Oil and Gas Republic January Edition 2019

...creating global opportunities SPECIAL EDITION I Jan. 2019

USA $12, Europe €10, UK £8, Nigeria N1500, South Africa R60

Equinor set new goals for efficient operations in NCS OPEC+ oil production cuts to help balance the market in 2019 Rainmaker Seeks Buyer For 1000MW Gas Power Station in London Nigeria is business ready and our oil and gas free zones are conduits of economic prosperity – OGFZA CEO

Angela Durkin, Chief Operating Officer of Maersk Drilling. Pg35

INTRODUCTION Oil and Gas Republic's quarterly magazine explores the global oil and gas industry, featuring latest trends and innovation in the industry. This publication is focused on Offshore West Africa Oil and Gas Industry where there have been various deep sea projects ongoing.

Published by Nobilitas E.C. Limited No.1, Abegbe Ariyo Street, Off Addo Road, Ajah, Lagos - Nigeria

Publisher & Editor-In-Chief: Engr. Idowu Babalola (MBA, MNSE, MEI)

In this publication, we also featured some of the industry's major trends especially in the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry as Total’s EGINA FPSO has started production from the Egina field off the coast of Nigeria. The Egina project was a successful collaboration between LADOL, Total, and several Government agencies and has proved that the largest industrial projects in the world can be completed in Nigeria. This is a first not only for Nigeria but also for Africa and it represents a remarkable achievement in local content development in Nigeria.

Editor: Tobi Owoyimika

We will continue reporting about local content in oil & gas industry on our next edition.

Please send your feedback or general inquiries as we will be happy to respond as soon as possible.

Marketing Manager: Ogunfowokan Oludotun

Tobi Owoyimika Editor

Senior Correspondent, Technical and Creative Writer: Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

Correspondents: Genevieve Aningo Jackson Olagbaju

Contributing Author: Ayobami Adedinni Oil and Gas Republic (OGR) Reg. Number: 2347423

Oil and Gas Republic is an international publication covering the entire value chain of the Renewable Energy, Power & Electricity, Aviation, Mining, and Oil & Gas Industry. For more information, please visit www.oilandgasrepublic.com Email: info@oilandgasrepublic.com oilandgasrepublic@gmail.com Phone: +2349098095532 +2348065187468

EDITORIAL CONTENTS LOCAL CONTENT

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MARKETPLACE

PAGE 6

COMPANY PROFILE

PAGE 7

SPECIAL REPORT

PAGE 9

SPONSORED CONTENT

PAGE 16

MARITIME

PAGE 17

LNG WORLD NEWS

PAGE 18

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

PAGE 19

RENEWABLE ENERGY

PAGE 20

COUNTRY REPORT

PAGE 23

INDUSTRY AWARDS

PAGE 26

FREE TRADE ZONE

PAGE 27

TOP STORY

PAGE 30

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

PAGE 33

INDUSTRY NEWS

PAGE 34

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

PAGE 48

...creating global opportunities SPECIAL EDITION I Jan. 2019

USA $12, Europe €10, UK £8, Nigeria N1500, South Africa R60

Equinor set new goals for efficient operations in NCS OPEC+ oil production cuts to help balance the market in 2019 Rainmaker Seeks Buyer For 1000MW Gas Power Station in London Nigeria is business ready and our oil and gas free zones are conduits of economic prosperity – OGFZA CEO

Angela Durkin, Chief Operating Officer of Maersk Drilling. Pg35

WAIPEC 2019 - The leading event for Sub Saharan Africa

Innovention – Sustaining West African oil and gas production through innovation and collaboration The 3rd West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (WAIPEC 2019) will return to Lagos from 23-24th January 2019 - now the largest petroleum event of its kind in West Africa.

WAIPEC was established in 2017 by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) to promote the West African oil and gas industry, seek best practice, explore new technologies and develop commercial opportunities for business and international investment. Given its sell out success since, it has developed hugely today, and is now widely regarded as the major think-tank, collaboration platform and sprouting base for innovative ideas across the entire Sub Saharan African energy industry.

‘WAIPEC’s mission is to promote the region’s oil and gas industry, seek best practice, explore new technologies and develop commercial opportunities for business and international investment.’

Bank Anthony Okoroafor, Chair PETAN

WAIPEC attracts the most senior level representation and participation from all of the major countries in the West African region including Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, in addition to many Sub Saharan and international organisations.

Strategic Conference and International Exhibition Throughout the two-day event, emphasis at WAIPEC will be placed on networking and interaction among influential industry leaders - with the conference bringing hundreds of global and regional influential petrochemicals industry professionals together.

Its content and proceedings are driven by an esteemed steering committee and speakers, representing a cross section of key stakeholders and the most senior representatives from the West African oil and gas industry, delivering high-level strategic sessions and discussions on game-changing solutions, combined with an international exhibition.

WAIPEC in numbers

In 2018, WAIPEC featured over 50 industry leaders and global experts on an insightful programme, which was supported by a sold-out exhibition of over 300 companies and over 6,000 visitors with business interests throughout Nigeria and West Africa. Organisations included: Total, Exxon Mobil, NNPC, Nigeria LNG, Shell, SEPLAT, Sonagas, GNPC, First E&P, Addax Petroleum, Chevron, Niger Delta E&P plus many more.

Secure your involvement for WAIPEC 2019- special rates for Oil & Gas Republic readers Whether you are interested in sponsoring, exhibiting, or participating as a delegate - contact the WAIPEC 2019 organising committee today to discuss your involvement in the event. There are special rates available for Oil & Gas Republic readers quoting this advert.

Paul Gilbert, Event Director, WAIPEC +44 7850 025 295 pagilbert@gep-events.com

Adejumoke Oyedun, PETAN 080 372 55190 adejumoke.oyedun@petan.org

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LOCAL CONTENT

Issue 1 2019 I www.oilandgasrepublic.com

WAIPEC set to lay a strong foundation for Nigerian Content by 2019

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

“WAIPEC has been used to develop the oil and gas industry across the whole of Sub Saharan Africa by providing a platform to meet with at least 12 national oil companies who attend, speak, sponsor and exhibit with private sector companies – these are the people who have the products, solutions and expertise to help each country develop its oil and gas resources,” Paul said.

In his words, the programme’s content is built around debate and discussions that will analyse the region’s potential and position on the global energy stage and work to enhance opportunities and build collaborations.

“The event creates opportunities throughout, whether you’re an IOC looking to bid on a new tender or service companies looking to meet operating companies. It also provides all related oil and gas companies the opportunity to sell directly to the end user and/or decision maker throughout the whole value chain.

he 3rd West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (WAIPEC) 2019 is set to lay a strong foundation for the Nigerian Local Content as the event will return to Nigeria once again, featuring latest technological solutions and business opportunities that will attract foreign investment in the Nigeria’s oil industry.

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WAIPEC Event Director, Paul Gilbert, disclosed this on a media chat with our correspondent at the sideline of the annual West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference scheduled to take place on 23-24 January, 2019 in Lagos.

He explained that WAIPEC provides a fantastic opportunity for African countries to showcase how they met their local content targets, sharing best practices and real solutions to ensure Nigeria benefits from its local content ambitions moving forward.

Hosted by PETAN – effectively ‘by the industry, for the industry’ it gives a guarantee that participants will receiving a real business platform to be able to meet companies with the very latest products and solutions that will develop Africa’s oil and gas assets to their full potential.

“As well as building on the discussions of previous years, the programme’s content is annually led by an esteemed steering committee, this year, chair of the committee is Emeka Ene – Chief Executive Officer of Oildata Energy Group, who is

working alongside senior level representatives from FIRST E&P, TOTAL E&P, SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company, SNEPCo, Chevron, NAPIMS, NCDMB and Nigeria LNG in addition to PETAN Chair – Bank Anthony Okoroafor and Public Secretary – Ranti Omole. nergy Group, who is working alongside senior level representatives from FIRST E&P, TOTAL E&P, SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company, SNEPCo, Chevron, NAPIMS, NCDMB and Nigeria LNG in addition to PETAN Chair – Bank Anthony Okoroafor and Public Secretary – Ranti Omole.

“The programme’s content is built around debate and discussions that will analyse the region’s potential and position on the global energy stage and work to enhance opportunities and build collaborations.

“Providing a platform for business development, access to the best products and solutions will only speed up all future upstream, midstream and downstream projects moving forward,” Paul said.

“The international exhibition element of the conference, which is currently 80% sold out, has proven an effective platform for networking, exchanging business information, and crucially – a great basis from which to form fruitful joint ventures and partnerships.

“Further enhancing the networking opportunities, time are factored into the programme each year, specifically for this reason. All WAIPEC participants can use the event’s Business Matching service, which allows them to prearrange meetings with other attendees ahead of the event through an easyto-use online platform. They are then allocated a specific time and location to meet during the conference in the Business Matching Lounge.

The service was introduced in 2018 and proved hugely popular,” he added.

He further stated that the challenges and opportunities faced across the entire industry is a core part of the programme at each event, with each edition summarizing discussions from the previous and building recommendations and strategies for moving forward.

Given its sell out success since, it has developed hugely today, and is now widely regarded as the major think-tank, collaboration platform and sprouting base for innovative ideas across the entire Sub Saharan African energy industry.

“The collaborations and participation of both the most senior and influential public and private sector representatives that we see annually at WAIPEC are a really effective form of driving oil and gas growth for many countries within Africa.”

WAIPEC was born off the back of the need for a real industry to industry platform where actual business is done. It covers not only Nigeria and West Africa but the whole of Sub Saharan Africa, enabling NOC’s to share experience, best practice and provide an opportunity for international companies to develop business in over ten countries in the region.

WAIPEC was established in 2017 by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) to promote the West African oil and gas industry, seek best practice, explore new technologies and develop commercial opportunities for business and international investment.

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MARKETPLACE

Issue 1 2019 www.oilandgasrepublic.com

Rainmaker Seeks Buyer For 1000MW Gas Power Station in London Rainmaker is well positioned to deliver innovative solutions worldwide. The company uses innovative solutions and lean structuring to bring projects online which had previously seemed impossible. Through its network, Rainmaker can also bring in key partners for oil & gas field development, power generation and infrastructure upgrades.

ainmaker, a Canadian based company involved with Power Generation, Pipelines, Logistics, Oil & Gas Field development, is currently seeking buyer for a 1000MW Combined Cycle Gas Power Station, situated in London, UK.

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In an interview with our correspondent at the sideline of the Nigeria-Canada Investment Summit 2018 recently held in Abuja, Managing Director, Rainmaker Global Business Development UK, Karl Teviotdale, disclosed that the company was given the opportunity to sell a client's power station based in London which was taken out of service in 2014 due to high gas prices.

According to him, The engineering contractors working on the decommissioning plans advised the owners that, due to the excellent condition of the plant, they should look for a buyer and they approached Rainmaker to help look for a buyer as they already have a track record with the client.

Karl said, "Initial market research indicated that the demand was certainly there, in particular within developing nations but what quickly became apparent was that, none of them wanted to simply buy a reconditioned power plant- they wanted a full turnkey power generation project."

"The other major drawback was that most of the countries who needed this the most, had little or no access to the level of funding required for this scale of a project.

This is no mean feat, so we set out to find partners who could help us put this project together, tailored to the individual clients’ needs (of which there were several interested parties) and set about arranging methods of financing the project.

"Nigeria was an ideal candidate for this type of project since it has access to

domestically produced oil & gas and a real requirement for the power generation due to a high energy deficit to domestic clients (by some accounts 70-80% of the population being offgrid).

"The mission was to deliver the project at a price which would make it economically viable for all involved and to allow the knock-on effect to improve the economy of the local area and the people who live there which would in turn create revenue for the local economy and improve living standards and upgrades to the infrastructure along with the fiscal benefits for the country as a whole," he concluded.

The plant uses combined-cycle technology that enhances fuel efficiency & reduces emissions, and has also been maintained and operated in the rigorous UK business environment, with full compliance of all regulations.

The power station has a generating capacity of powering at least 1,000,000 UK homes, or

double that amount in developing nations. It could power Abuja alone.

Rainmaker has a business relationship with the owners, and has been engaged to facilitate the sale of the plant. The company can also provide project management services for each phase of the project via its partners.

Rainmaker provides world class industry solutions to clients globally, and has worked on a variety of projects on Power Generation, Pipelines, Logistics, Oil & Gas Field development. The company also delivers value to the customer through technical innovation and structuring the business to ensure economic viability.

For more information or inquiries, please email us at: info@oilandgasrepublic.com

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COMPANY PROFILE

Issue 1 2019 www.oilandgasrepublic.com

MPC's Kenai refinery: strong roots in Alaska ...first tanker of Indy fuel leaves Marathon Petroleum Corporation refinery on January 14th 2019

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PC's Kenai refinery has strong roots in Alaska. Today, the refinery can process 68,000 barrels per day and is the only major gasoline refinery in Alaska, supplying most of the gasoline in the state as well as jet fuel, diesel, propane, butane and asphalt.

The year was 1969; a gallon of gas was only 35 cents, and months after the world saw a man walk on the moon, Tesoro began operations at its first refinery on the majestic Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.

The $14 million refinery took more than a year to build and began operations with only 17 employees to process 17,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula. Later, it became the first to refine Alaska North Slope crude.

When the refinery opened, it struggled to turn a profit. How to get crude to the refinery and finished products to market cost-effectively hadn’t been figured out yet. The refinery also faced competition from Standard Oil Company, the only other refinery in Alaska at the time. Eventually, prices for refined products increased, pipelines simplified logistics, and the refinery was making money.

In 1979, when the company was struggling financially, the refinery was one of the only profitable assets, providing fuel for the growing Alaska market. A decade after it was built, the refinery invested triple its original price tag in upgrades, confident that the remote location and ready raw materials in Alaska oil fields would make it profitable. And it did.

Today, the refinery can process 68,000 barrels per day and is the only major gasoline refinery in Alaska, supplying most of the gasoline in the state as well as jet fuel, diesel, propane, butane and asphalt. The 225 employees include many multigenerational families who have worked at the refinery during its almost 50-year history. Operations Superintendent Pete Goggia encouraged his daughter Lindsay Jester to apply for a position at the refinery, where he’s worked for 29 years.

The refinery’s biggest challenges have been from the location itself. Alaska is the largest state with the fourth-smallest population,

and battles harsh weather and a remote locale.

This has driven the refinery to be even more diligent in keeping its operations up and running.

Safety first API Tier 1 and Tier 2 Process Safety performance better than industry first quartile average for more than nine years.

