Economy
NOSDRA Raises Alarm over Continuous Oil Spill in Bayelsa
By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has said that the oil spill reported at an oil well within Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 in Bayelsa State was yet to abate.
This was disclosed by the Director-General of the agency, Mr Idris Musa, in his reaction to the development, noting that after officials on a visit discovered that the intensity of the leak was hampering investigations at the incident site.
He said, “A spill was reported by AITEO at her Santa Barbara well 1 wellhead on November 5, 2021. A joint investigation visit to the site was carried out on November 6, 2021.
“Due to the continuous spraying of crude oil from the wellhead, the cause of the spill was not determined by the joint investigation team, which comprised NOSDRA, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), State Ministry of Environment and Community representatives.
“AITEO was directed to shut in the well so that proper joint investigation will be conducted on this facility.
“Recovery of free phase oil was ongoing as at the time of this visit. AITEO was also directed to deploy more booms to contain the spilt crude oil.
“As of November 10, 2021, and according to AITEO, efforts are still ongoing to ensure that the well is shut in within the shortest possible time,” Mr Musa said.
Meanwhile, the company – Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production, in a statement on Wednesday, said it was yet to ascertain the volume of the crude that had been discharged into the surrounding environment.
The statement signed by the spokesman of the company, Mr Mathew Ndianabasi also said the oil firm suspected sabotage as the cause of the spill.
But, Mr Iniruo Wills, an Environmentalist and former Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa dismissed the suggestion of sabotage, given that investigation into the cause of the leak was yet to commence.
“Is anyone ascribing it to sabotage? Anybody or official ascribing this recklessly caused ecological disaster to sabotage needs a psychiatric examination.
“You cannot keep raping communities and at the same time tarring them with the brush of collective criminalization.
“There was a massive spill that went on for a week at that same Santa Barbara Well 1 in OML 29 operated by Aiteo over two years ago.
“Like roughly thirty or more other spills spanning across that same oil bloc in the few years since Aiteo started operating the bloc, that 2019 spill from the same well has neither been cleaned up, remediated nor compensated for”, he said.
Mr Wills added: “The community is still engaging with regulators – particularly NOSDRA – and AITEO, practically begging for redress while still suffering the unmitigated impacts of that spill and many others.
“This is even after a post-spill impact assessment was eventually conducted, after several months of pressing for it.
“Now, this mega spill disaster is going on from that same well for about a week now, in a country with virtually zero installed spill-response capacity.
“Several oil industry experts who viewed the video clip have likened it to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon disaster and the 2012 Chevron KS Endeavour catastrophe in Koluama, Nigeria.
“And they have pointed to the likelihood of it being a gas pressure release from pent-up gas over the years from a capped and abandoned non-producing well.
“Beyond Aiteo, whose operations have made its predecessor, Shell, look like saints, this incident once again challenges the Government of Nigeria and industry regulators to wake up to their statutory duties.
“It makes the Nigerian delegation to the ongoing COP 26 Climate Change summit in Glasgow look like they went on an idle and pretentious frolic.
“While oil and gas are gushing out uncontrolled on poor populations and the corporate culprits continue to make callous diversionary statements with impunity as if they considered the entire Nigerian public to be foolish and gullible.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 1.8 per cent or N29.54 on Tuesday, December 3.
At the official market yesterday, the exchange rate stood at N1,643.15/$1, in contrast to Monday’s closing price of N1,672.69/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Also, the Nigerian currency traded flat against the greenback during the session at N1,730/$1.
This development followed the launch of the apex bank-backed Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS), which began operations this week.
The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including an expected rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.
The system is expected to instantly reflect data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.
The central bank also said it would publish real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has successfully raised $2.2 billion in Eurobonds maturing in 2031 and 2034 in the international capital markets to finance deficits from the 2024 budget.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) said that the two Eurobonds, with 6.5 years and ten years tenors, have $700 million placed in the 2031 maturity, and $1.5 billion placed in the 2034 maturity.
It said that the notes were priced at a coupon and re-offer yield of 9.625 per cent and 10.375 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was majorly positive, with Binance Coin (BNB) growing by 18.1 per cent to an all-time high (ATH) price of $774.92 amid a mix of technical signs and bullish market sentiment.
Further, Solana (SOL) jumped by 4.2 per cent to trade at $236.64, Ethereum (ETH) gained 2.8 per cent to settle at $3,716.76, Litecoin (LTC) expanded by 2.5 per cent to finish at $132.16, Bitcoin (BTC) appreciated by 1.0 per cent to $96,567.61, Dogecoin (DOGE) increased by 0.9 per cent to $0.4208, and Ripple (XRP) rose by 0.2 per cent to $2.63.
However, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 2.7 per cent to sell at $1.23, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed flat on Tuesday, December 3, after the trading platform ended with no price gainer or loser, according to data obtained by Business Post.
The market capitalisation of the bourse remained unchanged at N1.057 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) followed the same route by remaining intact at 3,017.13 points.
The volume of securities traded at the bourse during the trading session went down by 99.5 per cent to 76,362 units from the 16.2 million units achieved a day earlier, the value of shares traded yesterday declined by 99.9 per cent to N147,493.38 from the N125.2 million recorded in the preceding session, and the number of deals decreased by 93.1 per cent to two deals from the 29 deals posted in the previous trading day.
At the close of transactions, Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 1.6 billion units for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units worth N5.3 million.
The most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis was Aradel Holdings Plc with a turnover of 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 296.7 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil soared more than 2 per cent on Tuesday as Israel threatened to attack Lebanon if the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah collapses while the market awaits expectations of an extension of supply cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+).
Brent crude appreciated by $1.79 or 2.5 per cent to settle at $73.62 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.84 or 2.7 per cent to close at $69.94 per barrel.
Israel continued strikes against Hezbollah fighters ignoring last week’s truce agreement in Lebanon.
In retaliation, top Lebanese officials have urged the US and France to press Israel to uphold the ceasefire.
Market analysts noted that the risk to the ceasefire has some oil traders worrying more about tensions in the Middle East.
Although the Lebanon conflict has not resulted in oil supply disruptions, traders have been tracking tensions between Iran and Israel in the past few months.
OPEC+ is likely to extend its latest round of oil output cuts until the end of the first quarter at the meeting scheduled for Thursday (December 5).
OPEC+ pumps about half the world’s oil and aims to unwind output cuts through 2025. However, a slowdown in global demand and rising output outside the group pose hurdles to that plan and have weighed on prices.
OPEC+ members are holding back 5.86 million barrels per day of output, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since 2022 to support the market.
An output hike of 180,000 barrels per day was planned for January from the eight members involved in OPEC+’s most recent cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day. The hike has been delayed from October due to falling prices.
The global oil demand outlook remains weak and China’s crude imports are likely to peak as early as next year as demand for transport fuel begins to decrease.
Crude oil inventories in the US rose by 1.232 million barrels for the week ending November 22, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). For the week prior, the API reported a 4.753 barrel build in crude inventories.
So far this year, crude oil inventories have fallen by just over 4 million barrels since the beginning of the year, according to API data.
Official data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) will be released later on Wednesday.
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