WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-12-29 Time: 12:00:03 Posted By: News Poster
By Hamisu Muhammad
Numerous issues shaped the outgoing year. Daily Trust looks at the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy.
End of fuel scarcity?
Just like the year before, the year 2010 began with fuel scarcity in the country. People were paying extra amount to get petroleum products to meet their daily demands.
The trend continued until the end of the first quarter when the former Group Managing Director of the NNPC Mohammed S. Barkindo set up a ‘War Room,’ with a mandate to look at all the bedevilling issues surrounding the supply chain of petroleum products and solve them.
The ‘War Room’ successfully reduced the hardship in conjunction with other measures put in place by other agencies like Petroleum Equalisation Fund, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) among others.
Investment in refining
From the beginning of the year to the end, there were so many requests and aspirations for the construction of new refineries in the country.
The Indians promised to build a refinery in the country, if their oil deals with federal government click. Later, the NNPC sealed a deal with Chinese investors and engineers from the China State Engineering Construction Corporation (CSECC) to constructs three Greenfield refineries and petrochemical plants in Lagos, Kogi and Bayelsa states.
The $28.5 Billion worth project will create several thousands jobs when completed and will be financed with a loan from the Chinese government.
Also in Imo state, there is plan to establish a Greenfield refinery. The state Governor, Ikedi Ohakim, said during a courtesy visit to Austen Oniwon, NNPC’s Group Managing Director, that the refinery will be built in partnership with the Corporation.
The refining aspiration got another boost with plan by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Zamfara State Government to establish a 200,000 barrels per day capacity refinery in the state. Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Engr. Austen Oniwon disclosed this after receiving the feasibility report of a refinery project from the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.
Change of guards at ministry/NNPC
The year began with Dr. Rilwanu Lukman and Mohammed S. Barkindo as Minister of Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the NNPC respectively. Dr. Lukman left after a minor cabinet reshuffle by the Jonathan administration. He was succeeded by Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke who assumed as a first female petroleum minister in the country. Few days after Mrs Madueke became the minister, there was alleged misunderstanding between herself and the NNPC’s Barkindo who happened to be Lukman’s ‘Boy’, and the end crisis led to the exit of the later.
Barkindo was replaced by Mallam Shehu Ladan, the Chigari of Zauzau on the 6thof April, but the greatest surprise in the leadership history of the NNPC, was the exit of Mallam Ladan, 41 days after he was appointed in the position. Ladan was replaced by Engineer Austen Oniwon who still remains the captain of the ship.
Within the year, there were several restructurings and reshufflings at the Petroleum Ministry, NNPC and rest of the agencies under the Ministry. The major one was that of the sack of some Group Executive Directors and General Managers who got demoted. The changes include the appointment of Mr. Andrew Obaje, Deputy Director Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR), as the substantive Director DPR, while Mr Samuel Okeke, Acting Group General Manager (Ag GGM) New Business Development Division (NBDD) moved to Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) as substantive Managing Director to replace Mr Reginald Stanley who moved to head NBDD.
The Group Executive Director (GED) Engineering and Technical Services Mr F. Abbiye Suku moved to the position of GED Corporate Services, while Mr Billy Agha, the current Director of Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) moved to NNPC headquarters to the position of GED Engineering & Technical Service.
The changes, also saw Alhaji Attahiru Yusuf, the current GED Corporate Services move to the position of GED Commercial & Investment (C&I), while the current GED Commercial and Investment, Alhaji Aminu Babakusa, moved to the position of GED Special Services.
The controversial PIB
The Petroleum Industry Bill had dominated discussions in the oil and gas industry. Both within and outside the country, there were a lot of scepticisms from investors and international oil companies on what the outcome of the Bill would be after passing it into law. Initially, the PIB was billed to be passed in 2009 when that failed; it was assumed it would get through by first quarter of 2010.
The long delay in passing the bill has stopped many billion dollar investments in the upstream oil sector. The Royal Dutch Shell said it put aside $40bn worth of potential investment in deepwater oil projects on hold as it await the outcome of the bill. Other oil majors like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Texaco, ENI and Total all consolidated their positions by frowning at some provisions in the bill.
Recent, Vice President Namadi Sambo announced in Abuja that the Bill would be passed into law in December, 2010, a statement which the Managing Director of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited and Lead Country Manager for ExxonMobil, Mark Ward disregarded, saying they have heard enough of such promises and are prepared to adopt a ‘Wait and See’ position on the Bill.
On the other hand, civil society organisations and trade unions like Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigerian (PENGASSAN) accused the federal government and the legislatures of connivance with the oil majors to kill the bill.
The argument by the activists was that, most of the provisions in the Bill that favoured the country and unfavoured the international oil companies were removed from the original copy of the Bill earlier sent during Yar’adua regime.
It was gathered that the nation is losing about $300 million monthly as a result of the delay in passing the Bill.
Revised domestic gas pricing
The year witnessed another policy pronouncement with increase in the price of gas to power by 400 percent. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke who made the pronouncement said that with the new price, by the end of this year the price of gas to power will increase to $1 per million British thermal unit (mbtu), by the end of 2011 to $1.5 mbtu and the $2 per mbtu by the end of 2013.