As of August 2018, only one OSHA recordable employee injury.

Economic impact In 2017, operations contributed $5 million in taxes and $700,000 in grants and scholarships to Alaska.

Grants supported more than 77 charities including the Challenger Learning Center, Caring for the Kenai, the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s 911 Operation Center, the Kenai Boys and Girls Club, the Alaska Sea Life Center, and STEM education programs.

Flare Gas Recovery System reduces flares by 50 percent Last April, the refinery installed a new $44 million Flare Gas Recovery System that takes suction from the refinery flare headers and returns the gas to the fuel system, reducing gas flares and emissions. The complex, three-year project required hundreds of hours of analysis, training,

monitoring, and a task force of environmental experts, representatives from multiple refineries, and a Kenai-based stakeholder team.

Flare emissions were reduced 50 percent, well below EPA requirements.

Clean gasoline ahead of EPA standards In 1993, the refinery began producing clean gasoline, meeting EPA’s 2007 standards a decade early. In 2005, a $45 million low-sulfur unit was installed to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel, which is now used by most of the state.

On January 14th 2019, the first truck of Indy fuel was loaded out of MPC’s Catlettsburg refinery. “We are excited to be a part of this project,” said Sheila Fraley, Catlettsburg refinery community relations representative.

“There were several people who worked on this project and we look forward to watching IndyCar races in 2019. The employees of the Catlettsburg refinery are proud, knowing they are the only refinery fueling the race cars participating.”

Speedway LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corp. Effective this year, Speedway became the Official Fuel and Official Convenience Store of INDYCAR, the IndyCar Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. As the Official Fuel for INDYCAR, Speedway will provide the fuel powering every car at every race in the IndyCar Series.

SPECIAL REPORT

igerian content has progressed since 2010 when the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act was passed.

The law mandated the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to deepen the participation of Nigerians and Nigerian companies in the oil and gas industry, by facilitating local capacity development and ensuring that the execution of large components of any project is domiciled in-country.

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Total discovered the EGINA Oil Field in December 2003, the Egina FPSO came on baord three years after the enactment of the NOGICD Act when Total made the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2013. It became the test case of the law.

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“

Total’s Egina FPSO is a testimony for the Nigerian Local Content to the fact that large deepwater projects can be developed with a very high level of in-country activities

“

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The Egina oil field was discovered by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) when the Egina-1 well was drilled within the Oil Mining Licence 130 (OML 130), some 200 kilometres offshore Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Located about 20km away from Akpo field, Egina field covers an area of around 500 square miles. It is situated at a water depth of up to 1,750m.

Total Upstream Nigeria Limited operates OML 130 with a 24% interest, in partnership with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), South Atlantic Petroleum - SAPETRO Ltd. (15%), CNOOC E&P Nigeria Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited (45%) and Petrobras Oil and Gas BV (16%).

The Total’s Egina FPSO project was undertaken

by Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), with LADOL acting as the local content partner.

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SPECIAL REPORT

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The capital expenditure (Capex) for the six packages in the oilfield development is $16 billion, out of which $3.3 billion is allocated for building the FPSO. The oil field is estimated to reach a peak production rate of 150,000 barrels per day, while the new FPSO will have a production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.

Total is an integrated energy company involved in Upstream, Midstream and Downstream activities not only to produce energy but to supply energy to the people, with up to 3,000 employees in the upstream and downstream business.

According to a statement made know to Oil & Gas Republic, Total has invested $10 billion in Nigeria in the past five years. And, also involved on downstream distribution activities with over 500 service stations in each state of Nigeria.

Total has a long history in Nigeria as the company started operation since 1956 with downstream activities, commissioned a filling station in Yaba and then moved into upstream in River State.

50 years ago, Total moved into deepwater operation in Usan, Akpo and now Egina oil fields. The company operates in onshore and offshore activities, and in partnership with NNPC, indigenous companies & international oil companies (IOCs).

Total’s Egina FPSO is a testimony for the Nigerian Local Content to the fact that large deepwater projects can be developed with a very high level of incountry activities, thus fulfilling the aspirations and objectives of the Federal Government of Nigeria in terms of employment generation, capacity building and industrial capability development.

Egina Infrastructure Egina field infrastructure will include an FPSO unit, an oil offloading terminal and subsea production systems such as risers, 52km of oil and water injection flowlines, 12 flexible jumpers, 20km of gas export pipelines, 80km of umbilicals, and subsea manifolds.

EGINA FPSO measures approximately 330m in length, 61m in width and 33.5m in depth, and have an oil storage capacity of approximately 2.3 million barrels. The FPSO also have topsides modules with a gross dry weight of 34,000t.

Fabrication and Integration All the FPSOs operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry currently were built and

integrated in foreign yards, thus denying Nigeria the huge benefits of growing her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through in-country domiciliation of the huge expenditure, and local capacity development, as well as job creation.

But, Egina FPSO lies in the fact that apart from being the largest FPSO in Nigeria, it is also the first FPSO fabricated and integrated locally in Nigeria.

The local fabrication and integration of the Egina FPSO has helped Nigerians to build more local capacity in increasingly challenging skills. By executing these jobs locally, the funds that could have left the shores of Nigeria for financing the fabrication in foreign yards are retained in the Nigerian economy.

Apart from Nigerians acquiring new skills set in the oil and gas sector, the execution of the project locally also contributed to Nigeria’s GDP. Many scopes of the Egina FPSO project were executed in local yards, such as Saipem, Nestoil, Dorman Long, Nigerdock and Aveon Offshore, among others, thus ensuring the development of local capacity and capability, in line with the NOGICD Act of 2010.

Over four million man-hours of fabrication works for the FPSO were executed in Nigeria with a safety record of zero fatal accidents.

The six FPSO topside modules for Egina FPSO were fabricated in-country across fabrication yards and integrated into the main FPSO at the Samsung Yard (SHI-MCI yard) in Lagos, the first of its kind that is berthed at quayside in Nigeria. The fabrication and integration facility, which was constructed and developed under the technical, managerial and operational expertise of SHI while

The six manifold modules was built and installed

by TechnipFMC Plc offshore Nigeria within Oil Mining Lease 130. They have been manufactured at the Aveon yard in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Thanks to their respective weight and integrated functionalities, the manifold modules have reached an unprecedented level of complexity for these types of equipment in Nigeria, making their delivery a key achievement. TechnipFMC provides project management, engineering, procurement, and construction for Egina’s entire Subsea Production System (SPS) scope.

Construction began in December 2013 when the first steel cutting took place. The foundations of the manifold modules were then delivered in October 2016 and have been installed.

Egina has the highest number of the FPSO topside modules (six) fully fabricated and integrated in Nigeria. It includes the fabrication of the largest subsea equipment (manifolds, risers) ever completed in Nigeria, far above what was achieved in previous projects.

The Egina Project Director at TechnipFMC, Benoit Le Bihan, said that the milestone is the result of strong collaboration between Total, TechnipFMC and Aveon including extraordinary dedication from each team member involved in the manifolds scope. It secures a major phase of the project, executed in a safe and secure manner.

In 2017, TechnipFMC reached a new milestone for Total’s Egina project with the delivery of the

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SPECIAL REPORT

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Total stated that it has always exceeded government’s local content targets in all its projects in the country, adding that the objectives of the policy falls in line with its business principles of developing capacity in the operating environment and delivering industry benefits to host communities.

The company also pointed out that apart from exceeding industry targets on Nigerian Content, it has progressively challenged the domestic environment with job and contract opportunities that translate to significant growth in the local content profile of operated projects.

Buoy Hull for Turret System Aveon Offshore Limited, was awarded the contract for the fabrication of Egina offloading buoy as part of the package for the Egina OLT contract for Total Upstream Nigeria.

2oth subsea tree for the ultra-deep field off the coast of Nigeria. The first TechnipFMC subsea trees for Egina field were prepared in Dunfermline, Scotland, for completion at the company’s base in Onne, Nigeria. The subsea services support center in Onne was officially launched in July 2016 with aim to support the Egina project.

Contract for Egina was announced in June 2013 when FMC Technologies received an order from Total for subsea equipment for the field. The award had an estimated value of $1.2 billion.

In the area of fabrication and integration, SHI had also set a new record in Nigerian content development when it locally fabricated six modules of about 60,000 tonnes of the equipment out of the 18 modules, representing over 30 per cent of the main packages of the project.

SHI has invested $300 million in the SHIMCI yard, which consists of yard area, assembly shop, assembly yard, fully enclosed blasting and painting shop, warehouse, African 1st quay wall for FPSO integration, heavy lift with large capacity and sufficient water depth by dredging work.

According to Total, the company had achieved 44 per cent Nigerian Content in Akpo deepwater project in 2006, 60 per cent Nigerian Content in Usan project in 2008 and 77 per cent in Egina project. The company has challenged other operators

to exceed the Egina’s Nigeria Content accomplishments in future projects in the country.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, the Nigerian oil and gas industry will between now and year 2027 aspire to domesticate the full capacity and capability required for the integration of Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSO).

The new target for the industry follows from the successful in-country fabrication of six modules of the Total Egina FPSO, the first time these feats would ever happen in Nigeria. The FPSO is the biggest component of a deepwater oil and gas project and the fabrication and integration of the modules at any location spurs multi-dimensional development and creates thousands of jobs.

Integrated Control and Safety System The assembly of the integrated control and safety system of the FPSO was fully performed incountry, while it has the largest subsea equipment – manifolds, risers ever completed in Nigeria, above what was achieved in previous deepwater project. It is the first Integrated Control and Safety System Assembled in Nigeria.

Before now, upstream oil and gas industry in Nigeria had remained an enclave that provided no stimulus to the domestic economy as key industry services and products were procured abroad on the pretext that infrastructure, technology and capacity were deficit in the domestic environment.

The contract which was awarded in March 2014 for the fabrication of a 900 ton offloading buoy includes the fabrication of the 700 ton buoy hull, installation and integration of a 200 ton turret and the launching and pre-commissioning of the completed buoy. Capital expenditure for the construction of a slipway for the launching of the buoy is also included in the contract.

This contract has given Aveon the opportunity to expand the breadth of its offering to the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry. It also demonstrates the company's capability and capability to deliver world class solutions based on schedule to clients. The project was executed at Aveon Offshore's 240,000 sqm fabrication yard in Rumuolumeni near Port Harcourt and generate up to 250,000 man hours.

Aveon offshore’s main works are performed out of its yard located at Rumuolumeni in Obio Akpo Local Government Area, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The yard size is approximately 22 hectares / over 250,000 meters square with a water front and quay of 200m long. The water depth at low tide is about 5.5m and at high tide it is about 8.5m.

This enables the company to load out large structures for installation offshore. All fabrication, sandblasting, painting, welding, procurement and quality control are performed out of the yard. The company's other assets in the yard are various cranes of different tonnage (300, 250, 150, 45, and 30), covered workshops of over 8000m2, 6000m2 size accommodation and 2200m2 of offices.

Project Management In the area of human capacity development, Total, NCDMB and SHI also made significant contribution to Nigerian Content development with an ambitious objective to train 200 engineers and technicians, where 500,000 manhours would be expended both in Nigeria and overseas.

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SPECIAL REPORT

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According to report made known to Oil and Gas Republic, the Egina EPSO project has created over 20,000 job positions and over 1,200 direct jobs for Nigerians. This is spread across many disciplines including but not limited to: project management; welding; fitting; logistics; and other support services.

In 2015 alone, Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHI) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) trained about 57 Nigerian youths at the SHI shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. The youths, were taught naval architecture, ship design, fabrication and fittings, electrical installation, mechanical and maintenance, erections and scaffolding among others, at Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard in South Korea.

Furthermore, in aligning with the board’s mandate and the desire of the government to increase capacity and competencies of the Nigerian engineers and the applicable workforce through targeted trainings aimed at transferring knowledge, Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria, through its National Human Capacity Development Initiatives, trained and is currently training Nigerians on the back of the project.

During the detailed engineering phase of the project, 33 Nigerian engineers participated in a one-year training programme across nine engineering disciplines (mechanical, process, structural, piping, electrical, quality, assurance, project controls, interface and instrumentation). The trainees evolved from zero level to acquiring skills that qualified them to participate significantly and actively in the Egina FPSO detail engineering and design.

According to the company, 100 Nigerians were trained in construction related disciplines. The skill sets and competencies that have been acquired with international certifications include but not limited to: Non- destructive testing; project planning; coating inspection; welding engineering and inspection; lifting operation; cost control; welding; machining; fitting, among others.

Also, over 300 welders have been trained and certified in various advanced welding and certified in various advanced welding processes in SHI's state-of-the-art Welders Training and Qualification Centre (WTQC). The company have also trained and certified Nigerians in specialised jointing techniques like GRE (Glass Reinforced Epoxy) pipe bonding. Most of the above have been and are still currently engaged in the execution of the project.

SHI is an industry giant and a world leader in the building of Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs), LNG FPSOs, production platforms, Drillship Rigs and other special offshore vessels. The company is ranked 7th on best global brands and is the world leading company in electronics, shipbuilding and machinery, services, chemicals and finance, through the various subsidiaries.

The Egina FPSO is not the first FPSO to be deployed in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry as the country currently has fourteen FPSOs all built in foreign yards. Out of these fourteen FPSOs, five were built for giant deep offshore oil fields – Shell’s Bonga, ExxonMobil’s Erha, Chevron’s Agbami and Total’s Akpo and Usan fields, all located several kilometres offshore, in water depths ranging from 200 metres to 1.2 kilometre.

The uniqueness of the Egina FPSO lies in the fact that apart from being the largest FPSO in Nigeria, it will also be the first FPSO to be fabricated and integrated locally in Nigeria, and across the African continent.

In order to carry out the local fabrication and integration of the Egina FPSO as required by Total, and the NCDMB, Samsung Heavy industries surveyed local facilities, but eventually Samsung decided to build a new fabrication and integration yard in Nigeria with $300 million of investment to keep the international standard level of quality and safety, located within Tarkwa Bay LADOL Free zone which was virgin land mass in Lagos.

In the past, the country had lacked facilities for

integration of FPSOs before Total awarded the Egina FPSO contract to Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI). The investment led to the creation of an independent entity, Samsung Yard (SHI-MCI FZE) in LADOL Freezone Tarkwa Bay in Lagos.

