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Nigeria
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has proposed collaboration among African countries in the area of oil and gas infrastructure.
Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director (NNPC), said that cross-nation collaboration among oil producing countries in Africa was essential to convert the challenges of the oil and gas sector to opportunities for economic growth. He listed other areas of possible collaboration to include legal and regulatory framework, noting that synergy in these areas could enhance the abundant opportunities inherent in the new oil and gas discoveries across many countries in Africa. According to Dr. Baru, the huge opportunities in the African oil and gas industry would not be fully tapped if African countries fail to address critical issues of lack of infrastructure, legal and regulatory impediments, and transparency issues. He cited the proposed Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline as an example of the type of infrastructural collaboration needed. Dr. Baru also disclosed that the project would traverse at least 15 West African countries with intake and offtake points in the various countries before it links with the existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline in northern Morocco. Dr. Baru said: “The feasibility study has been concluded and the pre-FEED optimisation study is currently ongoing. While this pipeline will help in electrification and industrialisation of these countries, it will also meet the needs of European consumers for heating”. He described NIPS as a veritable platform to help galvanize Africa’s response to global oil and gas challenges, stressing that it is the melting pot to meet, discuss and share ideas on how to move, not just the Nigerian oil and gas industry, but also the economies throughout the continent.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, announced that the government and the EFCC recently commenced the tracking of all vessels lifting crude oil from Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources would also extend the tracking to the downstream sector. Dr. Kachikwu disclosed that the government has acquired the capacity to monitor vessels operating in Nigeria and observed irregularities in the movement of some of the vessels mandated to lift crude oil from Nigeria.
He said the data obtained from the activities from these vessels would help determine the various loading points of the vessels, the dead weight of the vessels and the volume of crude oil lifted from the country by the vessels.
Dr. Kachikwu said: “For the first time, we know what we are producing in this country. As to when it is being produced, barrel-to-barrel, we can tell. We can see even vessels that are coming into Nigeria and their activities. We have seen some vessels go to a location and pick some cargos, leave that point, go to another point pick something else and return to the first location when they should be heading to Port Novo or the United States. What we are trying to do with the EFCC is to gather data and track these vessels, to determine the owners, why did they leave this point, what happened along the way, what is the dead weight of the vessels at the time they were leaving Nigeria and many more. So for the first time, we are going to soon be able to tell on a day-by-day basis all the activities that took place in the sector and those of the players. We are even going to extend it to the downstream.”
He added that the tracking program in the downstream sector would be used to determine the volume of Premium Motor Spirit imported into the country; the quantity of the products brought in by each vessel; the depots the commodity are stored, up to the points of retail to motorists.
Congo
On Tuesday, Anglo African Oil & Gas announced that the TLP-103C well at its Tilapia license located offshore the Republic of the Congo has encountered oil.
The well intersected the targeted Djeno horizon and wireline logging confirmed the presence of a 12m oil column in the Djeno. With this discovery, the combined total of oil encountered by the TLP-103C well is at a 56m aggregate across the identified horizons. Total depth (TD) of 2,683m was reached, following which Anglo African Oil & Gas ran Schlumberger wireline logs. After completion of the logging, the company commissioned a CPI to calculate and qualify the results, which confirmed TLP-103C has encountered the oil column with a further 4m transition zone from 2,396m to 2,411m. The company now intends to procure a new rig and drill the new TLP-104 well, which will specifically target bringing the Djeno into production. It also intends to plan for full field development at Tilapia. The results of the TLP-103C well will allow Anglo African Oil & Gas to enhance TLP- 104’s well design as it seeks to optimise production from the Djeno. Accordingly, the TLP-103C will be plugged back to the Mengo and then flow-tested and produced from the Mengo reservoir.
Global
On Thursday, oil prices extended gains in Asia for the third day after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) weekly report showed crude stockpiles rose less than expected. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude prices were up 0.6 percent at $54.56 per barrel at 1:15 AM ET (06:15 GMT), while Brent crude futures were also up 0.8 percent at $62.06. The EIA in its weekly report showed a rise in crude oil inventories by 919,000 barrels in the week ending January 25, while analysts expected an increase of 3.2 million barrels.
The gain in prices also came after the EIA report showed a sharp drop in Saudi crude supply to the U.S. The data showed imports from Saudi Arabia fell by more than half from the previous week to 442,000 barrels per day (bpd), indicating that OPEC cuts are affecting trade. Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom would pump ‘well below the output level it agreed with OPEC and its partners in December 2018 for the first half of 2019. Elsewhere, U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA are also causing some supply disruptions and were cited as supportive for oil prices.
