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Tag: Oil

  • Oil gains as producers say market is rebalancing

    Oil gains as producers say market is rebalancing

    Oil prices kept most of their gains from the previous session as major producers meeting in Vienna said the market was well on its way towards rebalancing.

    The WTI crude front month discount to the same month of Brent futures hit 6.28 dollars, the widest since August 2015, as U.S.crude was pressured by hurricane damage to U.S. refineries.

    Brent therefore rises to 63.19 dollars as report media hide price with ambiguous  coverage.Add 56.91 plus 91 dollars.

    Brent crude futures was up 0.05 per cent at 56.88 dollars a barrel, not far from a 6-1/2-month high of 56.91dollars set on Friday.

    The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC ), Russia and several other producers have cut production by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of 2017, helping lift oil prices by high numbers n the past three months.

    Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam al- Marzouq, who chaired Friday’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, said output curbs were helping cut global crude inventories to their five-year average, OPEC’s stated target.

    The dollar index was up 0.2 per cent against a basket of currencies.

    The euro slipped after Germany’s election showed surging support for a far-right party that left Chancellor Angela Merkel scrambling to form a governing coalition.

    Russia’s energy minister said no decision on extending output curbs beyond the end of March was expected before January, although other ministers suggested such a decision could be taken before the end of this year.

    Iran expects to maintain overall  crude and condensate exports at around 2.6 million bpd for the rest of 2017, a senior official in the nation’s state oil company said.

    Meanwhile, the UAE’s energy minister said its compliance to supply cuts was 100 per cent.

    Nigeria is pumping below its agreed output cap, its oil minister said.

    “Oil is relatively underpriced compared with other markets, but any steep rise would be offset by rising shale oil production,” said Tomomichi Akuta, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting in Tokyo.

    Markets were also eyeing developments in North Korea. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said President Donald Trump wants to avoid nuclear war with North Korea and “will do everything we can” to avoid conflict.

  • OPEC exempts Nigeria from oil production cut

    OPEC exempts Nigeria from oil production cut

    The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Non-OPEC countries have approved Nigeria’s exemption from oil production cuts.

    A statement by the Director, Press Relations, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr Idang Alibi, said the endorsement was given by at a meeting of OPEC’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee on Friday in Vienna.

    Nigeria was first granted production cuts at the November, 2016 Ministerial Conference and this was later extended in May at another Ministerial Conference, until the country stabilizes its crude oil production.

    Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, said though Nigeria’s production recovery efforts had made some appreciable progress from October, 2016, it was not yet ”out of the woods”.

    The statement quoted Kachikwu, who was at the Vienna meeting, as saying that though Nigeria hit 1.8 million barrels production per day in August, it was not enough justification for call by some countries for Nigeria “to be brought into the fold”.

    ”Nigeria as one of the older members of OPEC will continue to work for the good of the organisation and its member countries, respecting whatever agreements and resolutions are collectively made.

    ”Nigeria will be prepared to cap its crude production when it has stabilized at 1.8 million barrels per day,” he said.

    The meeting noted that overall compliance by OPEC and Non-OPEC participating countries to the Agreement on oil production cut for August was 116 per cent, the highest since the agreement in January, 2017.

    It said that the objectives of the accord were steadily being achieved with the gradual draw-down of inventories by nearly 50 per cent since the agreement came into effect. (NAN)

  • Petroleum Ministry’s maiden oil, gas trade show coming

    Petroleum Ministry’s maiden oil, gas trade show coming

    The Ministry of Petroleum Resources will assemble upstream, mid-stream and downstream oil and gas experts from around the world for its inaugural Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) scheduled for next February, at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.

    According to the summit’s Project Director, James Shindi, this will be the biggest technical and strategic business conference in the petroleum sector in Africa, as it will present best practices and emerging technologies to engineers, scientists, the academia, managers and executives.

    The conference will exhibit companies that would feature the latest products and services.

    ‘’Industry professionals and companies know the value and return on investment of meeting and networking at gathering such as this, where the world will meet Nigeria oil and gas.  Simply put, this event will explore innovations and technologies covering all things upstream, mid-stream and downstream,’’ the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said.

    This will be reinforced through the attendance of  key political leaders, government officials and industry’s specialists from the National Oil Company(NOC) and other relevant government bodies and chief executive officers (CEOs) of National and international oil companies, multinationals and multilateral organisations, the academia and other relevant stakeholders, among others.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo launched the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit 2018 in the presence of 19 African Ministers of Petroleum and delegates who attended the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) meeting in Abuja.