The local fabrication and integration of the Egina FPSO boosted technology transfer and the development of indigenous manpower and facilities, as evidenced in the construction of the Samsung Yard and the training of Nigerian technicians, engineers and other professionals

by SHI. The yard has already provided over 1,200 employment opportunities in the areas of welding, fitting and other support services; while the cascade effect outside the yard generated a lot of jobs.

Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), a leading indigenous offshore logistics service provider has invested $350 million for the integration of the Floating Production Storage Offshore (FPSO) vessel for the Egina deep-water oil field being developed by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited. The project, which was handled

by LADOL in a joint venture with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) ensured in-country integration of FPSO for the first time in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

The Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, said her company’s competence in handling the first-of- its-kind project in Africa, was no longer in doubt as government has granted the joint venture all necessary approvals to commence work.

According to Dr. Jadesimi, there were lot of findings and vessel simulation carried out along

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the Apapa ports coastline which has revealed that LADOL base is most ideal site in Nigeria for berthing a vessel the size of an FPSO. “Our total Investment in FPSO Facility at LADOL to-date is $102.5 million. This does not bother us as the only 100 per cent Nigerian logistics base owner in Nigeria and the only one to develop a facility from a zero value Greenfield NPA site into a $500 million world class base” Dr. Jadesimi said.

LADOL’s joint venture with Samsung to build Nigeria’s first and only Africa’s only FPSO facility positions Nigeria, Africa maritime as an oil and gas hub.

The vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo visited LADOL on Friday 10th August 2018. The visit turned into a high-profile celebration of the power of local content to create jobs, build the economy and stimulate global prosperity.

The Vice President and the dignitaries present commended LADOL’s commitment to sustainable industrialization in Nigeria and urged more indigenous private companies to make similar investments.

The tour also highlighted LADOL’s plans to diversify and use its facilities to sustainable support a wide range of industries, including agriculture and textiles.

LADOL’s success shows that Ease of Doing Business and the local private sector have had a real impact on Nigeria’s economy.

LADOLS's Logistic base has the capacity to handle more project of that magnitude and others such as; ship and rigs repairs, as Ladol provides a one-stop-shop for multinational industrial and oil and gas companies operating in West Africa.

However, Ladol was licensed by Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and all its operations were based on legal clear regulatory platform.

Total's Egina FPSO sailed away from Samsung Geoje shipyard on 31st October, 2017, arrived the Nigerian waters in the last week of January, 2018, after three months journey from South Korea. The Egina FPSO berthed at the newly built 500-metre FPSO integration quayside at the SHI-MCI Yard, Ladol island, Lagos, where the integration of six locally fabricated modules took place.

SHI has now completed delivery of three massive offshore projects which are: the

Ichthys CPF, the world’s largest floating gas processing facility, and Prelude FLNG, the world’s largest FLNG, and the Total’s Egina FPSO.

deepwater field after the discovery in 2003 and the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2013.

The Managing Director, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Nicolas Terraz, described Egina as the largest investment project currently ongoing in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, said it would be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018 with the initial budget of $16bn.

In his words, "Total was very bold to take a decision on many frontiers during that period. In 2012/2013, we have the PIB issues and you would also understand that nobody wanted to invest as the PIB isn’t passed. Despite all these, Total went ahead with the Egina project and as such the expression of that boldness was also carried along by our partners.”

He said, “When we look at the last three deepwater developments in Nigeria, Akpo launched in 2005, Usan in 2008 and Egina in 2013. The field’s developments were operative

by Total and i think is very interesting to look at the revolution in the Nigerian content as we can use many different metrics.

"One significant metrics is the quality of work done in-country compared to the workload of the project. 60% local content workload was done in Akpo field, Usan 44% and Egina 77%. I strongly believe that future projects will surpass 77% on Nigerian local content,” he added.

The Deputy Managing Director of Total E&P in charge of Deepwater District, Mr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa said that Egina was the company’s next

Mr. Musa further explained that Egina FPSO is one of the biggest FPSOs in Total’s portfolio which is competing in the global energy industry.

With about 330 metres of length, over 60 meters of width. Linked to the FPSO, the bottom is between 1.5 & 1.6 kilometers with all sorts of oil lines on different colours.

“The blue lines are the ones we will use to inject water into the reservoir and the red line will be used to export unused gas to the onshore. In the seabed, there are some big and small yellow decks on the seabed. The smaller yellow decks is the 'Christmas Tree' which was locally made and in-between them, you will see several hookups line and flow line. Typically, there are about 150km to 160km of lines.

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“The vessel in the Egina FPSO is typically a drill ship. So, we have eight years of drilling and so far we have reached about five and half years. There was a time we have two rigs, but, now, we have only one rig. The bigger vessel in the FPSO are for tankers that comes to offload and there is a offloading buoy for the vessels.

“In addition to the oil, the Egina field will produce gas. Associated gas will be partly re-injected into the reservoir to maintain reservoir pressure, and partly channeled to supply the domestic gas market," he added.

Mr. Musa further explained that the six of the 18 topside modules were fabricated and integrated at the SHI-MCI facility at LADOL. The integration of the locally fabricated modules was successfully completed in May 2018, without no incident.

“Nigeria is proud that TOTAL has advanced Egina contract. For the first time for an FPSO, all management teams were based in-country.

“It has generated significant opportunities from administrative work to top flight engineers. It employed about 250 Nigerian engineers.

We recorded 560,000 man-hour during the contract cycle. It is Africa’s first FPSO integration on land. It is a foster child of the Nigerian content," he concluded.

Jean-Michel Guy, Executive General Manager of the Egina project, said that the FPSO is one of the deepest offshore projects ever operated by Total. He adds: “Egina is a flagship project for Total, and it is above all a Nigerian project. At Total, our commitment to our host countries is one of the keys to our success. We have taken up the ambitious challenge of playing a role in sustainable developing the local industrial fabric by bringing together international companies and local contractors.

The idea is to accelerate the pace of technology transfer by training Nigerian employees (over 410,000 hours in all). This win-win situation should enable Total and Nigeria to productively pursue a partnership that began more than 50 years ago.”

Total’s $16bn Egina FPSO has already

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sailed to the Egina oil field, located in OML 130, 150km offshore Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

The incident ocured in the early hours of Sunday, August 26th, 2018, and was witnessed

by Nicholas Terraz, managing director, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Ahmadu-Kida Musa, deputy managing director, deep water, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria, Amy Jadesimi, managing director, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), and executives from Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI-MCI).

After some weeks the FPSO sailed to the EGINA oil field, Total alongside the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other investors attended the 34th Annual Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore to launch the EGINA crude in the presence of industry stakeholders at the conference.

The conference which was held on September 24 to 26, 2018, has grown to become Asia’s most prestigious industry conference and has served as a focal point for the exchange of ideas and business networking in the Asia-Pacific and global oil markets.

The Egina oil field in Nigeria is expected to start production in December 2018. Total have taken actions that demonstrates a strong commitment to local content development in Nigeria through the Egina FPSO project.

December 29, 2018, Total started production from the Egina field off the coast of Nigeria. At plateau, the Egina field will produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which represents about 10% of Nigeria’s production.

The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit used to develop the giant Egina field is the largest one Total has ever built. This project has also involved a record level of local contractors. Six of the eighteen modules on the FPSO were built and integrated locally, and 77% of hours spent on the project were worked locally. Startup has been achieved close to 10% below the initial budget, which represents more than 1 billion dollars of CAPEX savings, due in particular to excellent drilling performance where the drilling time per well has been reduced by 30%.

“Total is proud to deliver a project of this size under the initial budget and to contribute to the development of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector by generating employment as well as building

industrial capability. Egina will significantly boost the Group’s production and cash flow from 2019 onwards, and benefit from our strong cost reduction efforts in Nigeria where we have reduced our operating costs by 40% over the last four years,” stated Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production.

“Furthermore, some upside potential nearby remains to be developed and we are studying in particular Preowei discovery tie-back to the Egina FPSO.” The Egina field is the second development in production on the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130 following the Akpo field, which started-up in 2009. The Preowei field is another large discovery made on this prolific block for which an investment decision is scheduled for 2019.

Total has been present in Nigeria for over 50 years, both in upstream and downstream activities. The Group’s production in Nigeria was 267,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2017.

Total operates five production licenses (OML) on the 34 leases in which the Group has interests (including two exploration licenses).

In addition to OML 130 where the Akpo, Egina and Preowei fields were discovered, Total operates other offshore assets such as OML 99 (40%) where the Ikike discovery is located, OML 100 (40%) and OML 102 (40%) where the Ofon 2 project was completed in 2016. Onshore, Total is the operator of OML 58 (40%) under its joint venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The Group is also developing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) activities with a 15% stake in the Nigeria LNG Ltd company, which operates six LNG liquefaction trains on Bonny Island.

In the downstream sector, Total operates in a leading position with an extensive distribution network of over 550 service stations nationwide and a wide range of top quality energy products and services.

The Group is committed to working closely with its host communities in Nigeria and is supporting many projects in the field of health, education, infrastructure and economic development, through its sustainable development and community relations programs. With a diverse workforce of several nationalities and cultures working together, Total is proud of its contributions to the socioeconomic development of Nigeria.

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Tanzania set to host Sub-Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & Gas Summit in April 2019

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he Annual Sub-Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & Gas Summit & Exhibition, is scheduled to take place in Tanzania from 9th - 11th April 2019 with the theme: “GROWING THE AFRICA BARRELS.’’ Dapo Ayoola, Managing Director & CEO of Zenith Professional Training (ZPT) Limited, said that the platform was conceived as means for exchange of ideas on the mutually beneficial opportunities by oil, gas and power sectors.

According to Ayoola, the theme was carefully selected to deliver the maximum returns to all participants hence the addition, for the first time, an investment forum dubbed ‘Invest Energy Africa’ and a session dedicated to women in petroleum.

He further stated that they also want to inspire young ladies in the Universities and Polytechnics to see the oil and gas industry as one that is encompassing for everybody.

“So we have women in petroleum day where successful female practitioners based from HR or technical backgrounds, geoscientists, finance or petroleum engineers would come together and talk to the upcoming ones that there is an opportunity for everyone in the oil and gas.

“The Women in Petroleum Section is a lovely one and we have invited top women across the continent,” he added.

Over the years, the Sub-Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & Gas Summit has become the premier event for advancing Africa’s oil and gas development, innovations and discoveries.

Africa is the last true oil and gas frontier with more than 4,200 oil and gas blocks identified.

Almost half of these blocks are open, subject to force majeure or in the application phase.

More than 80% of the 1,300 blocks in North Africa are licensed, while in sub-Saharan Africa it is estimated that only about 30% of 2,900 blocks are licensed. In the sub-Saharan regions it is evident that many new opportunities still exist, especially for the exploration and production (E&P) companies that are willing to take risks.

In April 2018, industry players across the oil and gas value chain in Africa gathered in Abuja to discuss & strengthen the region’s oil and gas operations and to gearing up the growth & development in the oil and gas industry.

The 2018 edition featured speakers from the Ministry of State for Petroleum of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Commission, (NNPC), Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Company (SNEPCo); Kaduna Refining & Petrochemical Company (KRPC), ExxonMobil Nigeria, EnerWise Africa; Seamfix, East Africa Petroleum Institute, Petroleum Commission, Ghana; Tanzanian Petroleum Corporation, Central Bank Governors and Crude Oil Marketers.

Dapo Ayoola, Chief Executive Officer, Sub - Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & Gas Summit and Exhibition

The Honourable Minister who was represented by his Special Technical Adviser (STA), Mr. Gbite Adeniji, extolled the Summit for providing veritable platform for intellectual discourse, knowledge sharing and showcasing giant strides made by the industry.

In his words, "The Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries need to continue to cooperate with each other to achieve the desired success stories in the industrialisation and developments in the resources, especially in the Oil and Gas sector."

The Minister rated high the current reform of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation, championed by Nigeria as a major key collaborative effort that must be pursued to achieve the Continent’s lofty aspirations as a geopolitical bloc.

“Oil, Gas and Power yield a variety of benefit to our countries, ranging from revenues for governments, nations’ development, to employment opportunity for our citizens; “The different segments, upstream to downstream, undoubtedly bring benefit to our nations. As such realization of the entire value chain of these petroleum resources within our countries, presents a virile opportunity to alleviate socio-economic challenges and foster sustainable growth in our countries”.

He said there was no better time than now to take all necessary actions that would facilitate the realisation of these potentials for desired success stories. The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Roadmap ‘7 big wins, Dr Kachikwu said, reflects the country’s efforts towards realization the value chain of oil, gas and power.

“The 7 key initiatives entail an interplay of innovative technology, economics and public policy,” he added.

Speaking further, he said the present administration has deployed framework for the value chain of gas to be extended. “The Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) targets to eliminate flares by ensuring that these currently unexploited gases are converted into benefits using proven technological innovations, while also perpetuating socio-economic benefits for the Country”, the Minister explained.

On the state of the local refineries, he said, “Our refinery initiative drive is yielding result, as numerous investors/licensees are presently at advanced stages of modular refinery establishment with planned commissioning of at least two modular refineries before the end of the year”.

Security-wise, he noted that the state of security in the local communities in the Niger-Delta has improved due to constant engagement with the oil producing regions.

“The most glaring result is the rise in GDP (to 1.40%), partly attributed to the stable and sustained level of petroleum production.

With a proactive agenda for 2019 edition, industry players from across Africa will meet again in Dar es Salaam for the 5th edition of the Sub-Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & Gas Summit. The summit also aims to unlocking the potentials in the Sub-Sahara region.

The event is a dynamic and innovative platform that will feature major projects and new opportunities that still exist in the Sub-Sahara region. The exhibition will provide a veritable opportunity for established oil and gas companies, government agencies, services providers, equipment manufacturers and new entries to interact and showcase their possibilities.

The summit is organized by Zenith Professional Training (ZPT), a firm with several years’ of building oil and gas capacity through industry specialized training in the oil and gas sector.

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Transocean Signs 5-Year $830 Million Drilling Contract with Chevron

EMAR Offshore Services places order for Damen Tug ASD 2811

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ransocean, a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells, has signed a rig design and construction management contract, as well as a fiveyear drilling contract, with Chevron USA, for one of its two dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater drillships currently under construction at the Jurong shipyard in Singapore. The drilling contract has an estimated backlog of $830 million USD, excluding mobilization and reimbursables. The drilling contract is subject to design, construction, and delivery requirements set forth in the construction contract.

The rig will be the first ultra-deepwater floater rated for 20,000 psi operations and is expected to commence operations in the Gulf of Mexico in the second half of 2021.

