Factory
August 6, 2023 No Comments

Nigeria requires $20 billion gas infrastructure to unlock potential

To fully exploit its gas potential, Nigeria would need to inject between $15 billion and $20 billion in infrastructure. The Deputy Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc, Omamofe Boyo, disclosed this at the just-concluded NOG Energy Week in Abuja. He said there was a need for collaboration between the private and public sectors to plug the wide investment gap.

Boyo said collaboration between the private and public sectors would help to unlock the gas potential that would guarantee a smooth energy transition and sustainable economic development.

Sharing his views on gas utilisation for domestic consumption in Nigeria, he stated that although the country has been down this road for over 30 years, it is yet to optimally utilise gas for domestic consumption owing to various reasons.

Boyo said that Nigeria started a system whereby competing fuels were subsidised, which prevented the market from growing independently.
Additionally, it emphasised earning foreign currency from gas exportation rather than utilising it domestically.

Also, he said: “The investment and emphasis were put on oil rather than gas, which resulted in the oil infrastructure being prioritised.” Boyo proposed a holistic approach to increasing local consumption and investment in gas, which, he said, requires a level playing field and adequate regulatory capacity.

He stated that building Nigeria’s gas infrastructure would require between $15 billion – $20 billion and the government alone would be unable to realise this, he said the private sector would need to work with the government to actualise the required investment.

According to Boyo, Nigeria needs to prioritise harnessing its gas resources and ensure an enabling environment with clearly defined opportunities for the private sector to fund and work in partnership with the government.

Factory Industry
June 1, 2022 No Comments

Oil regulator blames marketers, disburses N58b bridging claims

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) yesterday, in Abuja, said marketers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) have a hand in the delayed payment for petroleum equalisation.

The NMDPRA said while payment of the claims said to be responsible for ongoing PMS scarcity in some parts of the country takes time to be sorted, “some of the pending payments is due to the reluctance of marketers to reconcile their claims, in spite of the authority’s continuous appeal to come for reconciliation whenever there are discrepancies.”

Scarcity of PMS, otherwise called petrol, had surfaced in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) earlier this week as marketers blamed it on the inability of the Federal Government to settle over N100 billion equalisation payment as well as a breakdown of key storage and distribution infrastructure may spread the development across the country.

Coming barely two months after the country experienced a similar situation, most motorists have had to wait for hours as only a few stations are dispensing.

Like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NMDPRA said in a release recently that the country has sufficient PMS to last over 47 days, translating to about 2.65 billion litres.

“There is no need to panic as the current situation being experienced in some parts of the country will soon stabilise,” the statement said.

NMDPRA disclosed that the administration of bridging payment is a continuous process as hundreds of trucks load and discharge products daily thereby adding to the claims.

“Since December 2021, the NMDPRA has made several payments to marketers whose claims have been verified. So far, over N58 billion has been disbursed to oil marketers out of which about N34 billion went directly to members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN),” the regulator said.

NMDPRA further disclosed that the total amount disbursed so far remained the highest ever paid within a 6-months span by previous fund administrators.

It noted that the reimbursement of marketer’s transportation differentials for petroleum products movement from depots to sales outlets remained a priority.

Factory Production
April 26, 2021 No Comments

Sahara Energy backs Fujairah to emerge as global trading hub

Speaking ahead of the upcoming virtual 12th International Fujairah Bunkering & Fuel Oil Forum (FUJCON 2021) in the United Arab Emirate (UAE), Laven said ongoing transformative projects would give traction to the drive to develop Fujairah “as a global trading hub will also support the growth in demand as activity levels continue to increase.”

“The bunker market during 2020 has had to deal with a number of challenges. At the beginning of the year, we had the IMO 2020 specification change, then following the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand and bunker markets around the world have been impacted in different ways. Hopefully, 2021 will see a return to normality and Fujairah can see growth,” he added.

Launched in 1978 and fully operational in 1983, the Port of Fujairah is the second-largest bunkering hub in the world after Singapore. It offers general cargo, bulk cargo, wet bulk cargo, and container services. The port has a vast oil storage capacity of 10 million cubic meters with plans to enhance productivity through the extension of the storage capacity to 42 million barrels of crude oil.

