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  • We have not done enough for Abia, says Shell

    •Oil giant apologises to state

    The Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) Limited, Mr E. D. Ubong, has admitted that the multinational oil firm has not done enough for Abia State, where it has been operating in Owaza community in Ukwa West Local Government Area for over 60 years.

    Ubong spoke in Umuahia, the state capital, when he visited Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

    The company chief noted that though the company had tried to impact the lives of some residents, but it had not done enough as “the first son” in meeting the expectations of the residents, as was the case in other states.

    He also apologised to the government and people of Abia State, particularly the oil-bearing communities, for their long years of neglect, including Shell’s inability to return tax to the state.

    “We thank you for your patience. We have had a long relationship with Abia State. And we know a lot is expected of us. We also know we have not done enough,” Ubong said.

    He said Shell had enjoyed a robust relationship with the state for the years, adding that Abia is within the catchment area of the undergraduate and post-graduate scholarship of the company.

    The company chief thanked the governor for the cordial relationship between the state and Shell.

    He said the company would build a 10-kilometre gas line in the state to take gas to Osisioma and another to Ariaria and Ogbor Hill area.

    Ubong, who said he had followed the governor’s achievements, especially in project delivery, maintained that the visit was meant to listen to Ikpeazu’s wise counsel.

    He added: “We have followed you closely and we know you are a man of projects. Everywhere, we see you inaugurate projects. We will want you to come and see our construction site where you will inspect the gas line and give us the feedback on how we can improve our relationship with Abia State.”

    Ikpeazu said he was bothered about the non-existence of Shell presence in the state, after 60 years of its operation.

    According to him, Abia youths deserve some commendation for their peaceful disposition towards Shell.

    Ikpeazu urged the managing director to pay more attention to the company’s host communities.

    He said: “Your plan is at the jugular of our focus. It fits into our vision. But you need to pay more attention to your host communities and ensure to engage them in your intervention programmes.

    “Additionally, I think our youths deserve some commendation for being peaceful. Don’t wait for them to start breaking pipelines before you do what you are supposed to do for them.”

     

  • ‘Shell, NNPC still negotiating $10b Bonga field contract’

    Royal Dutch Shell and its partners will decide next year on whether to go ahead with the development of Nigeria’s Bonga Southwest offshore oilfield, it was gathered yesterday.

    Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Bayo Ojuli, told reporters that the project, one of the country’s largest with an expected production of 180,000 barrels per day, will generate profit at below $50 a barrel.

    He said Shell is currently negotiating a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which will determine the viability of the project. The negotiations are expected to be concluded this year.

    Shell operates the project and ExxonMobil, Total, Eni and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company are partners.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, was said to have directed NNPC and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) to commence the tendering process for the execution of the deepwater project.

    The report said Kachikwu’s directive followed the April 17, 2018 meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and a delegation from Royal Dutch Shell Plc., led by its Chief Executive Officer, Bern Van Beurden, in London. A decision was said to have been reached the implementation of projects be started.

    The London meeting, which was facilitated by Kachikwu, also had in attendance the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru.

    The meeting was said to have presented an opportunity to open investment talks of up to $15 billion to be invested by Shell in Nigeria.

    First oil from the project, which is expected to add 225,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Nigeria’s daily production, is expected in 2021 or 2022.

    Other key projects that have also suffered delays in the industry include: the 120,000bpd Shell and Eni’s Zabazaba/Etan project in the disputed Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245, ExxonMobil’s 140,000bpd Bosi project, ExxonMobil’s 110,000bpd Uge project and Chevron’s 100,000bpd Nsiko deepwater project.

    The delays in the execution of these projects, which are estimated to cost about $23 billion, are largely caused by the lack of clarity of terms as a result of the non-passage of the 18-year-old Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and inadequate funding.

    However, following the meeting between the president and the Shell executives, Kachikwu directed the NNPC to conclude all the processes leading to the execution of the Bonga South West project latest by Monday, June 18.

     

     

     

  • Oando, Shell, Agip sign $3.7b gas supply contract with NNPC

    Oando Plc, Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), other indigenous and international oil companies in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have signed agreement to implement gas projects worth $3.7 billion.

    The gas projects tagged ‘Seven Critical Gas Development Projects (7CGDP)’ is set to bridge the gas supply shortfall in the country.