In the event of termination for convenience by the customer, Transocean will be compensated for its incremental 20,000 psi subsea investment in the rig. Additionally, a termination for convenience occurring after April 2020, would result in a substantial termination fee.

The drillship will feature the most advanced capabilities and state-ofthe-art technology available including dual 20,000 psi blowout preventers, net hook-load capacity of three million pounds, 165-ton active heave compensating crane, and an enhanced dynamic positioning system. The rig’s high reliability power plant will also be configured to comply with Tier III International Maritime Organization emissions standards.

“We are extremely pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement with Chevron to construct and operate the industry’s most capable ultradeepwater drillship,” said Jeremy Thigpen, President and CEO. “Transocean has a long and storied history of introducing new technologies that enable our customers to safely and efficiently access the world’s most challenging reservoirs. Adding to that history, we are proud to be delivering the industry’s first rig capable of drilling and completing wells requiring subsea equipment rated to 20,000 psi.”

Thigpen concluded: “On behalf of Transocean, I thank Chevron for their long-standing partnership, and trust in our capabilities.

I also thank the members of the Chevron and Transocean teams who have spent countless hours on the development of this game-changing solution.”

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MAR Offshore Services, a Netherlands-based dedicated maritime service company, has placed an order for a Damen ASD Tug 2811. This stock vessel will be named E-TWO and delivered to the client in the first quarter of 2019 . An additional FiFi1 system and aft winch will be installed.

The ASD Tug 2811 is one of Damen’s ‘next-generation’ harbour tugs, announced in 2018. An upgraded version of the best-selling ASD Tug 2810, it has been further optimised for the decade ahead with features that include full compliance with the new stability regulations, a modular marine NOx reduction system and the Damen Digital Platform to maximise performance and reliability. These plus 60-tonnes of bollard pull and superb manoeuvrability mean that it is capable of taking on almost any ship-handling operation in even restricted waterways. E-TWO will be the second ASD Tug 2811 to be delivered so far.

EMAR Offshore Services is established in 2010 only but today it operates all over the world, with a current focus on the regions Caribbean, South America, West Africa, Middle East and Russia. EMAR supports the oil & gas, construction and mining companies with their need for knowledge and equipment. Its own fleet consists of six tugs, of which five have been built by Damen.

Damen Shipyards Group operates 35 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 12,000 people worldwide.

Damen has delivered more than 6,000 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers some 160 vessels annually to customers worldwide. Based on its unique, standardised ship-design concept Damen is able to guarantee consistent quality. Damen offers a wide range of products, including tugs, workboats, naval and patrol vessels, high speed craft, cargo vessels, dredgers, vessels for the offshore industry, ferries, pontoons and superyachts.

For nearly all vessel types Damen offers a broad range of services, including maintenance, spare parts delivery, training and the transfer of (shipbuilding) know-how.

Damen also offers a variety of marine components, such as nozzles, rudders, winches, anchors, anchor chains and steel works.

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LNG WORLD NEWS

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Woodside and RWE sign agreement for mid-term LNG supply

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oodside Energy Trading Singapore Pte Ltd has signed an agreement with RWE Supply & Trading GmbH (RWE) for the mid-term supply of LNG commencing in the fourth quarter of 2020 and in effect until December 2022.

Woodside EVP Marketing Trading & Shipping Reinhardt Matisons said the LNG would be supplied on an FOB basis with the primary source being volumes Woodside has contracted from the Corpus Christi LNG Project in Texas, USA. “We are pleased to sign another mid-term LNG supply deal with RWE, one of Europe’s leading energy companies.

“This new agreement builds on existing mid-term sale arrangements commenced in 2017 and illustrates the growing business relationship between our companies.

“It is also a further demonstration of the diversification of our transaction activity across both the Asia-Pacific and Atlantic LNG markets,” he said.

RWE Supply & Trading Chief Commercial Officer Andree Stracke said: “RWE is delighted to enter into another firm mid-term LNG transaction with Woodside, a leading Australian oil and gas company with a global presence.

This transaction demonstrates the growing global cooperation of our two companies, and represents another key building block in the further development of RWE’s flexible LNG portfolio.”

BP makes FID for Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG Development BP and partners has made the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Phase 1 of the innovative cross-border Greater Tortue Ahmeyim development. The decision was made following agreement between the Mauritanian and Senegalese governments and partners BP, Kosmos Energy and National Oil Companies Petrosen and SMHPM. “Achieving sanction for the groundbreaking Greater Tortue Ahmeyim development, and at such a fast pace, is testament to the dynamic partnership working together to bring this innovative project onstream and establish a new deepwater gas value chain,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s Upstream chief executive.

“It represents the beginning of a multiphase project that is expected to deliver LNG revenues and gas to Africa and beyond for decades to come. We see this as the start of a new chapter for Africa’s energy story and are honoured to work alongside our partners and the governments of Mauritania and Senegal.

“I would like to thank President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and President Macky Sall for their leadership, without which this groundbreaking project would not have been possible.

Additionally, I want to thank their respective Ministers, officials and national oil companies for their commitment to work together on this project of strategic importance. Finally, we are grateful to our partner Kosmos for discovering this world class resource and for their ongoing commitment and support.”

The Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project will produce gas from an ultra-deepwater subsea system and mid-water floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which will process the gas, removing heavier hydrocarbon components. The gas will then be transferred to a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility at an innovative nearshore hub located on the Mauritania and Senegal maritime border. The FLNG facility is designed to provide circa 2.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum on average, with the total gas resources in the field estimated to be around 15 trillion cubic feet.

The project, the first major gas project to reach FID in the basin, is planned to provide LNG for

global export as well as making gas available for domestic use in both Mauritania and Senegal.

Emma Delaney, BP’s regional president for West Africa, added: “We’re committed to working with the two nations to make this development a success for both countries, the local communities who live near the project and the investor partners. We see a great deal of potential in the wider basin and Phase 1 of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project is the first step in unlocking that for the future.”

The parties will continue to finalise agreements and obtain final regulatory and contract approvals, following which Phase 1 of the development will move into a detailed design and construction phase, with award of engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts. Project execution activities are expected to commence in 1Q 2019. First gas for the project is expected in 2022. Following a competitive process involving all partners, BP Gas Marketing has been selected as the sole buyer for the investor partners’ LNG offtake for Tortue Phase 1.

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RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

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E.ON’s new Satellite Imagery Project set to improve energy efficiency and solve earth base problems tomorrow.”

Fraser Hamilton, Chief Operating Officer at Astrosat, added: “We’ve applied our technical knowledge to E.ON’s wealth of experience with local authorities and ESA’s space acumen to create something truly unique that will add real value to the UK energy market. Astrosat’s ThermCERT system allied to E.ON data provides a space-age solution to Earth’s energy challenges by leveraging the power of space technology to deliver real-world benefits. In a world where data is routinely generated before a problem or application is known to exist, we are able to intelligently cross-correlate and fuse that data from in-situ satellites; this solution will greatly enhance E.ON’s ability to identify communities in need of assistance.”

.ON is working with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Earth observation specialist Astrosat, capturing satellite imaging data to accurately identify areas across the UK where energy efficiency measures are most needed.

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The project will use near real-time and archived data gathered from orbiting satellites – including optical sources, thermal-infrared for heat mapping and air quality and pollution tracking – which will combine with Astrosat’s ThermCERT software to help tackle issues such as housing condition and insulation, air quality, and even traffic management.

When cross-matched with existing housing or data on vulnerable customers, the unique platform will provide local authorities and even entire cities with a street-level view of where improvements are most needed. This means they can better target their approaches to upgrading housing stock, optimising energy efficiency installations, improving air quality or easing congestion across communities.

Current energy efficiency programmes often rely on door-to-door visits or doorstep mailings in order to talk directly to customers and analyse their specific needs. The large amount of data which can be captured using satellite technology means a bigger and more accurate picture can be created quickly, which improves the success rate of installation works.

During the project, E.ON and Astrosat, with the support of ESA, will develop the system for around 18 months, including a city-scale trial.

ESA’s ambition is for space data to unlock greater business and societal opportunities and E.ON’s scale across Europe creates the potential to roll out the project across other countries once the UK trial has successfully concluded.

The UK is a founding member of ESA and, through the UK Space Agency, invests more in its Business Applications programme than any other country in Europe.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said: “This government-backed technology could boldly go where no technician in a van has gone before, with the potential to pinpoint households in fuel poverty or those at risk. Matched with government data, this heat mapping technology could mean less time spent on the road and more time dedicated to upgrading homes though our £6bn energy efficiency ECO scheme – the sky’s the limit.

This is our modern Industrial Strategy in motion, with our world-leading space sector showing how innovation can deliver practical solutions to real-life issues.”

Michael Lewis, E.ON’s UK Chief Executive, said: “Delivered on the doorstep but driven by big data gathered from Earth orbit, our work with Astrosat, in collaboration with ESA, is about using the almost endless possibilities of space to deliver real benefits on the ground. This truly innovative and exciting project is about harnessing the power of space, alongside our experience working with local authorities and delivering real change in terms of fuel poverty and carbon emissions, to help reduce heat loss and unnecessary energy expenditure in regional areas across the UK. This is a UK trial at this stage but all involved have the ambition to prove the benefits across countries and continents to help create a better

Nick Appleyard, Head of the Downstream Business Applications Department at the European Space Agency, said: “Our Business Applications programme is dedicated to supporting spaceenhanced services with two objectives: to generate growth for the industrial partners, and to benefit society at large. ThermCERT checks both of these boxes. We have a two-pronged approach to supporting the green energy revolution. Initiatives like ThermCERT show how space assets can help to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency in existing neighbourhoods. In parallel, we are open to proposals for space services that help to create Green Neighbourhoods by improving their initial design.”

In its first iteration, the platform helps to locate and provide targeted support for the most vulnerable individuals in society. Future iterations will leverage the growing wealth of high resolution commercial data that is now coming online. E.ON and Astrosat expect the product to be ready for use in a UK pilot by Q3 2019.

How it works The Earth observation data can be viewed independently, layer by layer, or intelligently combined with existing data sources such as Department of Work and Pensions information at a community level, into a specific tool that focuses on helping to answer specific questions or problems.

This enables an approach that is much more efficient than existing methods and can proactively locate whole areas or communities that would most benefit from improvements, rather than relying on input from residents who might be wary of reporting themselves as vulnerable or in need of extra help.

Initially designed to focus on targeted energy efficiency measures, the tool is built to scale to any regional geography and utilise many types of data.

The platform is built to allow for the development of additional layers of data that can be simply plugged in, extending the potential to other opportunities such as air quality monitoring.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

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DLO Energy invest in Solar Project in Nigeria “We are very excited to work on this opportunity with our partners and the Kaduna state government. This project is a resounding opportunity for not only providing power in Kaduna but also fostering inter-African collaboration,” said Mabhena- Olagunju.

“This transaction is a good example of what African solution for African problems and more importantly it provides a real opportunity or infra African collaboration between South Africa and Nigeria. We are equally excited to see this project to fruition and believe there is a real opportunity to put renewable energy on the African map,” she said.

Said Abdulkareem Mayere, Managing Director of Kaduna Power Supply Company: “We look forward to this project being built and creating real opportunity for the people of Kaduna state.”

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LO Energy Resources Group, a South African clean energy development company is investing in a solar farm project in Nigeria’s Kaduna State to power its green industrial zone.

DLO Managing Director and founder Linda Mabhena-Olagunju and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build lower-cost, utility-scale solar-electric generating facilities.

The development of a 30MW solar photovoltaic plant is expected to commence next year and will generate enough electricity to supply homes, including customers of major local utility providers.

DLO, 100% black female owned independent power producer, has a portfolio of wind and solar assets in South Africa. The company has co-developed and currently operates the 244 De Aar wind games which are some of the largest wind farms in South Africa under its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme.

With more than 640 million people in Africa with no access to energy many countries agree that renewable energy is the source of power to both households and businesses.

DLO aims to grow its portfolio to being the largest majority African female owned developer on the continent.

GE to deliver 100MW wind power project in Kenya

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E Renewable Energy and GE Energy Financial Services (“GE EFS”) have partnered to deliver 100MW wind power project in Kenya. Kipeto Energy Plc’s 100-megawatt (MW) wind power project is located south of Nairobi, in Kajiado, Kenya.

GE Renewable Energy will provide 60 of its highly efficient GE 1.7-103 turbines to the Kipeto project, providing power to the equivalent of approximately 40,000 homes in the region. The 100MW Kipeto wind power project will provide clean energy to the national grid as a significant contribution to Kenya’s Vision 2030 and Big Four Agenda.

The project is expected to reach commercial operation in 2020.

Peter Wells, GE’s Onshore Wind Regional Director for Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “GE is incredibly proud to be a part of this exciting endeavor. The Kipeto project is an important step forward in providing

affordable, reliable clean energy to the region, and meeting Kenya’s renewable energy goals. We look forward to working with our partners on the journey for years to come.”

The Kipeto wind power project, which reached financial close yesterday, is funded by equity from Actis and a Kenyan company, Craftskills Wind Energy International, alongside senior debt from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the United States government's development finance institution (DFI).

Subha Nagarajan, Managing Director, GE EFS’ Global Capital Advisory, said: “Kipeto represents our ability to identify and connect capital from leading government agencies to emerging markets, and enable construction of GE’s wind projects in new markets.

The project lays foundation for cleaner and more reliable energy for the local communities in the future.”

GE Renewable Energy will also provide operations and maintenance services for the wind turbines. The Kipeto project was originally conceived by Craftskills Wind Energy International, with support from GE. AIIM and IFC InfraVentures co-developed the project with Craftskills from 2014 until early 2018, executing a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Kenya Power and Lighting in 2016.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

Issue 1 2019 www.oilandgasrepublic.com

FCMB targets 100% Clean Energy, Launches SEFI Workshop for SMEs

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

F

irst City Monument Bank, (FCMB) has restated its commitment to Renewable Energy projects financing in Nigeria.

In an interview with Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme of Oil and Gas Republic, Head of SME Advisory, First City Monument Bank, Oluyemi Rufai, said the impact of fossil fuels usage led to climate change.

According to him, lot of countries are embracing clean energy in form of renewable energy either solar, hydro and wind energy adding that this necessitated the bank bringing in experts across the value chain to the workshop.

In his words, “The Renewable Energy space is an emerging sector. If you look back a few years ago, not really many people embraced clean energy but the conversation globally today is about the impact of our usage of fossil fuels in the environment which is leading to climate change. A lot of countries are embracing clean energy in form of renewable energy either solar, hydro and wind energy.

