26 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2013
Nigeria loses N1.011trn to oil theft, flooding …Earns N235bn from local crude oil refining BY MICHAEL EBOH
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igeria lost N1.011 trillion ($6.439 billion) to oil theft and production losses arising from the flooding that ravaged most parts of the country last year, as the country recorded a decline in crude oil production in November 2011. The CBN also stated that the country earned N235.307 billion ($1.499 billion) from the local refining of crude oil for domestic consumption in November 2012, as deliveries to the refineries for domestic consumption stood at 0.45 mbd or 13.50 million barrels during the month under review. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Economic Report for the month of November 2012, Nigeria’s crude oil production, including condensates and natural gas liquids, was estimated at an average of 1.95 million barrels per day (mbd) or 58.5 million barrels for the month, dropping by 0.05 mbd or 2.5 per cent below the average of 2.00 mbd or 62.0 million barrels produced in the month of October 2012. The CBN, which put the price per barrel at US$111.02, said the country earned N784.366 billion ($4.996 billion) from crude oil export, dropping by 3.2 per cent from N837.518 billion ($5.335 billion) recorded in October. According to CBN, Crude oil export was estimated at 1.50 mbd or 45.0 million barrels for the month, representing a decline of 3.2 per cent when compared with the 1.55 mbd or 48.05 million barrels recorded in the preceding month. “At an estimated average of US$111.02 per barrel, the price of
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L-R: Managing Director/CEO, Solonic Energy Limited, Otunba Olu Adenodi; Director, Mr Peter Ewemen; Creative Director, Solnic GMBH, Germany, Mrs Martina Holtmann; and Mr Hans Holtmann, MD, Solonic GMBH, during the inauguration of Solonic Energy in Lagos, recently. Nigeria’s reference crude, the Bonny Light (37º API), fell by 2.8 per cent, compared with the level in the preceding month.” The report noted. The CBN said the fall in price was attributed to the heightened concerns of decreased demand by the United States as a result of their announcement of plans to reduce dependence on foreign oil. The report further stated that the average prices of other competing crudes, namely the U.K Brent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Forcados, at US$110.20, US$79.15 and US$112.66 per barrel also exhibited similar trend as the Bonny Light. “The average price of the OPEC’s
basket of eleven crude streams decreased by 1.8 per cent to US$106.86 per barrel below the level recorded in the preceding,” the CBN stated. The CBN further disclosed that oil sector receipts increase by 5.2 per cent to US$3.53 billion (N554.21 billion) in November, accounting for 33.6 per cent of the total foreign exchange inflow of US$10.53 billion (N1.65 trillion). Continuing, the CBN said, “The visible sector accounted for the bulk (65.9 per cent) of total foreign exchange disbursed in November 2012. “A breakdown of the sectoral disbursement showed that the minerals and oil sector accounted for 14.9 per cent followed by industrial sector 20.8 per cent.
NUPENG blames pipelines vandalism on NNPC BY GODWIN ORITSE
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HE leadership of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has berated the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for not concluding on security of pipelines with local communities and their leaders. NUPENG alleged that the NNPC previously had an arrangement with communities to secure pipelines across the country for a fee, but which the Corporation refused to pay after several years of securing these pipelines by members of the host communities where these facilities are sited. Speaking to Vanguard in Lagos recently, NUPENG’s Zonal Chairman, West, Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, alleged that the NNPC failed to protect these pipelines by reneging on the agreement it entered into with leaders of the host communities. Korodo noted that from the time the NNPC reneged on the agreement, vandals have been having a field C M Y K
BRIEF Oando rig operates 3 years without loss time injury
day in damaging the pipelines. He stated that vandals had also crippled other NNPC’s facilities across the country, and advised the management of NNPC to return to the former arrangement of securing pipelines with the assistance of community leaders. He argued that it is cheaper to have the community people secure the pipelines than allow vandals hold the country to ransom. The NUPENG’s official disclosed that at a time, the group had to provide security to ensure the steady flow of products across the country since the government failed to see the need to do so. His words, “The Federal Government has failed to live up to its primary responsibility of protecting the pipelines and by extension expectations of the masses, and this has also brought about an increase in the issue of vandalism. “The Government buried pipelines across the country and empowered NNPC/PPMC to ensure the protection of these pipelines, and between NNPC and PPMC went as
far as giving the security contract of these pipelines to local chiefs and Community Development Associations to ensure that the pipelines that runs through their domain and communities were adequately protected for a little amount to the communities. “The pipelines were well protected by the community leaders and local chiefs for a long time until NNPC and PPMC refused to pay a backlog of arrears of these peanuts that are paid to the people for protecting the pipelines. “Because the debt owed to these people, they abandoned the job and vandals moved in, when we now saw what going on we was moved in to checkmate the activities of these vandals. When we saw what was going on we moved in our security to checkmate the activities of vandals “None of the systems are working Vandals have cripple the entire operations of NNPC excerpt for system 2B of NNPC you can check this, it is system 2B that belongs to the western states that is working.
ando Energy Services Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous provider of swamp drilling rigs services and a subsidiary of Oando Plc, last week announced that the OES Teamwork, one its four rigs, has recorded a safety milestone of three years of uninterrupted operations without a Loss Time Injury (LTI). LTI is an industry Key Performance Indicator (KPI), which measures adherence to safety requirements by evaluating the number of injurybearing incidents capable of preventing a worker from performing or continuing with a task. OES Teamwork is the second rig in Oando’s drilling fleet to achieve this safety feat, after OES Integrity recorded the same achievement on Friday, August 10, 2012. OESL, which currently has three swamp rigs in operations, is strongly committed to Health, Safety, and Environment requirements, and is poised to remain a leading service provider in Nigeria’s oil servicing sector. Commenting, Mr. Bandele Badejo, Chief Executive Officer, OESL said: “We are pleased with this very significant and commendable milestone for all our stakeholders. Operating the rig for One Thousand and Ninety-six days without a Lost Time Injury is a demonstration of the emphasis we place on Environment Health, Safety, Security and Quality processes in the company, as well as the commitment of our people to these processes. This feat further demonstrates to the industry that indigenous drilling services providers with the right people and attitude are capable of sustaining safe, efficient and incident-free operations.” Also commenting, Mr. Chijioke Akwukwuma, Chief Environment, Health, Safety Security and Quality (EHSSQ) Officer, Oando PLC, “We are very proud of the OES teamwork for achieving this remarkable safety milestone, which is in line with the Oando Group’s zero tolerance for unsafe conditions and practices.