    The 7CGDP is an integral part of the gas development strategy designed by the NNPC to leverage the full potential of gas to meet the target of generating at least 15 gigawatts (Gw) of electricity by 2020. The agreement includes the development of the 4.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) Assa North/Ohaji South field, the development of the 6.4 TCF Unitized Gas fields (Samabri-Biseni, Akri-Oguta, Ubie-Oshi and Afuo-Ogbainbri) and the development of 7 TCF Nigerian Petroleum Development Corporation’s (NPDC) OMLs 26, 30 and 42.

    Speaking at the event, the Chief Operating Officer, Oando Energy Resources, Dr. Ainojie Irune, said: “The company’s focus was to ensure that indigenous companies play an integral role in creating the new Nigeria; a Nigeria where as a result of our combined efforts we are driving industrialisation, driving the commercial use of gas, and ultimately creating and enhancing value for the nation.

  • NLNG:  Buhari congratulates stakeholders

    …Buhari’s signature project back on the cards

     

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated the board, management, staff and shareholders of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company (NLNG), the NNPC and other Joint Venture partners, Shell, Total and AGIP on the signing of the contracts for the Front End Engineering Design (FFED) of Train 7 of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Project.

    The President, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, welcomed the signing of an MOU between NLNG, “B7 JV Consortium” and “SCD JV Consortium”, on Wednesday in London.

    According to him, it paves the way for the additional Train 7 that would increase the country’s gas production output from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 metric million tonnes per annum.

    Read Also:NLNG needs $12b to boost expansion

    The President also welcomed the commitment of all parties in supporting his administration to launch the “gas revolution” in Nigeria by ensuring the realization of Train 7, which has been stalled for many years under previous administrations.

    He is optimistic that the significant step would culminate in a Final Investment Decision (FID) for the much-awaited multi-billion dollar Train 7 expansion programme by the end of this year.

    The President noted that the signing of the contract for the plant expansion project after an eight-year delay is a sign of irreversible commitment by the Joint Venture to enter a Final Investment Decision (FID), and a clear indication that the confidence of investors is coming back to Nigeria following the good governance practices instituted by his administration.

    Buhari also noted that the 7th train which is expected to provide some 8,000 jobs is not only important for the country, but also an important benchmark for the Niger Delta region, which rightly yearns for development projects.

    As a former Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources, the President recalled with nostalgia that several signature projects, launched under his watch, which would have accelerated the growth of Nigeria’s economy, including the NLNG, had sadly suffered neglect and abandonment by succeeding administrations.

    For instance, the NLNG had the goal of establishing 12 trains by early 1980s but the project growth was stunted. So far, only six of those trains have been commissioned.

    However, with this signature project back on the cards, President Buhari strongly believed it is destined for his administration to complete the project.

    ”This project perfectly keys into the Federal Government’s ‘Economic Recovery and Growth’ agenda.

    ”It signifies foreign investors’ confidence in our country’s economy,” the President said.

  • Oil theft increased in 2017, says Shell

    Crude oil theft from the pipeline network of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) increased   from about 6,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016 to 9,000 barrels per day last year, the oil giant has said.

    According to a document, which focused on security, theft, sabotage and spills, made available to The Nation, Shell said: “Crude oil theft on the pipeline network resulted in a loss of about 9000 bpd in 2017, which is more than the approximate 6,000 bpd in 2016, but less than 25,000 bpd in 2015.

    “The number of sabotage-related spills in 2017 increased to 62 compared to 48 in 2016 but less than 94 in 2015. The increase in 2017 can in part be explained by the militant-induced shutdown of the Forcados export terminal in 2016, which reduced opportunities for their party interference.

    “This demonstrates that continued air and ground surveillance and action by government security forces to prevent crude oil theft remain necessary. Since 2012, SPDC has removed more than 950 illegal theft points.”

    “Shell refers oil spills caused by crude oil theft and sabotage of facilities as third party interference, as well as illegal refining, which cause most of the environmental damage from oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta. But the company noted that irrespective of the cause of, it cleans up and remediates areas affected by spills originating from its facilities in conjunction with its joint venture partners. It stated that sometimes the spills are made worse where there are access challenges to the incident sites to investigate and stop leaks.”

    The oil gaint said its key priority  remained to ensure that oil spills from its operations did not occur. It said: ‘’No spill is acceptable and we work hard to prevent them. Shell companies in Nigeria operate under the same standards as all other Shell-operated ventures globally. Regrettably, in addition to spills caused by criminal activity, there were nine operational spills of more than 100 kilograms in volume from Shell Companies in Nigeria facilities during 2017, three of which were from pipelines/flowlines infrastructure, which is lowest in recent years.