“In Nigeria, despite the gap we have in our energy space i.e. the demand-supply gap running into thousands of megawatts, we are yet to move into the sector and for us as a Bank, this is a way to promote clean energy and key into a sustainable world.

Renewable Energy will bring about a sustainable world for everybody.

“We decided to bring in experts across the energy value chain around clean energy to come enlighten our customers which is a knowledge impact for SMES. We have quite a number of customers in that area and some have delivered different projects in various communities.

“Some of them are from the financing area, financing experts to come and teach the key requirements to be able to access different type of funding that are available including the challenges.

“It is a knowledge impacting conference and it is really helping our customers and participants to improve their knowledge in renewable energy,” he said.

Speaking further, he said it is capital intensive to conduct a market research on the sector hence the SEFI Workshop was able to address the strategic areas for

both mini-grids and off-grid solutions.

“If you look at Access to Market and in terms of Market Research, it is usually capital intensive to do a nationwide Market Research in this aspect.

If I am an entrepreneur within the renewable energy space, which market should I target?

Where do I take my solutions to?

“This is very critical. The SEFI Workshop was able to address the strategic areas for both mini-grids and off-grid solutions. Some speakers addressed these areas as they mapped out some specific areas across Nigeria where off-grid and mini-grid solutions can be deployed.

“On the side of Access to Market, looking at Access to Funding we had minimum of two financing institutions and investors who spoke about the key requirements of funding after

you may have done your business plan and market research, identify key areas where there are opportunities to sell your products and the next thing is how do you facilitate the business?

“This is where funding comes to play,” he stated.

Speaking on some of the Projects financed by the bank, he said, “we are funding and we will keep funding. In the past, one of the customers we funded also spoke at the SEFI event.

“We funded the Gbagbamu project in Ogun state. We have also funded some energy efficiency projects.

“As a Bank, we have some branches that are powered by solar energy. We are fully committed in that area,” he added.

Contact: Berit BĂźrger | buerger@afrikaverein.de | +49 40 419 133 26

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COUNTRY REPORT

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Nigeria and Canada strengthen its long-term cooperation, reaffirm commitment to boost investments The Nigerian High Commission in Canada, in collaboration with Prime Essentials Development & Investment Ltd (PEDI), launched the first Nigeria-Canada Investment Summit (NCIS) which was held on November 5th to 6th, 2018 at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja with the theme: Fostering Strong Business Partnerships into The Future.

The summit brought together the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, Ambassador Adeyinka Asekun, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, Ryan Ward, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture, Babatunde

community with a consistent track record of supporting the United Nation peace keeping mission.

He said the recent visit of Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada will further strengthen both country's baliteral relationship.

The Vice President further explained that NCIS is also a platform for both country to deepen their cooperation as Nigeria has become Canada's largest trading partner in Sub-saharan Africa.

According to him, in the past years the government created reforms to improve the Nigerian business environment part of which is the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council aimed to removing the challenges faced by investors interested to doing business in Nigeria.

"With the support of the leadership of the National Assembly and state Governors, we are able to drive reforms last year that has positioned Nigeria as one of the 'World's Ten Top Reforming Economies', said Prof. Yemi Osibanjo. "The reforms continued in 2015 and has resulted to further improvements in Nigeria's Ease of Doing Business."

Fashola, Minister of Power, Works & Housing, Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation, Abubakar Bawa, Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, William Babatunde Fowler, Executuve Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ade Shonubi, Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Industry Players, Canadian Investors, Nigerian Enterpreneurs and Diaspora living in Canada.

Prof. Yemi Osibanjo been a guest speaker said that Nigeria and Canada has a long history as Commonwealth members, and has been promoting peace in the global

Osibanjo said that the government on-going efforts of harnessing the entrepreneurship energy of Nigerian youthful population would bring about meaningful contributions to Nigeria GDP and in developing home grown solution that would help the country achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

He noted that the Nigeria Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) of the government has identified some of the sectors that many Canadian investors are already familiar with as priority sectors. These according to him include; power generation, development of gas to power, solid minerals. Others are; agriculture, food processing, infrastructure, education, health care, manufacturing and real estate.

"With the reforms in government, we expect the private sector to make the necessary investments. I encourage Nigerians and foreign

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

investors to work with us towards the realisation of the opportunities.

“Towards the achievement of ERGP, we conducted focus labs which are special intervention targeted at resolving specific bureaucratic bottlenecks facing large scale investments in Nigeria. The focus lab identified $22.5 billion worth of private investments in six of our priority sectors with the potential to create half a million jobs by 2020. $10.9 billion dollars of these investments are most ready to go.

“We will continue the use of focus labs to resolve problems that investors will have. We also encourage Canadian investors to participate in these focus laboratory that has been conducted, and also to reach out to Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) for more information.

"We are looking aggressively on interventions we have on infrastructure, roads, rail, power, air transportation because we fully understand that these play a vital role for private investments.

"Power generation and transmission capacity are up forty perecent (40%) in the last few years, investments in airport and seaport are underway. All these infrastructure will open up fresh opportunity for private sector to participate by a way of public-private partnerships, concessions and additional investment. We are certainly working on to explore how we can be part of the changing story of our infrastructure.

"The recently released Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum ranked Nigeria as Thirteenth in Enterpreneural Development which we all know that is the life blood of successful economies.

"Our relationship with Canada will continue to be a very important factor for us as our record show that over the last five, Canada has announced a number of investments in Nigeria l

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for Canadian companies to explore Africa, and to make more trade & investment in Nigeria.

"Well, the most important tools of attracting increased Canadian investment into Nigeria is the rectification of the Canada-Nigeria Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement "I am very excited to be here as i have spent three and half years in Kenya and i see the African market as the future for Canadian trade and investment," he added.

"Nigeria bilateral relationship with Canada is different from what we have with other African countries that has experienced Canada's presence in the market," he added.

Professor Yemi Osibanjo, Vice President of Nigeria

eading into job and economic opportunities for mutual benefits.

"I am aware of recent discussion between our Ministers on the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Nigeria and Canada signed in 2014. I understand some things are required to ensure that the agreement comes into force as soon as possible and our teams have been involved in joint discussion on how to achieve this.

"We are strengthening and empowering the government agencies involved directly with investors, the NIPC, which is the agency established to represent the interest of investors, is working on several initiatives to achieving this mandate ,” he further explained.

Speaking further, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo disclosed that Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) is in the process of building a data base of investment opportunities across Nigeria to guide potential investors.

"We are committed to listen to you as investors. We are also committed to guide you on further reforms especially in the areas of security and rule of law and to generally improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria."

Ryan Ward, Deputy High Commissioner of Canada in Nigeria, said that Nigeria is Canada’s largest trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the largest investor in Canada from the region.

According to him, over $895 million (Eight Hundred & Ninety Five Million Dollars) has been invested into Canada by Nigerians in the past years. The Trade is bringing both countries together and Nigeria has the largest number of students studying in Canada.

"If you look at the sectors of growth in Nigeria, they are in line with Canadian expertise whether infrastructure, telecommunication, natural resources, aviation, technologies."

“Canada doesn't have much experience in Africa as compared to our competitors, and as a result our company doesn’t have the understanding of working in the continent," said Ryan Ward, Deputy High Commissioner of Canada. “We are shifting wings to international trade. It is clear that Canada needs to ensure that its export and investment links are more diversified to boost our economy. Our government has recognized this."

Ryan further explained that as part of the mandate given to Canada's minister of international trade, there will be more interest

Canada and Nigeria began and completed Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) negotiations in April 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria. The Agreement was signed by Canada’s Minister of Development, Christian Paradis and the Nigerian Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga on May 6, 2014 in Abuja, Nigeria.

A bilateral FIPA will provide greater predictability and certainty for Canadian investors considering investment opportunities in Nigeria. Canada’s objective in entering these negotiations is to secure a comprehensive, high-quality agreement which will protect investors through the establishment of a framework of legally binding rights and obligations.

ADIPEC 2018 FAST FACTS

pec.com/bookastand

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INDUSTRY AWARDS

Issue 1 2019 www.oilandgasrepublic.com

ExxonMobil receives 2018 Large Cap Company of the Year and Explorer of the Year Award Mozambique Rovuma Venture submitted the development plan for the first phase of the Rovuma LNG project, which will produce, liquefy and market natural gas from the Mamba fields.

In Brazil, the company completed the purchase of interest in the BM-S-8 block offshore Brazil, which contains part of the more than 2-billionbarrel, pre-salt Carcara oil field. In addition, ExxonMobil expanded its deepwater portfolio in the country to approximately 2.3 million net acres.

Five discoveries were announced in Guyana in 2018 – Ranger-1, Pacora-1, Longtail-1, Hammerhead-1 and Pluma-1 – where the company has discovered more than 5 billion oilequivalent barrels of recoverable resource through 10 discoveries since 2015.

xxonMobil has been named 2018 Large Cap Company of the Year and Explorer of the Year by the World Oil and Gas Council in recognition of excellence and innovation in the global energy industry.

E

Brad Corson, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Ventures, accepted the award for Large Cap Company of the Year. Corson said, “We are honored to be recognized as an industry leader and are confident that the growth strategy we are currently implementing will drive long-term shareholder value and industry-leading returns. This award is a reflection of the dedication of our employees and their daily commitment to excellence.”

During the year, ExxonMobil announced a number of discoveries, acquisitions and other activities around the world. The company’s industry-leading portfolio underpins aggressive growth plans.

These opportunities span all of the corporation’s business lines and represent the most attractive investment portfolio since the Exxon and Mobil merger.

ExxonMobil was also the recipient of the Explorer of the Year award for the second year in a row.

“We appreciate the Council’s recognition of our efforts to add the highest quality resources to our development portfolio as well as continuing to build on our leading acreage position,” said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company.

“Particularly encouraging this year was our drilling success in Guyana as well as capture of a large number of quality drilling opportunities in Brazil.”

Upstream Building quickly on its acquisition of companies owned by the Bass family of Fort Worth, the company has significantly accelerated operations and now has 42 rigs operating in the Permian Basin, more than any other in the industry and has announced plans to triple production by 2025. Even with this rapid expansion, the company announced targets to reduce flaring and methane emissions.

Only months after ExxonMobil’s entry into Mozambique’s offshore Area 4 block,

Downstream In October, the company started operations of a new unit at its Antwerp refinery in Belgium to convert heavy, higher-sulfur residual oils into high-value transportation fuels.

ExxonMobil announced the startup of a new unit at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery to increase production of ultra-low sulfur fuels.

ExxonMobil opened the first Mobil-branded service stations in Mexico, and acquired one of Indonesia’s largest manufacturers and marketers of motorcycle lubricants.

Chemical ExxonMobil started operations at its new ethane cracker in Baytown, Texas as well as at its integrated manufacturing complex in Singapore where it produces butyl and resins.

The company also officially formed its Gulf Coast Growth Ventures JV with SABIC and commenced work on the project for a 1.8million-ton ethane cracker currently planned for construction in San Patricio County, Texas.

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FREE TRADE ZONE

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Nigeria is business ready and our oil and gas free zones are conduits of economic prosperity – OGFZA CEO

By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

T

he Managing Director & CEO of Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), Mr. Umana Okon Umana, has said that the OGFZA is a channel for conveying the nation’s growth opportunities.

Mr. Umana made the statement during an exclusive interview with our correspondent, at the sideline of the 2018 Africa Trade & Investment Global Summit (ATIGS) in Washington DC. Mr. Umana said: “Nigeria is business ready and our oil and gas free zones are conduits of economic prosperity. Nigeria is the largest producer of oil and gas in Africa and the 6th largest in the world. The real growth of its oil sector as at Q1. 2018 was 14.77% year on year. In addition, we are the largest economy in Africa, the only country in Africa with dedicated oil and gas free trade zones and we are open for business.

“The country is on a growth trajectory with a GDP growth of 1.95% y-o-y (as at Q1, 2018); and a projected growth rate of 4.8% for the year 2018. The Federal, State and Local Governments are committed to maintaining this growth trend. The Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan [ERGP] is the encapsulation of this commitment; and since its implementation, Nigeria has moved 24 points up in the ease of doing business ranking according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index for 2018.

“With a population of more than 185 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa (one in every six Africans is a Nigerian) – Nigeria is a large consumer market and it is the seventh most populous country in the world and 75% of the population is under the age of 30 (with 70% being 15+) – we have a vibrant labor force. Nigeria’s long coastline reduces the cost of logistics, is fuel efficient and environmentally friendly,” he said.

Dapo Ayoola, Chief Executive Officer, Sub - Sahara Africa Upstream Oil & SpeakingGas further, disclosed that the core SummitMr. andUmana Exhibition

mandate of OGFZA is to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) for Nigeria; as a result, the business model offers a level playing field for all investors. One of the incentives in operating as a licensed free zone enterprise is 100% expatriate quota which offers opportunities for technology transfer so that local population is trained in competitive and viable fields of specializations. Through technology transfer, Nigerian youths get equipped with the technical know-how to start off their enterprises within the customs territory.

Mr. Umana Okon Umana, The Managing Director & CEO of OGFZA

The Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority is the Apex Regulatory Authority established by Act No. 8 (section 51) of 29th March 1996 .OGFZA regulates and manages Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Export Free Zones. It is the only regulatory authority under the law of Nigeria to issue licenses and manage various enterprises that operate within the oil and gas free zones.

OGFZA also coordinates the activities of government agencies such as customs, police, immigration and similar offices in the free zones. It provides a One-Stop-Shop where all the critical agencies of government operate to enable efficient government service delivery to enterprises.

“Our zones offer them the opportunities to acquire these skills through mentorship in paid employment, obviating the need to travel overseas for training.

“As a regulator of Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones, we are particularly interested in attracting modular refineries, gas plants, petrochemical plants and companies along these value chains.

“The Zabazaba FPSO project is strategically positioned in proximity to our free zone in the Brass Oil and Gas City, Southern Nigeria. The existence and success of this oil and gas offshore project will directly impact on our zones. Its success will make our free zone a more attractive site for businesses along the FPSO value chain to situate.

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“We are of course excited to receive interests from developers who want to develop and operate any of our Greenfield zones on a long term concession period through a BOT PublicPrivate-Partnership model.”

Since Mr. Umana was appointed as CEO of OGFZA, they have been making progress to attracting foreign direct investment in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Value Chain.

