    The Director, Press, Mr. Idang Alibi, in a statement, noted that “our attention has been drawn to fake campaign posters of the  Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu for the 2019 governorship elections in Delta State pasted by unknown persons across the Federal Capital Territory.”

    Kachikwu, according to the statement, is focused on delivering on reforms being implemented in the petroleum sector under the leadership of President Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in line with his duties as minister of state for Petroleum Resources and chair of the board of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    It added that the minister is committed to representing Delta State in the cabinet to institutionalise transparency, accountability and productivity in the oil and gas sector.

    ‘’It is gratifying that despite challenges, progress has been made in achieving important milestones under Kachikwu‘s watch and today, the petroleum sector is more transparent and contributes more to the national coffers.

    ‘’Consolidating on this progress remains the priority of Dr.Kachikwu and he refuses to be distracted’’.

    Kachikwu urged stakeholders in both oil and gas sectors and the public to discountenance these speculations.

    The  Minister of State for Petroleum Resources assured all Nigerians of his and Government’s continued commitment to the welfare and well-being of the citizenry, while thanking them for usual cooperation and collaboration towards achieving the lofty dreams of a thriving Oil and Gas sector for Nigeria.

  • Kachikwu, Fashola, others for NAEC confab

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and his counterpart in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, are expected to make policy statement on government’s plans for the economy, especially in the oil, gas and power sectors at the 2017 Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria’s (NAEC) annual conference.

    The conference with the theme PIGB: Prospects and challenges to Nigerian oil and gas industry, will hold at Eko Hotel, Lagos, on August 17, by 9.00am.

    This year’s conference has three panel sessions. The first session will focus on: Optimising local refining capacity: opportunities and challenges,” while the second panel session will look at “Implications of the bill to amend the NLNG Act,” and the third panel session will discuss: Power sector and liquidity challenge.”

    The Keynote address and the Lead paper will be delivered by Kachikwu while the Group Managing Director, AITEO Production and Development Company Limited, Mr. Chike Onyejekwe. will be the chairman of the conference.

    The Guest Speakers are the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Kachalla Baru.

    Stakeholders in the oil and gas and power sectors, including International Oil Companies (IOCs), downstream oil and gas operators, independent producers, managers of the privatised power assets, among others, would also be in attendance. Outcome of the conference will set agenda and shape government’s policy in the energy sector.

    Confirmed discussants include Dr. Frank Edozie, Managing Director, NECONDE Energy Limited; Mr. Anibor Kragha, Chief Operating Officer, Refineries, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Mr.  Mordecai  Ladan, Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR); Mr. Abiodun Adesanya, President, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explora-tionists, (NAPE); Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, Chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Limited; Dr Saka Matemilola, Nigerian council chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE); Mr. Austin Avuru, Managing Director, Seplat Petroleum Limited; Mr. Nicolas Terraz, Managing Director/Chief Executive  Officer, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Mr. Muda Yusuf, Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

  • Kachikwu’s appeal to Dangote

    Kachikwu’s appeal to Dangote

    Where then is the myth called ‘federal might’?

    What many Nigerians feared was the Federal Government’s plan concerning self-sufficiency in fuel production would appear to have been confirmed by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu’s appeal to Aliko Dangote, President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, to complete his 650,000 barrels/day refinery ahead of his planned December 2019 deadline. This has been the Federal Government’s body language on this issue, as it does not appear to have any coherent plan to let new refineries come on board or even sell off the moribund ones on which the country has spent huge resources on unending Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) without much result.

    Kachikwu told Dangote during a visit to Dangote Oil Refinery at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, to inspect the progress of work on the plant that:”The challenge I give you as I leave here today will be one of time. I see your timing in terms of December 2019.

    “But I am sure you will understand if I tell you that the refinery component should come earlier. I have made very frank commitment to Nigerians that I must exit importation of petroleum products by 2019, and I am going to keep to it. Please, continue to push the envelope and see how we can do this.”

    To show how desperate the government is on the matter, the minister urged Dangote to tell his engineers to go back to the drawing board in order to make the refinery come on stream earlier than the end of 2019. To make this happen, he added that the government was ready to give incentives. According to Kachikwu, “Where do we come in as government? I think the first thing is that we must look seriously at whatever incentives this business needs. You cannot be investing $14bn in a country without sufficient incentives to drive the business.”

    Indeed, perhaps it is this new thinking that has made some people to speculate that Dangote is being secretly considered for the country’s presidency. One may have dismissed this with a wave of the hand but for the fact that this is the way such stories start. I remember I was in Kwara Hotels in Ilorin for a workshop (I think, on sustainable democracy) sometime in 1998 where it was first speculated that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had only just been freed from prison (or was even about to be freed) was being considered for president, to compensate the Yoruba whose son, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election who was denied power by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd). For me, that some people are tipping Dangote for the presidency may not be much of an issue if it is only about service delivery. The next question is: can Dangote deliver if elected president?