    “This number is one more than the eight spills in 2016. In 2017, the total volume of oil spilled from operational incidents was approximately 0.1 thousand tonnes, a reduction of approximately 70 per cent on the 2016 figure.

    “The volume reduction and fewer spills from pipelines/flowlines can be attributed to continued progress on preventing operational spills such as preventive maintenance of pipelines and routine inspections.

    “To reduce the number of operational spills, the SPDC JV is focused on implementing its ongoing work programme to appraise, maintain and replace key sections of pipelines and flowlines. One hundred and eighty-eight kilometres and 40 km of flowlines and pipelines replaced over the last six years to approximately 1,230km.

    “SPDC continues to undertake initiatives to prevent and minimise spills caused by theft and sabotage of its facilities in the Niger Delta.”

  • Activities resume at SHELL Forcados terminal

    Normal operations resumed at Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) Forcados Export Terminal in Delta state, on Thursday night after an early morning protest by contract staff shutdown the facility. .

    The staff were unhappy about the company’s recent ‘Brown Field’ remuneration policy, which they alleged favoured a section of the staff to the detriment of others.

    “They handpicked a few indigenes and mostly non-indigenes, they increased their salaries from N100,000 – N316,000 and left most of the people behind.

    “We have written many times to Shell to stop the disparity in payment method and to enhance workers welfare because as it is now, we are being treated like second class people in this facility,” one protester said..

    As a result dozens of the aggrieved staff picketed the terminal, which is Nigeria’s largest for oil export, and prevented movement in and out of the facility.

    However, it was gathered that normal activities resumed on Thursday night after a successful negotiation between the staff and management.

    SPDC team was, according to sources, led by Mr. Ovwagbedia Arthur, the terminal manager, who had earlier that morning failed to convince the staff to return to work.

    “He said the issue would be looked into, but that wasn’t good enough for us because we are used to such antics.

    But our source confirmed this morning, “At about 5.30pm, the asset manager sent a mail to confirm (that) everybody will be carried along in the program starting from this month (June).”

  • Anxiety as workers’ protest shutdown SHELL’s export terminal

    Aggrieved workers at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on Thursday morning shutdown activities at the company’s Forcados Export Terminal in Delta state.

    The terminal is Nigeria’s largest oil export terminal and processes Shell’s crude oil export from production facilities in the Western Operation.

    At the time of this report, workers, who are contract staff of the company shutdown the company’s air, land and water transport activities.

    The protesting workers told our reporter that they were unhappy over disparities in their wages, and terms and conditions of service recently introduced by the Anglo Dutch oil giant.

    “We shut down the airstrip and process gates into the core zone,” a protest told our reporter on telephone.

    Our source, who asked not to be named, said the disparity in wages favoured mostly nonindigenous staff and those connected to the company’s managers, to the detriment of host communities members.

    “The thing is, they brought a new package for workers salaries. The package is called brown field, and was supposed to cover everybody.

    “But they handpicked a few indigenes and mostly non indigenes, they increased their salaries from N100,000 – N316,000 and left most of the people behind.

    “We have written many times to Shell to stop the disparity in payment method and to enhance workers welfare because as it is now, we are being treated like second class people in this facility,” our source added.

    At the time of this report on Thursday morning, it was gathered that the local management had called in military, which arrived in a number of vans.

    Shell’s Joseph Obari, when contacted, said he wasn’t aware of the protest, but promised to find out what was happening.

    However, source at the scene said the Terminal Manager had been unsuccessfully appealing to the striking workers to return back to work, with a promise that the company would look into their grievances.

  • Bodo community wins right to legal battle against Shell

    ABritish judge ruled yesterday that Nigeria’s Bodo community, which has been involved in a protracted legal battle with Shell over the clean-up of two 2008 oil spills, should retain the option of litigation for another year.

    Lawyers for Bodo had accused Shell of trying to kill off the legal case by seeking a court order that would have meant the community had to meet onerous conditions before it could revive its litigation, which is currently on hold.

    A London High Court judge, Mrs Justice Cockerill, ruled that the litigation should remain stayed until July 1, 2019, with no conditions attached should the Bodo community’s representatives seek to re-activate it before then.

    “We are delighted the court has rejected Shell’s attempt to restrict the community’s legal rights,” said Dan Leader, the Bodo community’s lead UK lawyer.

    “The message is clear – Shell must clean up this appalling oil spill and the Bodo community will keep on with its legal case until they are confident that it will do so,” he said.