OGFZA has also engaged with Oracle to deploy Oracle Cloud to help streamline its operations and promote efficiency. Activities such as license renewal took 14 days, but presently it takes three days to renew investors’ licenses in oil and gas free zones. With the Oracle technology, it have successfully automated the processes and engendered transparency in its operations.

Prior to this development, The Authority recently uploaded a SERVICE CHARTER that details the products and services, requirements, timelines and fees for various services issued.

The Authority is fully committed to license investors for business within seven (7) days of submission of complete application, renew Investors Licenses within three (3) days of submission of complete applications and ensure that cargo delivery to investors is within 48hrs from date of submission of complete.

OGTZA has also implemented a strategic three year roadmap which includes; Creating an Enabling Environment where businesses can thrive and to attract FDIs, Financial Independence, where OGFZA will rely on internally generated revenue (IGR) rather than the Federal Government funding for its recurrent expenditure, Improve operational efficiency by automating its service deliveries and deploying ERP to ensure improved access and better services.

“We have successfully expanded investment opportunities open to tenant investors by licensing another free zone operator in our Onne/Notore Free Zone. We have created an enabling environment for competition amongst service providers in the zone so as to afford greater choice and reduced costs to our zone enterprises.

“We have been taking practical steps towards amending the OGFZA Act to rid it of ambiguity in its functions and jurisdictional challenges as well as to empower the agency to regulate more effectively. The proposed amendments to the Act also look at our revenue structure, which will better empower us to partner with private investors who can help us realize our developmental goals.

“Most of our free zones are strategically located on the Gulf of Guinea, on the Atlantic Ocean Coast and in proximity to major offshore oil and gas fields in Nigeria.

“Our Oil & Gas free zones are located near major on- shore, offshore, ultra-deep sea projects, with easy navigational access to the entire Sub-Saharan West African Region.

"They serve as logistics base for some of the international oil companies carrying out exploration and production (E&P) activities in the deep offshore or ultra-deep offshore.

“In addition, our zones house companies investing along the oil and gas value chain. Currently, we have the Notore Free Zone where we have investors extensively involved in fertilizer and petrochemical business." Mr. Umana added Recently, The Presidential Enabling Business Secretariat conducted an assessment of the nationwide implementation of EASE OF DOING BUSINESS Executive Order (EO1), to which OGFZA was highly commended and ranked No 1. Across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

Executive Order (EO1) was signed on 18 May, 2017,

by Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osibanjo (SAN). The very first executive order of this administration, its objective is to promote transparency and efficiency in the business environment.

EO1 has been acknowledged as one of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN)’s most innovative strategic initiatives to deliver quick, pragmatic changes for Nigerians. EO1 has the following indicators: Entry & Exit of people, Starting a Business, Trading Across Boarders, Registering Property, Paying Taxes, Dealing with Constructing Permit, Getting Credit and Getting Electricity.

According to the report, 44 MDAs were benchmarked against EOI indicators and OGFZA ranked number one in the list.

OGFZA business model offers various investment opportunities for investors looking to invest in Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Free Zones. One of the incentives in operating as a licensed free zone enterprise is 100% expatriate quota which offers opportunities for technology transfer so that local population is trained in competitive and viable fields of specializations.

As part of the effort to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) for Nigeria, OGFZA uses its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – Free Zone Global Investments Ltd, to facilitate public private partnership investments in the Nigeria’s oil & gas

free zones, maximizing their potential as vehicles for promoting accelerated growth and sustainable development.

Moving forward, OGFZA has also partnered with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) for investment advisory services.

OGFZA have been taking practical steps towards creating an enabling environment and attracting investments into Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Free Zones. The Authority is involved in reputable international activities all in a bid to competitively position the organization in the global market place of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and benchmark OGFZA against other world class free zones across other regions of the world.

In Conclusion, Mr. Umana stressed that the challenges peculiar to Nigeria such as the impact on the annual budgeting exercise from the global shock in oil prices, drop in production due to pipeline vandalism and weakening of the Naira relative to the Dollar have increased cost of doing business in the industry and deterred investments in the Sector.

But, the recent uptake in global oil prices is a welcome relief, which will make oil investments attractive again across board.

He said that some other challenges of the industry such as oil spills, gas flaring and environmental pollution are currently being addressed by the new petroleum policy, new gas policy and proposed establishment of modular refineries respectively.

He concluded that the intervention of the Federal Government to security threats on activities that involve oil exploration, production and distribution; has led to a marked improvement in oil and gas exploration and production in Nigeria.

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TOP STORY

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By Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme

A

frica is seen as an unexplored continent and industry experts have said that the region could be the future of the oil and gas industry as most recent discoveries of oil have been made in African countries like Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Congo amongst others. In order to reach that level, the countries involved need to take absolute control by positioning their oil and gas resources into the right direction, so that the resources will turn out to become a blessing to the region.

This article provides an insight on how a Denmark multinational company, Maersk Drilling, is currently exploring deepwater projects offshore Ghana.

Since 2012, Maersk Drilling has been operating in Africa, providing highefficiency drilling services to oil companies.

The company has a consistent track record of operating in 11 different African countries, with three deepwater drill ships offshore Ghana. In total, Maersk Drilling has four drill ships and three jack-up rigs in order, the modern fleet counts 16 modern jack-up and semi-submersible rigs, with up to 3,500 employees.

In Offshore West Africa, Ghana is currently Maersk Drilling’s main operational base as the company has received a contract extension to 2022. In 2015, Maersk Drilling was awarded a contract from eni Ghana Exploration and Production Limited, an eni subsidiary, to deploy its new build drillship Maersk Voyager. The contract period is about 3.5 years with an option to extend by one year. The total estimated revenue from the contract is USD 545 million including mobilisation and escalations.

Maersk Voyager commenced work on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) Project offshore Ghana in July 2015 with no loss time incident during the operation. Located about 60km from the Ghanaian Western Region's coast, the OCTP project features oil and nonassociated gas fields, and will access approximately 41 billion cubic metres of gas and 500 million barrels of oil.

Maersk Drilling said Maersk Voyager is the last in a series of four ultra deepwater drillships in Maersk Drilling’s rig fleet. The rig was delivered on the 6th of February, 2015, from the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje-Si in South-Korea. The four drillships represent a total investment of USD 2.6bn.

The drillships features dual derrick and large subsea work and storage areas, the design allows for efficient well construction and field development activities through offline activities.

With their advanced positioning control system, the ships automatically maintain a fixed position in severe weather conditions with waves of up to 11 metres and wind speeds of up to 26 metres per second. Special attention has been given to safety on board the drillships. Equipped with Multi Machine Control on the drill floor, the high degree of automation ensures safe operation and consistent performance. Higher transit speeds and increased capacity will reduce the overall logistics costs for oil companies.

Adam Aveyibor, Crane Operator, Maersk Voyager said: “Maersk Drilling has really good training programs that help locals move from where they are to where they want to be. For me, it has been a smooth transition, with great support from both the deck crew and management on board. I just want to say thank you to everybody.”

“I remember when I interviewed for Maersk Voyager, I said that I wanted to be Crane Operator one day. So it’s a dream come true. I’m very proud of what I have achieved in only a few years, and that I’m now one of the few offshore Crane

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Operators in Ghana. It’s a mid-managerial position where I supervise the deck crew.

“Maersk Drilling is a very good family to be part of. The company takes good care of its employees and has a good safety record, all while meeting the clients’ expectations.

“Oil and gas is one of the industries that the most people want to join in Ghana. I really enjoy it and wish to continue in the industry,” Adam noted.

Adam Aveyibor is old enough in the industry to have gone through the downturn in West African oil. After getting his first offshore job as a roustabout in 2010, he experienced firsthand how the budding Ghanaian market stalled when the oil price tumbled four years later. But Adam’s talents were unmistakable, and he soon found new employment on the Maersk Voyager rig where he quickly progressed to his dream job of Crane Operator.

Yvette Ametefe, HR Coordinator, Maersk Voyager also said: “I never had any HR background before, but I am a people person and kind of found myself in HR. Working at Maersk Drilling has been amazing, and it’s been wonderful to progress so fast. I love my job and have learned a lot in this well-structured organisation. Maersk Drilling has really shown me what I’m meant for,” says Yvette Ametefe.

“I want to go higher still in Maersk Drilling, but HR is basically the same anywhere, so I could easily use my training and experience in other places. In fact, working with offshore crews teaches you a lot because the people are so diverse – you learn a lot about other cultures that you can use everywhere you go.”

“Maersk Drilling’s core values are actually one of the things that got me very interested. The first time I went to the office, I saw the values on the wall, and they made me feel like I belonged.

“The oil industry in Africa is taking off now with a lot of prospects. I will encourage anyone who wants to join the industry to follow their dreams and do so.

“I’m still young in the industry but trying hard to get up there. I want to be involved and learn,” Yvette added.

Oil and gas wasn’t the obvious choice when Yvette Ametefe studied Economics and Sociology at the University of Ghana. But

Adam Aveyibor, Crane Operator, Maersk Voyager

after initially joining Maersk Drilling as national service personnel, she found her calling in HR, and after two promotions in three years, she’s now the HR Coordinator for the Maersk Voyager rig.

Yvette Ametefe is now studying HR besides work, and Yvette will add that education to her resumé in 2019.

Edwin Kotey, Technical Assistant, Maersk Venturer joined Maersk Drilling as an intern in 2016. Back then he was attached to the Maersk Voyager, but through successive training programs, he has now become a Technical Assistant on the Maersk Venturer rig team.

As part of his training, Edwin has been studying the different positions on board the rig. He explained how he has learned a lot by working with a diverse set of colleagues from different backgrounds and cultures, and by being exposed to new situations every day.

“Even though I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from KNUST, it’s been challenging to join a new industry with entirely new processes and terminologies. But I’ve had a lot of on-thejob training and good mentorship in addition to the training programs, and still more training is being planned. It’s a constant learning environment,” Edwin Kotey explains.

“It’s been great to learn about good teamwork, how everyone on the team has a sense of ownership about their duties. I’m constantly being exposed to international best practices at Maersk Drilling, and to continue here will be of immense benefit. I would encourage anyone interested in joining the oil industry to keep

Edwin Kotey, Technical Assistant, Maersk Venturer

working at it. Nothing is impossible.”

“Working with Maersk Drilling has been really good, and an eye-opener into that part of the industry. It’s fun being in the oil industry.

“Ghana is a developing nation seeking to industrialise, and my training and experience could also be of essence to mining and manufacturing companies, for example.

“If you have a dream, then keep working at it, however you should also develop yourself where you are now, in hope of a better tomorrow,” Edwin concluded Eni, via its own subsidiary Eni Ghana, operates OCTP with a 47.22% interest, while Vitol and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation own 37.77% and 15% stakes respectively.

First oil was produced in 2017 and initial gas in 2018, with peak production planned to be 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2019.

The project will provide domestic gas supply to Ghana's thermal power plants for more than 15 years.

Moving forward, Maersk Drilling has also signed a contract with Aker Energy for Maersk Viking, an ultra-deepwater drillship, to drill the Pecan-4A appraisal well in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) block offshore Ghana.

According to Maersk Drilling, The contract covers one firm well, Pecan-4A, and two optional wells, and it is expected to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2018 when it sails to the Pecan field, offshore Ghana.

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Mr. Morten Kelstrup, CCIO of Maersk Drilling, said: “The contract for Maersk Viking marks our third rig operating in Ghana. We have a strong commitment to local job creation and competency development and our joint venture with Prime Meridian Docks, PMD Viking Ghana, will be providing local services in connection with the operation.”

Maersk Viking was built in 2014 with stateof-the-art facilities and systems, the drill ship will perform the drilling in a water depth of 2,674 meters in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) block.

“We are pleased to achieve this key milestone that will enable us to commence drilling of the important Pecan-4A appraisal well. The main objective of the well is to test the extension of the Pecan Field. This will provide valuable and important input in optimising the Plan of Development for the field and in understanding the wider potential of the block,” said Mr. Jan Arve Haugan, CEO of Aker Energy.

In fourth quater of 2018, Maersk Viking drillship arrived in Ghanaian Waters ahead of schedule. Before it sailed to the Ghanian waters, Maersk Viking was warm-stacked in the Gulf of Mexico and standing by ready for work if a contract can be obtained.

Aker Energy Country Manager, Jan Helge Skogen, said: “We are proud to announce the arrival of Maersk Viking in Ghanaian waters. The drillship arrival marks an important milestone towards the start of the upcoming drilling campaign. The Maersk Viking will commence drilling of the Pecan-4A appraisal well when all preparations have been completed.”

During that period, Aker Energy also awarded contracts related to its drilling campaign in Ghana to PMD Viking Ghana Limited, Halliburton Ghana, and Exceed Well Management. Halliburton Ghana Limited will provide drilling support and well services, While, Exceed Well Management Ghana Limited will provide well design and management.

The globally renowned oil and gas suppliers have teamed up with indigenous Ghanaian partners in accordance with regulations and with a clear ambition to develop local industrial capacity.

Halliburton's Senior Vice President of Eurasia, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Shannon Slocum, said: “We look forward to working on this project and the opportunity to collaborate with Aker Energy and Maersk to engineer solutions for the development of the Pecan Field.”

The contract is awarded by Aker Energy on behalf of the license group and as the operator of the DWT/CTP block. Aker Energy is the operator of the block with a 50% participating interest. Aker Energy’s partners are LUKOIL (38%), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (10%) and Fueltrade (2%).

The Managing Director of Exceed, Mr. Ian Mills, said: “We have a long history in Ghana and have invested in establishing a new local joint venture, Exceed Well Management Ghana. We look forward to supporting Aker Energy and their partners and believe there is significant potential to develop local capability to exploit new deepwater fields offshore Ghana.”

Aker Energy is targeting approximately 450 million barrels of oil equivalent (gross). The plan is to develop the Pecan field with a purpose-built FPSO connected to a subsea production system at 2,400 meters below sea level offshore Ghana.

Maersk Viking is an advanced ultra-deep water drillship, capable of drilling in water depths of 3,600 meters. Under its contract with Aker Energy, the rig will perform the drilling of the Pecan-4A appraisal well in a water depth of 2,674 meters, located approx. 70 miles off the coast of Ghana, in addition to two optional wells.

The drilling rig is owned by Maersk Drilling and features a drillship design with a dual derrick and large subsea work and storage areas, allowing for efficient well construction. With its advanced position control system, the ship automatically maintains a fixed position in severe weather conditions with waves up to 11 meters and wind speeds of up to 26 meters per second.

The company plans to submit the Plan of Development (PoD) in 2018, with anticipated first oil in 2021 and a plateau production of ~125,000 barrels of oil per day.