However, the year witnessed improved gas supply to power to most of the thermal power stations in the country. The minister said the gas supply within the year hit the all-time high, while “all critical pipeline repairs that militated against our performance last year and all gas plants are operating at or very close to full capacity”
NNPC debt saga
Throughout the year, the true status of the financial straight of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been a subject of controversy.
The insolvency status of the Corporation was first revealed by the former Group Managing Director of the Corporation Barkindo at the Transformation Town hall meeting held in Abuja that NNPC must undergo transformation in line with Petroleum Industry Bill or file for insolvency, as the company had a negative balance of N326bn in 2008.
Barkindo confessed that without the support of the Federal Government and its sovereign guarantees, NNPC would simply wind up as it had recorded negative financial results across the entire value chain of operations for years.
Few months after Barkindo’s assertion, Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola and chairman of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) said the oil giant cannot pay back the N450 billion it owes government.
But the statement from Babalola drew stiff criticisms from his colleagues at the council meeting and the Public affairs of the NNPC. Government later made a statement that the NNPC is solvent and it meets its financial obligations with its business partners.
The insolvency statement by Babalola on NNPC earned him a redeployment from the finance ministry to that of special duties and finally his exit from the cabinet of Jonathan’s administration.
The controversy took another dimension when the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, said the Corporation owes the Federation Account a total of N654bn. Executive Secretary, NEITI, Haruna Sa’eed, said the organisation would issue a notice of demand to pay to the Corporation.
Another twist appeared when the gasoline suppliers said NNPC owed them between $3 billion and $6 billion for previous imports but the Corporation said it was meeting its obligations, assured the suppliers that the company would pay off a significant portion of the backlog by the end of August, although, up to last week, the marketers were unhappy because the Corporation failed to settle about $3.3 billion of the debt which they promised to pay.
The breakthrough in local content
President Goodluck Jonathan signed the local content bill into law, paving the way for higher domestic participation in the oil and gas industry. In order to ensure the speedy actualisation of the Nigerian Content Act, the Minister of Petroleum Resources appointed an acting Executive Secretary to man the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in the person of Mr Ernest Nwakpa.
Nigerian Content Act is aimed at promoting the development and utilization of local capacity, create employment for Nigerians in the Oil and Gas Industry and drive the development of other sectors of the economy.
Ups and downs of refineries
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), restored operations at the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) at the beginning of the year.
By April, the Managing Director of WRPC, Engineer Andy Yakubu, said the company was producing at optimal level, but, is faced with a serious challenge of evacuating petrol, kerosene and diesel because of inadequate storage space.
The Port Harcourt Refinery in the Niger Delta region, also resumed the supply of petroleum products to its depot in Aba, Abia state by the middle of the year.
But before the end of the year, all the three refineries were closed down due to incessant attacks on the pipelines that supply crude oil to the refineries coupled with security challenges, according to a statement by Mr Austen Oniwon, the NNPC boss.
Kidnapping of oil workers at a low
There were number of kidnapping cases of oil workers within the year but the trend compared to previous years had reduced. Within the year, gunmen attacked an oil rig operated by Afren Oil Company Limited, an indigenous oil and gas firm operating off the coast of Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, abducting five foreign workers and injuring two others.
Can’t stop Gas flare out
As the country flares out an estimated $2.5 billion (N375 billion ) worth of associated gas every year, equivalent to 24 billion Standard Cubic feet, both the legislatures and the executives had adopted ‘Wait and See’ attitude on the issue. Several deadlines were turned down by the oil majors in the past. Currently no agreements are in place with operators in Nigeria, rather the government, through statements and policy pronouncements not backed by law, encourages the private sector and the joint implementation of the new flare phase out date of 2018.
Oil production and prices are sweet
Nigeria’s crude oil production was at average of 2 million barrels per day. Since the successful implementation of the Amnesty programme by the federal government, the year recorded significant increase in oil production compared to that of previous ones. Although other challenges that has to do with kidnapping and pipelines attacks coupled with the lack of direction of government policies had injured the crude production in some cases.
The average price of crude oil barrels hovered around $84 per barrel. At the beginning of the year price was around $80 per barrel, moved to $93 during the second quarter and dropped to around $75 in the third quarter of the year. As at this week the price hit $92 per barrel, a fresh 26-month high.
Amnesty works but..
Between June and December, 2010 a total of 11,674 former militants of the Niger Delta have successfully completed the non-violence training at the Obubra camp in Cross Rivers state.
This figure according to the government represents more than 50 percent of the 20,192 ex-militants who surrendered their arms in 2009.
The December 2010 deadline for concluding the training of 20,192 ex-militants under the post amnesty programme has been shifted to June, 2011.
About N10bn was expended for the implementation of the post-amnesty programme for the repentant militants in the Niger Delta.
But all wasn’t well with the Amnesty programme within the period when some ex-militants blocked Abuja-Lokoja road for hours demanded inclusion in the programme just as another group of young men numbering about 60 that claimed to be ex-militants from Bayelsa State attacked the Abuja headquarters of the Presidential Amnesty Office, protesting their non-inclusion in the benefits of the amnesty programme, especially the N65,000 stipend and feeding allowance paid to their colleagues on a monthly basis.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 29 December 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201012290339.html?viewall=1