Economy
Lokpobiri Charges New NCDMB Council on Growth of Nigeria’s Energy Sector
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Mr Heineken Lokpobiri, has charged the newly inaugurated fourth Governing Council of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to continue advancing the country’s oil and gas industry.
The NCDMB Governing Council is set up under the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act and draws membership from representatives of select institutions connected with the energy sector.
The fourth NCDMB Governing Council would be chaired by Mr Lokpobiri, while the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Felix Omatsola Ogbe, would serve as the Secretary.
Others are the Executive Vice President, Gas, Power, and New Energy, NNPC Ltd, Mrs Oritsemyiwa Eyesan; the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, Mr Gbenga Komolafe; the representative from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Bekearedebo Augusta Warrens and the Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, Mr Nicholas Odinuwe.
Others include the Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission, (NAICOM), Mr Sunday Thomas; Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering, COREN, Mr Sadiq Abubakar; and the representative of the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum, Mr Raphael Samuel.
Chairing the inaugural meeting of the Council, the Minister said the NOGICD Act provided for institutional representation on the Governing Council, to enable the agency to benefit from the expertise and professionalism of key organisations and change the narrative in the oil and gas industry.
Mr Lokpobiri confirmed that NCDMB had recorded tremendous achievements in the oil and gas industry in the last 13 years of its existence and had achieved many of the set objectives.
He solicited the cooperation of the new Council members to raise the bar of Nigerian Content development, adding that many African countries are coming to understudy Nigeria’s Local Content model and it was incumbent on Nigeria to deepen the level of implementation and stay ahead of other nations.
Speaking further, the Minister stated that one of the core mandates of the NCDMB was to build indigenous human and infrastructural capacities so that Nigerians can play critical roles in the oil and gas industry.
He highlighted that NCDMB was one of the few agencies chaired by the Minister, attributing it to the importance of the organisation to the national economy, noting that section 75 of the NOGICD Act mandates the Governing Council to manage and superintend the affairs of the Board among other duties.
Responding on behalf of the newly constituted council, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, Mr Thomas, thanked the Minister for the nomination and promised to uphold the confidence reposed in them.
Mr Thomas affirmed that NCDMB has performed creditably, and Nigerian Content implementation has become the envy of many countries.
“A lot of value has been added to the oil and gas industry and the Nigerian economy and I thank those who originated the NOGICD Act. We will do our best and we will continue the good work started by the NCDMB,” he said.
Also, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr Ogbe promised to work closely with all the members of the Governing Council to take the board to greater heights.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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