    The 2008 oil spills devastated the lands and waterways of Bodo, which is just one of numerous communities in the oil-producing Niger Delta that have suffered environmental harm and profound economic and social dysfunction linked to the industry.

    In 2015, Shell accepted liability for the spills, agreeing to pay 55 million pounds ($83 million at the time) to Bodo villagers and to clean up their lands and creeks.

    After years of delays, the clean-up is currently underway, under the auspices of the internationally recognised Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI).

    Shell’s lawyers had argued at a hearing on Tuesday that the community should only be able to re-activate the legal case should Shell fail to comply with its obligation to pay for the clean-up.

    But Bodo’s lawyers had countered that the community should have unfettered access to the London courts if the clean-up was not completed to a high standard.

    Arguing that the pressure of litigation was a key factor in pushing Shell to implement the clean-up, they had asked the judge to keep the legal case on hold until May 2020.

    A spokeswoman for Shell said she had no immediate comment on the ruling.

     

    Oil spills, sometimes due to vandalism, sometimes to corrosion, are common in the Niger Delta, a vast maze of creeks and mangrove swamps criss-crossed by pipelines and blighted by poverty, pollution, oil-fuelled corruption and violence.

    The spills have had a catastrophic impact on many communities where people have no other water supply than the creeks and rely on farming and fishing for survival.

    At the same time, oil companies have run into problems trying to clean up spills, sometimes because of obstruction and even violence by local gangs trying to extract bigger payouts, or to obtain clean-up contracts.

  • Vitol, Glencore, Shell eye Petrobras’ Nigerian assets

    The world’s three largest oil traders are competing to buy the African arm of Brazil’s Petrobras (PETR4.SA) that owns stakes in two major Nigerian offshore oil blocks, industry and banking sources with knowledge of the matter said, after submitting bids earlier this month.

    Last November, state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, launched the sale of 100 per cent of Petrobras Oil & Gas BV, or Petrobras Africa, as part of the heavily-indebted company’s plan to offload $21 billion in assets through 2018 as it also faces a massive corruption scandal.

    Petrobras holds half the shares in the company, while 40 per cent are held by a subsidiary of Grupo BTG Pactual SA and 10 per cent by Helios Investment Partners.

    Bankers have previously estimated the value of the Petrobras venture to be about $2 billion.

    The venture has stakes in two offshore blocks that contain two producing fields, the major Agbami field in OML 127, operated by a local Chevron (CVX.N) affiliate and the Akpo field in OML 130 operated by Total SA (TOTF.PA).

    The sale has attracted the top trading firms which are always on the hunt for long-term crude supplies. Mercuria and BP (BP.L) had also its potential.

     

     

  • Shell boosts domestic gas supply by 150%

    Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) Limited has increased its domestic gas distribution capacity by 150 per cent in the last six months.

    The increase, according to the firm’s spokesperson, Bamidele Odugbesan, will enable the company to distribute more than 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (MMscf/d) to businesses in its western operations.

    The new capacity is equivalent to some 400 megawatts (MW) of gas to power, and has been enabled by the construction of a second train at the Agbara/Ota Pressure Reduction and Metering Station (PRMS) in Ogun State, from where SNG supplied its first customers with gas.

    “The expansion project shows the commitment of Shell to Nigeria’s industrialisation through the monetisation of Nigeria’s abundant gas resources,” said SNG Managing Director, Ed Ubong, while speaking in Lagos on the operations of the company.

    The modules for the second train were fabricated by a Nigerian company which collaborated with its foreign partners to safely execute the project without any Lost Time injuries(LTI’s).

    Ubong said: “We’re continuing the campaign for gas by discussing with various stakeholders to deepen and expand domestic gas supply to existing industrial and new manufacturing clusters in various locations in Nigeria.”

    SNG’s existing gas distribution system in the three states it operates – Ogun, Abia and Rivers – have boosted manufacturing output and helped these states to grow their internally generated revenues and provide local employment opportunities. In 2017, SNG executed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rivers State Government for the distribution of gas to industries in the Greater Port Harcourt area and its environs. The agreement provides further opportunities for SNG to promote gas as a more reliable, cleaner and cost-effective alternative to liquid fuels in Nigeria.

    SNG has built a reputation for safety and credibility and is the only gas distribution company in Nigeria whose facility is ISO 14001 certified. In the course of its business, the company has implemented various development projects in the areas of its operations, donating or renovating schools, providing information communications technology (ICT) centre, equipping science laboratories and launching numerous Road Safety Education and Awareness campaigns in 2016 and 2017.