Maersk Drilling sees the region as an emerging offshore market that will drive growth and remain competitive in the oil & gas industry worldwide.

Angela Durkin, Chief Operatng Officer (COO) of Maersk Drilling, was a speaker at Africa Oil Week 2018, she chaired the panel discussion on ‘Lessons learned: Surviving the oil market downturn and future outlooks for the oil and gas sector in West Africa’.

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Ghana is our main focal point in West Africa - Maersk Drilling OGR: There have been significant development campaigns of oil & gas activities, particularly in Angola, Ghana and Nigeria, how would you evaluate your operations in these countries as focal points in West African market?

Angela: Ghana is currently our main focal point in West Africa. We have an office established in Accra and three deepwater drillships offshore Ghana, with the longest contract extending into 2022, so we are committed to being in Ghana for the foreseeable future. But we certainly hope to be able to expand our operations in West Africa, building on our experience of establishing Maersk Drilling in Ghana – and in Angola, where we had significant commitment from 2012 to 2016. In total, Maersk Drilling has had operations in 11 different African countries so far, with Egypt being the third African country where we have been present for an extended period of time, and with a strong operational record.

We believe that Maersk Drilling is a strong fit for the operators in the exciting West African market. Our fleet is one of the most modern offshore fleets in the world, using state-of-theart equipment and a vast trove of experience from the challenging North Sea markets. We have been able to use that background as the foundation for exceptional performances in Ghana where we have developed oil fields much quicker than forecasted, which of course translates into money saved for our customers.

Simultaneously, we have built up our operations in Ghana and continuously increased the share of local content on our rigs, meaning that we create better value for both business and society.

OGR: In West African countries such as Angola, Ghana and Nigeria, which countries are your biggest target areas, where you see robust growth continuing for the coming years?

Angela: As mentioned, we are currently heavily invested in Ghana with three drillships located there. We definitely follow the latest developments in other West African markets with interest, including Angola where the market seems to be opening up again after it suffered during the recent downturn.

Generally speaking, West Africa is one of the few regions of the world where most oil companies agree that there are unexplored areas with huge potential. We see Senegal and Mauritania as really interesting emerging offshore markets, with the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Namibia as other “hot spots” going forward.

Angela Durkin

An exclusive interview with Angela Durkin, COO of Maersk Drilling, on the subject of Maersk Drilling in Africa.

Ndubuisi Micheal Obineme brings the excerpts: North Sea has allowed us to test and build a very robust and efficient operating model, try new technologies and innovations, and consistently optimise our performance. Most of these improvements have been rolled out throughout our fleet, to the benefit of current and future operations in African waters.

In addition, a lot of our long-term employees started their careers in the North Sea and have moved on from jack-ups to deepwater drillships. This has allowed us to keep the Maersk Drilling DNA and use our long-time North Sea experience in other regions including Africa.

OGR: How have you been creating jobs mostly in the African countries you operate? Please can you also provide the total number of jobs created so far?

OGR: Maersk Drilling have been supporting oil companies operating in the North Sea, how do you use your North Sea experience to most of your operations in Africa and was it valuable?

Angela: We prioritise using local content whenever possible, and commit to local content plans drawn up in cooperation with local authorities. Right now, we have a total of 260 locals employed in Ghana – 238 offshore and 22 onshore. That’s 55% of the total positions in Ghana which are filled by local content. I should note that the figures do not include Maersk Viking which arrived in Ghana only a few days ago and has not commenced its campaign yet. In Angola, we had a 60% share after four years of operations, so we are well on track to reach similar numbers in Ghana. We also have succession plans in place, allowing our Ghanaian colleagues to move up in the organisation.

Angela: Our long-standing experience in the

In addition, we create jobs with a number of local

suppliers that deliver services to our rigs.

We procure locally when possible, and in Ghana, that’s particularly true of the joint venture Rigworld which has built a modern training facility in Takoradi.

Rigworld assist us with manning, training and a range of other services. Earlier this year, we hosted a Supplier’s Day in Accra which was attended by 95 local suppliers.

OGR: What kind of business relationship do you establish with International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the African region?

Angela: We always aim to establish a close relationship with both customers and local regulators, based on trust and mutual benefit. Traditionally, we have entered into contracts with IOCs where they basically lease our rigs at a fixed rate per day. But we believe that the drilling market is bound to change. The day rates are not going to disappear as a concept, but if offshore oil and gas are to remain competitive in a world with disruption from technological innovation and renewables on the rise, we believe we need to lock in another round of efficiency gains in the industry.

At Maersk Drilling, we propose to do that by introducing new business models where we enter into even closer relationships with the operators, sharing pain and gain on the well. That creates a mutual incentive to improve efficiency across the value chain, for example by providing a much larger share of all the services on the rig through a single point of contact rather than requiring the operator to procure and coordinate everything. And that in turn requires us to establish closer relationships with local vendors and suppliers to everyone’s benefit.

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Maersk Drilling strengthens its Board of Directors

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aersk Drilling has made the planned progress to ensure the company is ready for an independent listing on Nasdaq Copenhagen during 2019. The Board of Directors has been strengthened and a clear governance structure established. Maersk Drilling will release its first consolidated annual report as a standalone entity on February 7, 2019.

A.P. Moller - Maersk plans to separately list Maersk Drilling on Nasdaq Copenhagen during 2019, with the ambition of having the company ready to operate as an independent entity in due time before a listing.

All key management positions relevant for an independently listed company are now filled with CEO Jørn Madsen and CFO Jesper Ridder Olsen constituting the Executive Management. The Board of Directors has been strengthened, reflecting a vast knowledge, experience and insight into the financial, operational, commercial as well as safety aspects and opportunities in various industry business models. Furthermore, the directors possess significant in-depth understanding of the geo-political and macro-economic aspects of the offshore drilling industry and its customers.

The Board of Directors The Board of Directors now consists of six members, whereof five will be proposed as members of the Board of Directors in the future listed company to be approved as part of the approval of the demerger. It is expected to expand the Board of Directors, when additional qualified and independent candidates have been identified. Current member, Mads Winther, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy and M&A, Energy division, A.P. Moller – Maersk will not be proposed as member of the Board of Directors in the future listed company and will step down in connection with the listing.

Two employee representatives are expected to be elected prior to the planned listing for a term of four years and join the Board of Directors upon completion of the demerger.

Claus V. Hemmingsen (DK), Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2016, will continue as Chairman. He has 12 years of experience in the offshore drilling industry, as CEO of Maersk Drilling from 2005 to 2016 and as member of

the Board of Directors since 2012. He is Vice CEO and on the Executive Board of A.P. Moller – Maersk and has been on the Board of Directors of DFDS A/S since 2012, serving as Chairman since 2017. He brings with him international management and board experience from both listed and non-listed companies and associations within the shipping and offshore industries.

Robert M. Uggla (SE) will be appointed Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Robert M. Uggla is CEO of A.P. Moller Holding A/S and has more than 10 years of experience from CEO and management positions in the shipping and energy industries. Robert M. Uggla has been a member of the Board of Directors of A.P. Moller – Maersk since 2014. He is also Chairman of A.P. Møller Capital P/S and Maersk Tankers and Director of the Foundation Board for IMD. Together, Claus V. Hemmingsen and Robert M. Uggla, will constitute the Chairmanship.

In addition to the Chairmanship, the following other directors have been appointed: Kathleen McAllister (US), former Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and board member of Transocean Partners LLC, where she played an instrumental role in the formation of the company and led the company’s IPO. She brings with her three decades of management experience from the oil and gas services business within the fields of corporate finance, risk, financial reporting, tax, M&A, investments, governance and capital market transactions. Kathleen McAllister serves on the boards at QMax Solutions and Höegh LNG Partners.

Robert Routs (NL), former Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc. brings with him extensive technical, commercial and managerial experience from more than 30 years in the international oil and gas, chemical, renewables and trading industry, including management positions in listed companies. Robert Routs has been a member of the Board of Directors of A.P. Moller – Maersk since 2010.

Martin N. Larsen (DK), CFO of A.P. Moller Holding A/S, brings with him CFO and managerial experience from the offshore service industry, vast experience within corporate finance, M&A and treasury from previous and current corporate positions, as well as board experience from a broad spectrum of industries.

“I am very pleased that Claus Hemmingsen has accepted to remain Chairman of Maersk Drilling after a planned listing. Claus is highly recognised in the offshore industry for his sound values, successful executive leadership and deep domain expertise, and has the relevant experience of being Chairman of a listed company. In addition to Claus, Maersk Drilling has successfully attained several other, highly capable directors with relevant and complementing capabilities. The Maersk Drilling Board of Directors is currently reviewing whether to nominate additional independent directors after a listing to strengthen it further,” says Robert M. Uggla, Vice Chairman and Chair of the Nomination Committee.

The Board of Directors will be established with the following committees and members: Audit and Risk Committee Kathleen McAllister (Chair), Martin N. Larsen and Robert Routs will be the members of the Audit and Risk Committee. Between them, the members of the Audit and Risk Committee possess the relevant financial, accounting, audit and sector skills.

Nomination Committee Robert M. Uggla (Chair) and Claus V. Hemmingsen will be the members of the Nomination Committee.

Remuneration Committee Claus V. Hemmingsen (Chair), Robert M. Uggla and Robert Routs will be the members of the Remuneration Committee.

Safety & Sustainability Committee Claus V. Hemmingsen (Chair), Robert Routs and one more director will be the members of the Safety & Sustainability Committee.

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Angola's new petroleum industry reforms set to drive growth in 2019

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eforms span from changes in tax law to changes in concession contracts and the opening of marginal fields to African independents. Key measures include the formation of upstream and downstream taskforces, the privatization of some Sonangol subsidiaries, and the creation of a new regulator to manage concessions. The measures are already attracting interest from investors and establishing confidence in the administration.

Angola’s economy is set for recovery in 2019, in large part due to a series of regulatory reforms opening the country to new investment.

Since entering office in 2017, President João Lourenço has focused on cleaning up corruption and implementing aggressive reforms to transform the oil and gas sector and the economy. The reforms, which span from deep changes in tax law to changes in concession contracts and the opening of marginal fields to African independents, have hit the books just as the oil price is stabilizing, and Angola is already attracting new interest from investors.

Lourenço has made key appointments to shift the trajectory of the oil and gas sector, notably naming Diamantino Azevedo the new Minister

of Mineral Resources and Petroleum.

The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum quickly put together a task force comprised of both international and domestic stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the President, Sonangol, BP, Chevron, ENI, Esso, Equinor, and Total. The task force has proposed improvements in several areas, including: simplifying the oil concessions management process; implementing incentives for investment in marginal fields; and creating a natural gas regulatory framework.

By December 2018, several new laws have been enacted, including:

The Natural Gas Regulatory Framework, which establishes policies for the monetization of natural gas (both associated and non-associated gas) in existing and new concessions;

Incentives for investments, which vary from tax reforms to contract reforms, to encourage economic exploration and development of natural resources;

Improved terms to better allow for exploration within development areas in existing blocks.

Considered one of the most important changes to Angola’s oil and gas sector, an independent regulator has been created to manage the country’s oil and gas concessions, which were previously handled by the state-owned Sonangol. The National Oil and Gas Agency is the new granter and manager of concessions in a complete restructuring of the

management of Angola’s oil and gas industry.

The move is designed to improve transparency, attract new investment and increase output.

The reforms have also addressed the downstream sector. The government has created a task force to focus on downstream issues, similar to the upstream task force. The taskforce teams will focus on what is needed to build a high conversion refinery in the Lobito municipality and a refinery in Cabinda. Eight companies have already been pre-selected for the Lobito refinery and seven selected for the Cabinda refinery. Angola currently imports about 80 percent of its refined petroleum products.

The measures appear to be working — the World Bank’s economic outlook for Angola released in December 2018 predicts GDP will grow by 1.7 percent in 2018 and 2.2 percent in 2019 — the first time the country will have seen positive growth since 2014. An improved investor environment is listed as a cause for the improvement.

Mega oil and gas projects have achieved final investment decision since 2018, and several more are headed for FID in 2019 and 2020. A new licensing round is expected to attract new international explorers to the country, as well as promote the participation of Angola’s domestic sector by offering incentives for marginal fields.

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OPEC+ oil production cuts to help balance the market in 2019

ccording to Rystard Energy report, there are have been recovery in the liquids supply growth, driven by significant oil production contributions from US shale in 2018. Coupled with higher than expected oil production from OPEC+ countries and overestimated supply losses from Iran, this led to an oversupplied market and an abrupt oil price collapse towards the end of the year. In 2019, as a result of the OPEC+ agreement to cut oil supply by 1.2 million bbl/d, liquids additions are expected to stand at 1.8 million bbl/d, decreasing relative to 2018 and helping to balance the market. This article explains the key industry trends witnessed in 2018, highlighting short-term supply growth, exploration success and spending trends.

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Throughout 2018, the Brent oil prices steadily increase from around $60 per barrel up to a high of around $86 per barrel on October 3, 2018.

Despite bullish market expectations for the future oil price development, a string of bearish news prompted a $20 per barrel oil price collapse that happened over the next month.

Higher than expected oil production from US and OPEC+, coupled with overestimated supply losses from US sanctions on Iran, led to the oil price falling all the way to $59 per barrel on November 23, 2018. Even though OPEC+ has agreed to re-establish oil production cuts of 1.2 million bbl/d on December 7, 2018, the oil price is now back to $60 per barrel, which was also prevalent at the end of 2017.

In 2019, as a result of the OPEC+ agreement to cut 1.2 million bbl/d of oil supply from the October 2018 level, liquids volumes are expected to increase by 1.8 million bbl/d. If OPEC+ had not ageed to reduce output next year, we would have seen global liquids production grow by 2.4 million bbl/d. Demand, on the other hand, is expected to grow by

around 1.2 million bbl/d next year, which would have led to an implied stock build of at least 1.2 million bbl/d in 2019, likely exercising additional downward pressure on oil prices. As a result of the production cuts – that are assumed to be prolonged for the full year 2019 - liquids production grows by 1.8 million bbl/d next year, reducing stock build to around 0.5 million bbl/d in 2019. While the market is still expected to be oversupplied next year, production cuts contribute to a more balanced market in 2019. In 2020, the gasoil market and, thus, the crude market will tighten due to the IMO 2020 sulfur cap in shipping fuels, supporting higher oil prices despite an oversupply in the liquids markets.