  • Oil: Egina to add 200,000bpd to Nigerian production

    Oil: Egina to add 200,000bpd to Nigerian production

    Deputy Managing Director of Total, a principal partner of the Egina Project, Mr. Ahmadu Musa-Kida, said when completed by Q4 2018, the Egina Project would produce additional 200,000bpd to Nigeria’s daily crude oil production.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, had said that the corporation will accelerate local capacity development in all its operations within the nation’s Oil and Gas industry.

    He spoke while delivering a keynote address during an occasion to mark the Egina Manifold Sail Away celebration in Port Harcourt yesterday.

    But shedding more light on the Project, Chairman of Aveon Offshore Limited, Mr. Tein George said the project, which gulped over $30m worth of investments, was delivered ahead of schedule with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI) in about 5.5 million man-hours.

    The corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

    The statement said that Sanctioned by the NNPC in 2013, the Egina Project is the first Deepwater Project after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development (NOGID) Act of 2010.

    Adjudged the first of its kind in Nigeria, each of the 6-slots Egina production manifolds has a lifespan of 25 years subsea. While the load-out of the first set of three (3) manifolds was carried out in July 2017, the load-out of the second and final set of three Manifolds was witnessed Tuesday.

    In crude oil production, the manifold is the gathering point designed to permit the use of pump-down tools, provide for individual well tests, handle injection of chemicals for inhibition of corrosion as well as provide for artificial lift and control.

    As a partner in the Egina Project, the NNPC in 2013, alongside four other companies (TUPNI, SAPETRO, Petrobras, and CNOOC), contracted the construction of the Subsea Production Systems (SPS) module for the project to FMC Technologies (FMC), which later sub-contracted the fabrication and load-out of six manifolds to a fully-indigenous local fabrication company, Aveon Offshore Ltd, a development the GMD said justifieed NNPC’s commitment to promoting local capacity in the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry.

    Baru said : “By getting involved in this laudable feat, NNPC has not only demonstrated the growing efficacy of the Nigerian Content Act, it has also reaffirmed the Corporation’s commitment to local content development.”

    “We are strongly committed to the successful implementation of all provisions of this Act to improve and accelerate local capacity development in all NNPC’s projects,” he added.

    According to the GMD, the Nigerian Content Act has given rise to a number of opportunities within the industry which include the emergence of new local vendors and suppliers; training and mentoring of young engineers; improvement of artisanal and other new skill sets critical to the industry.

     Baru further observed that the NNPC would always support initiatives aimed at domesticating the ample opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry which promise to improve thousands of lives in the country.

    “There will be room for more of these opportunities in the nearest future as we are fully committed and determined to achieving sustainable domestication of a large percentage of the other modules on the Egina project. We will continue to touch your lives in many more positive ways,” he assured.

     He called on all stakeholders within the local content community to sustain the tempo of promoting the huge impact by replicating similar new projects on a larger scale across the industry.

    He explained that today’s event was a continuation of NNPC’s unflinching commitment to the Egina Project, following similar involvement in September last year where the Load-out ceremony of the Egina Umbilicals, Flowlines and Riser (UFR) module was recorded at the Saipem Yard in Port Harcourt.

    “This event, among others, testifies that our race to first oil from Egina field by Q4, 2018 is guaranteed,” he noted.

    He reiterated that the construction of the SPS module for Egina Project has placed the Oil industry ahead in the quest to promote “Made in Nigeria Goods and Services”, as championed by the Federal Government.

    In his remarks, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote, lauded the Egina Project for promoting local content, stressing that the project was capable of integrating Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) in Nigeria.

  • Oil prices move close to $56

    Oil prices move close to $56

    Oil prices moved close to $56 yesterday, remaining near multi-month highs reached late last week.

    The number of United States (U.S.) rigs drilling for new production fell and refineries continued to start up after getting knocked out by Hurricane Harvey.

    Analysts say this is good for Nigeria economy that has just exited recession as the 2017 crude oil budget benchmark for this year’s budget is $44.5.

    US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose to $50.0 per barrel, and close to the more than three-month high of $50.50 reached last Thursday.

    Brent crude futures, benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S. were at $55.71 a barrel, up nine cents and not far from the almost five-month high of $55.99 touched on Thursday. Brent was $56  on Wednesday.

    “Demand forecasts from OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and IEA (International Energy Agency)… continued to improve sentiment in the market. Refineries are also reporting a much better recovery from the recent hurricanes,” ANZ bank said on Monday.

    Royal Dutch Shell’s Deer Park refinery in Texas was among the latest, beginning its restart on Sunday. The plant can process 325,700 barrels per day.

    The refinery restarts are occurring “as signs emerge of stalling growth in the US shale industry. The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. fell sharply last week,” ANZ said.

    U.S. energy firms cut seven oil rigs in the week to September 15, bringing the total count down to 749, the fewest since June, energy services company Baker Hughes said on Friday.

