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NIGERIA
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr.Maikanti Baru, has been awarded the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his leadership and contributions to the development of the local content in the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry.
Dr. Baru disclosed during a visit by The Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Professionals of Nigeria (CIFIPN) that the corporation had recovered $1.6 billion from some companies swindling its upstream subsidiary – Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
CIFIPN was conferring an award of Honorary Fellow and Patron to Dr. Baru and solicited partnership with the NNPC in its dealings. CIFIPN is an anti-fraud organisation saddled with the responsibility of providing skills to professionals from relevant fields on the use of science and technology to detect, prevent and investigate fraud and also put some measures to prevent future occurrences. Dr. Baru said that under his watch, the corporation had made significant progress in terms of fraud detection, prevention and control.
GHANA
On Thursday May 16, the Ghanaian government and its partners in the Cape Three Points (CTP) oil fields announced it had made a new gas and condensate discovery in CTP-Block 4, offshore Ghana.
According to the operator, ENI, the well proved an estimated volume between 550-650 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. It also proved between 18-20 million barrels (mmbbl) of condensate. ENI stated: “The discovery has further additional upside for gas and oil that will require further drilling to be confirmed.”
The exploration well Akoma-1X is located approximately 50km off the coast and about 12km north-west from Sankofa hub where ENI started gas production in the middle of 2017.
Ghana became a commercial oil producer in 2011, but there have been agitations in recent times about how much the country gains from oil agreements entered into with International Oil Companies (IOCs) producing in the country.
The CTP-Block 4 partnership is formed by Eni Ghana (operator, 42.469 percent); Vitol Upstream Tano (33.975 percent); GNPC (10 percent); Woodfields Upstream (9.556 percent); and Explorco (4.0 percent).
GLOBAL
On Thursday May16, oil prices extended gains amid tensions in the Middle East linked to stealth attacks on Saudi oil tankers and pipelines. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate Futures rose 0.7 percent to $62.45 at 12:20 AM ET (04:20 GMT), while Brent Oil Futures gained 0.6 percent at $72.22.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration weekly report on Wednesday May 15 showed a rise in crude oil inventories by 5.4 million barrels for the week ending May 10, against expectations for a decline of 800,000 barrels. In the previous week, crude inventories fell by almost 4 million barrels. Intensifying tensions in the Middle East were cited as pushing oil prices higher.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report that it predicts the world will require very little extra oil from OPEC this year as booming U.S. output will offset falling exports from Iran and Venezuela.
The IEA estimated growth in global oil demand to average 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019. In contrast, U.S. production of oil and condensates alone was forecast to rise by an average of 1.7 million bpd in 2019.