    That would seem a rhetorical question. He seems to have demonstrated the capacity to handle complex industrial concerns. Whether this is enough to make him a complete president is a different matter altogether. But what we know is that people who do not have his kind of antecedents had attempted the presidency with some succeeding and others falling by the wayside. But again, whether Dangote is capable or not, there is the danger of conflict of interest and even that of over-reliance on an individual.

    However, no sooner had Kachikwu made his appeal than some Nigerians began asking when the government would outsource the presidency so that the president and his entire cabinet members would simply go home, having handed over the country’s jugular to Dangote Refinery. Perhaps they are right.

    Left to Kachikwu, he would have sold the refineries as early as yesterday but for his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, who prefers they be retained as public property. The president’s position is also understandable. But he is only being nostalgic about them. There is little the country can do right now about those refineries. The president’s case would have been strengthened if we had a working judicial system that can tame corruption because corruption is at the heart of why the four government-owned refineries are not working at any appreciable capacity. Unfortunately, the country has not got to the situation where it can successfully wage the type of anti-corruption war that can return sanity to the refineries. Our legal system is tilted too much in favour of the corrupt. This is why one is forced to agree with those who feel the government should sell off the refineries, painful as this might be.

    Without doubt, Dangote Refinery is a thing of joy and pride to Nigeria. That a Nigerian, the richest man in Africa; is building such a gigantic refinery is something to celebrate. But when it now becomes the main plank on which the government relies to end the importation of  petroleum products; it is a different matter entirely, indeed, at that point, it becomes a matter for regret. A nation should not put its eggs in one basket. Nigeria at this point is over-relying on Dangote and his group. No nation should put itself in a situation where it would catch cold when an individual sneezes. The way we are going, we will all have to shiver whenever Alhaji Dangote sneezes. We rely on him or his conglomerate for virtually everything under the sun; from food processing to cement, manufacturing, and freight. Sugar, flour and salt too are made by some of his companies. He is now also into rice cultivation; he is into fertiliser. His company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. Dangote has also diversified into telecommunications, among others. The company employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.

    So, Dangote has done so much for himself and even the country. Much as individual Nigerians can rely on him for almost everything under the sun, possibly for the air they breathe, not so the Nigerian government. When the government of some 150 million Nigerians begins to see an individual’s company as its alpha and omega, especially for the supply of fuel, it is ominous.

    It is not too late for the Federal Government to begin to think of what to do with its refineries apart from keeping them to continue constituting a drain on public purse. I hope Minister Kachikwu is not saying he had no ‘Plan B’ when he was assuring Nigerians more than a year ago that we would stop fuel import by 2019? This is what his passionate appeal to Dangote to fast track the coming on stream of his refinery seems to suggest. The government had talked about modular refineries; it had talked about co-location of refineries, etc. What has happened to all that?

    Now, the government is talking of incentives to facilitate the take-off of Dangote Refinery. This is one area many Nigerians have had to criticise the Dangote Group: that but for government’s waivers and other incentives, it would not have been whatever it is today. But now, Dangote Group is not the one lobbying the government; it is the other way round. One can only hope the critics of the group will bear this in mind when those incentives begin to come. But how these would make Dangote Refinery not to look the way of exportation if that is more lucrative than selling petroleum products in our regulated fuel market is yet to be seen because the refinery is first and foremost, a commercial venture. This is much more so when it is the supposedly stronger party that is begging a weaker one for a favour.

  • No plan to concession Port Harcourt refinery – Kachikwu

    No plan to concession Port Harcourt refinery – Kachikwu

    The Federal Government said on Thursday it has no intention to concession the Port Harcourt Refinery.

    The government also said the planned revamping of the Port Harcourt Refinery would cost the country about $300 million.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, made the clarification at a sitting of the Senate ad-hoc committee on “the planned concession of the Port Harcourt Refinery to Agip/Eni and Oando plc.”

    The Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari, asked the minister to clarify the statement credited to him that the federal government was sourcing for investors to take over the Port Harcourt Refinery.

    A member of the committee, Senator Dino Melaye,  also asked Kachikwu to tell the committee whether the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the concession had been signed.

    Melaye wanted the minister to react to another report that approval for the concession had already been given by the federal government.

    Kachikwu, in his response, said the government has not approved the concession of the Port Harcourt Refinery.

    He, however, said government would no longer finance the turnaround maintenance of refineries in the country.