Oil prices dipped early on Monday, weighed down by concerns that a global economic downturn may dent fuel consumption. However, crude markets remain broadly supported by supply cuts led by producer group OPEC and by aggressive sanctions by the United States against Iran and Venezuela. Brent crude oil futures were at $67.03 per barrel down 13 cents,…
Norwegian oil producer Panoro Energy ASA has lifted its first cargo of crude oil from the TPS assets in Tunisia. Some 151,000 barrels of Rhemoura blend crude oil was lifted from La Skhirra Terminal in Tunisia in the first week of March 2019. “The pricing for this cargo was based on Rhemoura blend which is…
The coalition of the Oil Producers Exporting Countries and other high producing, but non OPEC member countries, known as OPEC+ coalition, has reaffirmed its commitment to continuing output cuts. The coalition however decided to defer the decision on whether to extend the curbs until June 2019. The output cuts, started in 2017, helped to bouy…
Equatorial Guinea’s 2019 Licencing Round, to be launched on April 2, will have 27 Blocks on auction. 25 of these blocks are offshore. Two are onshore. The licencing round is for both hydrocarbon blocks and mining (minerals) concessions. A high point of the sale, the third in seven years, is the presence, in the basket,…
The one thing that is unclear about the decision of Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President, to remove operatorship of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 11 from Shell and grant it to NNPC, the state hydrocarbon company, is whether he did so in consideration of Shell’s ongoing moves to divest its equity in the asset after it…
As Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to begin his second term in office. President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mansur Ahmed, has urged him to address the challenges militating against the manufacturing sector of the economy. Boosting the manufacturing sector Nigeria urgently needs a massive economic stimulus programme. If he can surmount the energy problems, Buhari…
The country is on the verge of achieving a blend of Methanol in the production of gasoline and generation of electrical power, if the report of the Technical Committee (TC) on Methanol Fuel Technology Implementation programme set up by the federal government August 10, 2018 is anything to go by. The programme target a15 per…
An impact fund with an innovative approach for attracting much needed capital to the rural areas of developing countries has been launched at the annual meeting of Member States of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). According to a statement on IFAD website, it was the at IFAD alongside with the European Union, the…
Another 120 youth entrepreneurs from seven states of the Niger Delta have been given Shell Nigeria LiveWIRE business training and N48 million by The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture to begin small-scale businesses in their respective states in the expectation that they will become models for alternative livelihoods as part of the programme…
For the past decade, the common refrain listed among the top challenges in Nigeria’s maritime sector is the issue of foreign domination. From all reported accounts, foreign firms dominate virtually every aspect of Nigeria’s coastal shipping trade, contrary to the provisions of the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act 2003, otherwise called the Cabotage Act. The…