In terms of production contributions, we continue to see the largest liquids supply additions delivered by US, which is anticipated to grow by 2.2 million bbl/d next year. In fact, our sensistivity analysis on US shale indicated that even under a WTI oil price environment of $50 per barrel, US would still deliver 1 million bbl/d growth in oil supply, just 400,000 bbl/d below our current view. Furthermore, offshore deepwater projects are forecasted to account for 590,000 bbl/d growth in liquids production next year, amid decline estimated for OPEC and other onshore regions. If OPEC+ cuts are not prolonged after 2019, we will see supply additions of 2.5 million bbl/d in 2020, as US, OPEC, Russia and some other countries ramp up output further. In such a case, we are likely to again find ourselves in the oversupplied market post-2020, which is anticipated to bring oil prices back to below $70 per barrel.

Therefore, we see the renewed need for market balancing on behalf of OPEC+ after 2020.

In 2016, total discoveries reached a record low volume; only around 8.3 billion boe was discovered.

At the same time, average monthly volumes stood at around 700 million boe, compared to average monthly resources of well above a billion boe in the preceding years. 2017 has been an even more disappointing year for the exploration industry with only 7.5 billion boe of resources discovered. In 2018, we have seen an increase in exploration performance with monthly discoveries increasing to 800 million boe. Total volumes are now estimated to reach 9.4 billion boe, representing a 25% increase over 2017. Year to date, January, February, March and October have been the strongest months in terms of discoveries added.

In October, Russian Novatek made the largest discovery this year. Its North Obskoye field in the Arctic is estimated to hold over 900 million boe of

resources. Among other big discoveries are offshore Ballymore field in the US with 550 million boe of resources, and Longtail and Ranger fields in Guyana with resources of over 450 million boe each.

Rystad Energy’s forecast as of December 2017 is also depicted on the chart. Total investments have been growing steadily until 2014, reaching almost $900 billion. As a consequence of rapidly falling oil prices that followed, upstream expenditures decreased by 25% in 2015 and an additional 25% in 2016. This year, the spending is expected to reach around $530 billion, an increase of 4% year-overyear. The forecast for the next three years is almost unchanged from December 2017, with a lower estimate for 2022 spending. The downward revision is primarily a result of lower activity expected from US shale/ tight oil, consistent with the lower basecase oil price in 2021-2022.

Next year, investments in shale are forecasted to continue to rebound, with a projected growth of ~8%.

Conventional onshore investments are expected to grow by ~1% in 2019. Offshore will start to recover next year, with combined offshore (shelf, midwater and deepwater) investments increasing by 3%. Investments within the deepwater supply segment are expected to see growth close to 8%. The key driver is increased spending related to exploration. In terms of the geographical split, 2019 E&P investments are expected to grow the most in South America (Brazil, Guyana), North America, the Middle East and Africa (new LNG projects in Mozambique).

Conclusion In 2018, production from US shale continued to grow, adding around 2.3 million bbl/d to the global liquids supply. In combination with higher than expected volumes from OPEC+, this led to an oversupplied market and a fall in the oil price towards the end of the year. To help balance the market, global liquids additions are expected to stand at 1.8 million bbl/d next year, compared to 2.2 million bbl/d in 2018. On the investment side, gradual recovery is expected to continue in 2019 with shale and offshore deepwater growing the most over the next two years.

Source: Rystad Energy

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Total and Petrobras achieves significant progress in the scope of their Strategic Alliance demonstrate the importance of joint investment opportunities, and reinforcing the technological cooperation existing between our two companies.”

In addition, Total and Petrobras will keep pursuing new business opportunities in the natural gas chain in Brazil.

Total has been present in Brazil for over 40 years, has more than 3,000 employees there and operates through five affiliates in the exploration and production, gas, lubricants, chemicals and renewable energies segments.

Total Exploration & Production’s portfolio currently includes 22 assets, located in the Campos, Santos, Barreirinhas, Ceará, Espirito Santo, Foz do Amazonas and Pelotas basins.

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otal and Petrobras have achieved significant progress in the scope of their Strategic Alliance, signed in March 2017.

The first concrete results of jointly implemented R&D projects. Examples of such work include in particular: - With regard to artificial intelligence: new automatic techniques to identify geological faults, leading to significant efficiency gains.

- With regard to low permeability reservoirs: new processes and tools to locate the potentially most productive areas, with direct applications on fields like Sururu (Iara concession).

The transfer of rights of the remaining 10% from Petrobras to Total in the Lapa field for a consideration of US$50 million.

Following this transaction, which remains subject to approval by the relevant Brazilian authorities, Total, operator of the field located in the pre-salt Santos Basin, will hold a 45% working interest alongside Shell (30%) and Repsol-Sinopec (25%).

The signing of a binding Master Agreement between Total Eren and Petrobras for the creation of a Joint Venture by July 31, 2019 to develop onshore projects in the solar and wind segments in Brazil.

The Joint Venture will look to build up to 500 MW of installed capacity over the next five years.

“We are very pleased to strengthen our presence in the Total-operated Lapa field in the Santos Basin, the first pre-salt producing field operated by an IOC in Brazil, and to extend our Strategic Alliance with Petrobras to renewable developments through Total Eren in Brazil,” said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. “Once more, we

Aibel secures Johan Sverdrup bridge contract

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quinor has awarded Aibel the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract for the final bridge on the Johan Sverdrup field. The 100meter bridge (YB005) will connect the P2 Process Platform with the Riser Platform (RP) at the field and weighs around 1,350 metric tons.

The contract was included as an option in Aibel’s initial contract for the Johan Sverdrup P2 Topside awarded by Equinor in April 2018 and has an estimated value of approx. NOK 200 million.

“This marks another important contract for Aibel at the Johan Sverdrup field. By awarding

us the seventh consecutive contract to one of Norway’s most important industrial projects it confirms that Equinor is satisfied with our previous project deliveries and the ongoing work. We highly appreciate being given yet another opportunity to continue our good collaboration and are thoroughly committed to successfully deliver all of our ongoing commitments to Equinor,” says Nils Arne Hatleskog, EVP Field Development & Offshore Wind in Aibel.

Aibel’s earlier awards on the Johan Sverdrup field are Drilling Platform EPC (JSDP), Power from Shore Phase 1 (JSPfS), Offshore Hook-up JSDP, Offshore Hook-up JSLQ & JSP1, P2 Process Platform EPC (JSP2) and Power from Shore Phase 2.

The work with the bridge will be organized under the

In March 2017, Total and Petrobras signed agreements covering a number of upstream and downstream assets in Brazil, cementing the Strategic Alliance announced in December 2016.

Under that deal, Total will hold a 22.5% stake in the Iara concession area in Block BM-S-11A and a 45% stake in and operatorship of Block BM-S-9A in the Lapa field concession, which came on stream in December 2016 via the 100,000 barrel per day capacity Cidade de Caraguatatuba FPSO. Additionally, technical cooperation between the two companies will be strengthened, particularly through joint appraisal of the exploration potential in promising areas in Brazil and through the development of new technologies, particularly in the deep offshore.

Currently, Total and Petrobras jointly participate in 19 consortiums worldwide in exploration and production. In Brazil, the companies are partners in the development of the giant Libra field, which is the first Production Sharing Contract in the Brazilian pre-salt Santos basin, in Iara and in the Total operated Lapa field. Outside Brazil, Petrobras and Total are partners on the Chinook field in the US Gulf of Mexico, on the deep-water Akpo and Egina fields in Nigeria and on the gas fields of San Alberto, San Antonio and Itaú in Bolivia, as well as in the BoliviaBrazil gas pipeline.

ongoing P2 project led by project director Stig Jessen. The design work in Asker is already well underway while the construction phase in Aibel’s yard in Thailand will start in the middle of 2020. The finished bridge is scheduled for delivery at our Haugesund yard in the end of 2021 together with the 23,000 tons P2 platform deck. The timing of the bridge construction is perfect as it comes on the tail end of the ongoing construction work in Thailand,” Jessen says.

The bridge is part of the second phase of the Johan Sverdrup project. This includes the jacket-based processing platform P2, modifications to RP and to the field centre and phase 2 of the onshore power plant at Haugsneset (PfSP2). These developments will expand production capacity from 440,000 barrels of oil per day to 660,000 barrels of oil per day. Production start for phase 2 of the field is expected Q4 2022.

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Equinor set new goals for efficient operations in NCS further mature the project towards future auction and final investment decision (FID) with Equinor being the manager for the construction preparation and the potential construction and operational phases.

The Baltyk I offshore location license allows for a development of a wind farm with a capacity up to 1560MW of which Equinor will hold 50%.

The wind farm area is located in the Baltic Sea in water depths of 25-35 meters, approximately 81 kilometers from the port of Leba.

quinor has exercised an option to acquire a 50 % interest in the offshore wind development project Baltyk I in Poland from Polenergia.

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Polenergia, which is an experienced energy company with an in-depth knowledge of the Polish energy market.

This transaction is a follow-up of the agreement between the two companies which came into force in May 2018 , by which Equinor acquired a 50 % interest in Baltyk II and Baltyk III.

This acquisition strengthens our presence in the Baltic Sea area giving opportunities for scale and synergies in a longer perspective,” says Jens Økland, Senior vice president for strategy and business development in New energy solutions in Equinor.

"We are very pleased to further deepen our presence in Poland and to work with

The project is in an early stage and the companies will form a 50/50 joint venture to

Offshore wind already has a strong foothold as an energy source in Europe with more than 15 GW installed capacity, and with a potential to reach between 50 and 70 GW by 2030. The Polish Baltic Sea has a potential in excess of 8 GW. Poland has recognized the opportunity offered by offshore wind and included it as part of the recently published draft of the Polish Energy Policy.

Equinor views clearly communicated targets along with robust regulatory framework as key success factors for the development of offshore wind sector in Poland and realizing Polish supply chain potential.

Lundin Norway completes drilling Silfari exploration well in the Norwegian Sea

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undin Norway has completed the drilling of the Silfari exploration well 6307/1-1S located in PL830 in the Norwegian Sea. The well was dry.

The main objective of the well was to test the reservoir properties and hydrocarbon potential of theJurassic and Permian formations in the frontier Froan Basin, located next to the Frøya High in the Norwegian Sea. The well 6307/1-1S encountered good reservoir sands in the targeted Jurassic formation but with no hydrocarbon indications and in the second target no reservoir intervals or hydrocarbons were encountered.

This well is the first in the Froan Basin area and has provided significant data points as to the geology of the basin, which will be analysed in order to determine any further prospectivity.

The potential of the undrilled, adjacent Frøya High area is unaffected by the Silfari result.

Lundin Norway is the operator of PL830 with a 40 percent working interest. The partners are Equinor, Neptune Energy and Petoro with 20 percent working interest each.

The well was drilled with the semi-submersible drilling rig, Leiv Eiriksson, which after completion of plugging and abandoning operations will proceed to drill exploration well 7121/1-2 S on the Pointer/Setter prospect ,

located in PL767, southeast of the Alta/Gohta discovery in the southern Barents Sea. Pointer/Setter is a prospect with two distinct lower Cretaceous sandstone targets, with estimated total gross unrisked prospective resources of 312 MMboe. Lundin Norway is the operator of PL767 with a 50 percent working interest. The partners are INPEX with 40 percent and DNO with 10 percent.

Lundin Petroleum is one of Europe’s leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies with operations focused on Norway and listed on NASDAQ Stockholm (ticker "LUPE").

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Issue 1 2019 www.oilandgasrepublic.com

Shell starts production at new petrochemicals unit in US Gulf Coast

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hell Chemical LP (Shell) has started production of the fourth alpha olefins (AO) unit at its Geismar, Louisiana, USA chemical manufacturing site. The 425,000-tonne-per-year capacity expansion brings total AO production at Geismar to more than 1.3 million tonnes per annum. Start-up operations began in December 2018.

Alpha olefins are key ingredients in many finished products that people use and enjoy every day, including laundry detergents, motor oils, and hand soaps.

“Our team delivered this world-class expansion project safely, on time and within budget,” said Graham van’t Hoff, Executive Vice President for Shell’s global chemicals business. “This is a key growth project for Shell’s global chemicals business. Geismar will continue to play a leading role in providing the materials for products that an increasing number of people need and enjoy.”

The new unit strengthens Shell’s leading position in the US Gulf Coast and illustrates the strategic value of its integrated downstream business. The Geismar site is supported with advantaged ethylene feedstock from Shell’s nearby Norco, Louisiana and Deer Park, Texas manufacturing sites, enabling the site to respond to market conditions.

The expansion project contains around 3,570 tonnes of steel, 18,290 metres of concrete and 85 linear kilometres of pipe. Several new pieces of infrastructure were built as part of the expansion, including a new water cooling tower, a significant expansion of the site’s rail loading capabilities, and the repurposing of a previously idled tank farm.

Ørsted selected as preferred bidder for offshore wind farm in Connecticut

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ollowing a highly competitive solicitation process, Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has selected Ørsted’s Revolution Wind project to move forward to negotiate a fixed-price power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state’s power distribution companies for 0.42TWh (terawatt hours) per year equivalent to 100MW offshore wind capacity.

Subject to contract signing and Ørsted’s final investment decision, construction is expected to start in 2022, and the wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2023.

With the 100MW added capacity, Revolution Wind has now secured a total of 700MW offshore wind capacity, including previously awarded projects in Rhode Island and Connecticut, which Ørsted will build as one joint project and thus unlock significant procurement, construction and

operational synergies. In addition, Ørsted will build the adjacent 130MW South Fork project at the same time as Revolution Wind which enables further synergies.

Martin Neubert, Executive Vice President and CEO of Ørsted Offshore, says: “We’re happy to have been selected for contract negotiations as the only offshore wind project in this zero carbon RPF. Revolution Wind will contribute to Connecticut’s transition to clean energy and add to our attractive construction pipeline in New England which now totals 830MW.” Thomas Brostrøm, CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind and President of Ørsted North America, says: “Offshore wind will bring long-term economic and environmental benefits to Connecticut, attract related industry and supply chain investments to the state, and support

Connecticut’s transition to renewable energy sources.”

Revolution Wind is part of the Deepwater Wind portfolio which Ørsted acquired in October 2018. Deepwater Wind proposed the 100MW Revolution Wind project prior to the company’s acquisition.

Today’s selection follows the approval in December by Connecticut regulators of a 20year PPA for the initial Revolution Wind project. Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved Ørsted’s longterm power purchase agreement with Eversource and United Illuminating, two Connecticut utilities, for 200MW of clean energy.