     

  • Oil magnate joins APC

    Oil magnate Chief Ovoke Oshasha and his followers have joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.

    Oshasha said APC was the only party united to reposition the country and the state.

    He said he joined the party to contribute to the development and growth of the party.

    Receiving Oshasha and his followers at the weekend, the council party Chairman, Chief Felix Ekure, hailed the coming of Oshasha into the APC.

    Ekure said the party would take over the state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying with its calibre of persons, “APC will clinch the No. 1 seat in Delta State in 2019”.

  • Nigeria needs $40b for oil infrastructure

    No less than $40 billion would be required to fix infrastructural problems in the oil and gas sector, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said

    The Minister, who spoke in the latest bulletin of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said the money would be spent on fixing the infrastructural gap in the midstream and upstream segments of the oil and gas sector, adding that with this the industry would return to optimal level.

    He said of the amount, the country would spend $10 billion (N3.05 trillion) in the next three years to increase crude oil production from 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to three million bpd.

    Kachikwu said: “Nigeria’s normal production level is about 2.2 million bpd and the government would like to raise it to three million barrels per day. Just to get the fields online and cap them will require an average of about $10 billion per year in investments over the next three to four years.”

    He said international oil companies (IOCs) such as Shell and Agip had made some commitments in this regard to improve activities in the sector.

    He stated that there were also some dedicated projects in the Bonga oil field, noting that Italy’s Agip planned to spend about $10 billion, while Royal Dutch Shell hoped to spend $10 to $11 billion on the field.

    “We are fairly close to identifying dedicated investments upstream. Downstream is a challenge. We need to invest in our refineries. We need to do pipelines,” he added.

  • Venezuela’s chaos can spark oil price increase

    Deepening turmoil in Venezuela could fuel a rise in oil prices, a feat the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been striving to achieve through oil production cuts.

    According to MarketWatch report, the South American nation, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, voted to give President Nicolás Maduro’s government powers to redraft the constitution, sparking clashes between protesters and state security forces. The opposition charges the vote could mark the end of democracy in Venezuela.

    What the chaos portends for the oil industry, the report said: “The “possibility of chaos” in the country is the “only true element that would change the dynamic for crude,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service, said.

    “If “Vendemonium,” as he dubbed it, comes to pass, it could lift West Texas Intermediate crude-oil prices up from their current trading range of roughly $42 to $53 a barrel, said Kloza.

    WTI crude, the U.S. benchmark, traded just below $50 a barrel last week, contributing to a 8.7 per cent weekly gain fueled in part by data showing a fourth-straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories, as well as pledges by some OPEC members to curb exports.

    But WTI crude and Brent, the global benchmark, still trade about eight per centlower year to date, even as a production-cut agreement by OPEC members and other major non-cartel nations such as Russia, that began at the start of the year, has seen historically high compliance and has been extended through March of next year.

    “For oil, there is “ongoing concern about stability as the opposition gains strength and the chance that the U.S. will ratchet up pressure by halting imports,” James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics told MarketWatch. Venezuela is among the top suppliers of crude to the U.S., though its production has declined since last year on the heels of civil unrest.

    “Venezuela’s oil output has dropped over the last year. A long strike by Venezuelan national oil firm’s workers was to blame for the huge drop in 2003. The chaos intensified last week with the U.S. State Department ordering family members of U.S. embassy employees in Caracas to leave the country.

    “If we are removing diplomats, it is certainly an indicator of the intent to embargo oil from Venezuela,” said Williams. The U.S. had placed sanctions last week on 13 high-ranking Venezuelan officials for alleged corruption, among other offences, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    “If Maduro installs puppeteers who more or less make up new constitutional rules, it really puts an already beleaguered (U.S. President Donald Trump) administration in a tough spot,” said Kloza.

    Still, if the Trump administration “tries to put financial handcuffs” on Venezuela’s state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, SA, (PdVSA), “it might provide the catalyst for the oil market and for consumer gasoline prices to rise appreciably,” Kloza said.

    And the impact could be far reaching, with “financial handcuffs or penalties” potentially signaling “incredible turbulence for Citgo,” he said.

    Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the Venezuela-owned American refiner, employs thousands of U.S. citizens and is “instrumental in ensuring adequate supply of gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel,” said Kloza.

    In Russia, integrated oil firm Rosneft, which is majority owned by the country’s government,” might ultimately gain a large ownership stake in Citgo should its parent company and country default,” he said.

    Rosneft received 49.9 per cent of the equity in PdVSA unit Citgo late last year as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan to PdVSA. Reuters recently reported that Rosneft is in talks with PdVSA for a fuel-supply deal and stakes in Venezuela-based oil and natural-gas fields.