He asserted that as a leading player in the UAE oil and gas sector, Sahara Energy would continue to promote investment projects aimed at ensuring the availability of clean fuels.

“Sustaining strategic and transparent conversations around the future of the energy sector requires the commitment and collaboration of all stakeholders. Sahara Energy and its parent organization, Sahara Group are delighted to lend its voice to shaping the future that will best serve global well-being.”

Laven who will be speaking on Risk Management and Oil Storage alongside other speakers said the issue of price remained critical to risk management considerations in oil and gas transactions. “But the strategy of investing in flat price without managing the price risk carries a significant amount of risk. When investing in oil, a combination of appropriate risk management and trading market structure and arbitrage can still generate material returns,” he said.

the availability of locally produced fuels, enhanced automation, and access to clean fuels should provide a level of market confidence in supply at the Port of Fujairah, Andrew Laven, Chief Operating Officer, Sahara Energy Resources DMCC, Dubai has said.

“The bunker market during 2020 has had to deal with a number of challenges. At the beginning of the year, we had the IMO 2020 specification change, then following the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand and bunker markets around the world have been impacted in different ways. Hopefully, 2021 will see a return to normality and Fujairah can see growth,” he added.

Launched in 1978 and fully operational in 1983, the Port of Fujairah is the second-largest bunkering hub in the world after Singapore. It offers general cargo, bulk cargo, wet bulk cargo, and container services. The port has a vast oil storage capacity of 10 million cubic meters with plans to enhance productivity through the extension of the storage capacity to 42 million barrels of crude oil.

He asserted that as a leading player in the UAE oil and gas sector, Sahara Energy would continue to promote investment projects aimed at ensuring the availability of clean fuels.

“Sustaining strategic and transparent conversations around the future of the energy sector requires the commitment and collaboration of all stakeholders. Sahara Energy and its parent organization, Sahara Group are delighted to lend its voice to shaping the future that will best serve global well-being.”

Laven who will be speaking on Risk Management and Oil Storage alongside other speakers said the issue of price remained critical to risk management considerations in oil and gas transactions. “But the strategy of investing in flat price without managing the price risk carries a significant amount of risk. When investing in oil, a combination of appropriate risk management and trading market structure and arbitrage can still generate material returns,” he said.

Factory
September 19, 2020 No Comments

Nigeria’s oil output rises by 9% as OPEC forecasts fall in demand

Nigeria’s crude oil production went up by 9% to 1.353 million barrels per day (bpd) in August relative to 1.361 million bpd in July, data from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed on Monday.

OPEC gave the revelation in its September 2020 Oil Market Report issued on Monday, saying it derived its figures based on ‘direct communication.’ It, however, put Nigeria’s output based on ‘secondary sources’ at 1.482 million last month compared to the 1.480 million recorded in the preceding month, representing a 2% growth.

“Gasoline crack spreads trended downward as gasoline exports to Nigeria fell in August by 16 tb/d (thousand barrels per day) to 0.30 mb/d (million barrels per day), with many of the arrivals held in floating storage towards the end of the month.

“Gasoline floating storage in Nigeria grew by 3.68 mb to 5.16 mb in the last week of August, indicative of excess gasoline availability and limited European gasoline requirements. The gasoline crack spread averaged $8.63/b in August, down by $2.20 m-o-m and $10.18 y-o-y,” OPEC said.

Meanwhile, the oil cartel expects global oil demand to drop more sharply by this year than earlier projection as a fallout of the coronavirus crisis.

OPEC said it saw world oil demand recovering more slowly than expected in 2021, potentially making it hard for it and its allies to support the market.

It stated in the report that demand would fall by 9.46 million bpd this year, dwarfing the 9.06 million bpd decline forecasted a month ago.

OPEC, in a similar move, reduced its demand forecast for next year, saying consumption would jump by 6.62 million bpd, 370,000 bpd lower than projected last month.

Source: Ripples Nigeria