    For now, traders can just “hope that Trump only target individuals, not oil” when it comes to sanctions, said Williams.He also warned that the market could see a reaction from the U.S. that is “more complex than a simple halt in imports.

    Meanwhile, Kloza said that if Venezuelan crude continues to flow, there is “limited upside” for the oil market “despite the large inventory draws that have happened and will continue to happen for some time.”

    “Without ‘Vendemonium,’ we’re destined to remain in a low-price oil environment into 2018 or later,” said Kloza.

     

  • NNPC, firm collaborate to boost oil production

    The Research & Development Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC R&D) and Cypher Crescent Limited have sealed a strategic technical partnership to enhance oil and gas production using innovative technologies and optimised workflows.

    The deal is focused on petroleum engineering research and development, hydrocarbon fluid characterisation and production improvement through well and reservoir management (WRM) data democratisation.

    CypherCrescent is an indigenous petroleum engineering research, software development and asset management support company with a global reach.

    The partnership came on the heels of the application of SEPAL Software suite, a highly innovative end-to-end well and reservoir management (WRM) software in E&P companies for production enhancement.

    SEPAL is the first software in the global E&P industry, designed to integrate data, enhance engineering analyses and optimise workflows in five core WRM disciplines (Reservoir Engineering, Production Technology, Petrophysics, Production Geology and Asset Well Engineering).

    It enables E&P companies optimise production from existing assets by systemically identifying hidden intervention opportunities and improve on the success rates of well intervention activities. Also, with the robust data analytics capability of SEPAL, engineers can proactively manage well integrity challenges. SEPAL as an integrated software improves general asset management efficiency and therefore helps companies remain competitive, especially in times of dwindling oil prices. Reliant on its capability, the SEPAL software has been adopted as a solution, in the NNPC project for the classification of Nigeria’s natural gas liquids (NGLs) and gas condensates.

    In addition, the CypherCrescent-NNPC (R&D) partnership aims to achieve national technical capacity development through engineering research and delivery of value adding services to solve challenges in exploration & production (E&P) companies. It also aims to encourage increased local content participation in core upstream projects and subsequently, export technical expertise to the international E&P market space to boost foreign earnings.

    According to the Group General Manager (GGM) of the NNPC R&D Division, Dr. Bola Afolabi, a former Shell senior executive, “With minimal cost, remarkable additional production potential was discovered. We are talking about a digital approach to well and  reservoir management. We are applying a first of its kind technology to easily reveal hidden opportunities and propose realistic well intervention programmes. We are seeking to improve the success rate of exploration and production well intervention activities, reduce operations and improve asset integrity, among others.”

    Cypher-Crescent Managing Director Mr. ThankGod Egbe said by harnessing the expertise of world-class professionals in petroleum engineering, geosciences, computing and applied mathematics, Cypher-Crescent is poised to add values to the global oil and gas industry through creative and unconventional solutions.

  • NLNG chief seeks human capital development in oil, gas

    NLNG chief seeks human capital development in oil, gas

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Mr. Tony Attah Monday, has called on engineers in the oil and gas industry to acquire cutting-edge competence to enable them harness the nation’s vast natural resources and grow the economy.

    Attah spoke at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Young Professionals Workshop in Lagos.

    He said the industry has been pivotal to the economic wins in the past five decades and still remains so till date, stressing the need for competent professionals who will sustain and develop the sector.

    He said: “It, therefore, becomes imperative for the Society of Petroleum Engineers and similar professional associations to stimulate the availability of enabling facilities to nurture and grow the professionals and the technology which will deliver the dividends from the sector to the nation’s economy.

    “In view of this urgent need to support the development of world-class training structure for engineers, Nigeria LNG Limited spearheaded the improvement of the study of engineering in Nigeria’s top Federal Universities in the six geo-political zones of the country, through its University Support Programme (USP) and through which we recently donated buildings and equipment with a total value of $12 million.

    “Under the programme, Nigeria LNG built and equipped six engineering research laboratories in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ilorin, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt and University of Maiduguri.”

    Highlighting NLNG’s contribution to the development of human capital in the industry, Attah said NLNG also provides technical training for young Nigerians in the Bonny Vocational Centre situated on Bonny Island.

    “The NLNG vocational centre has trained over a thousand Nigerians in related occupational areas such as electrical installation, fabrication, welding and pipeline work, mechanical fitting, building construction, ICT system support and many others. Our focus is to sustain the development of skilled manpower to support the technical field,” he added.

    He said professional associations such as SPE should promote efforts to develop competence, whether through the public sector or the private sector to support a thriving oil and gas sector as well as to overall economic development.