Economy
Buhari to Commission Oil Centre in Lagos Thursday
By Adedapo Adesanya
As part of efforts to boost the operations of the nation’s petroleum sector, President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday, January 21, 2021, inaugurate the National Oil and Gas Excellence Centre (NOGEC) in Lagos.
Head of Public Affairs at the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), Mr Paul Osu, said in a statement on Monday that the centre was structured to drive the three-prong objectives of safety, value and cost efficiency, which are critical for oil and gas industry stability, growth and sustainability.
The commissioning, which will be hosted by the Director of DPR, Mr Sarki Auwalu, will give an opportunity to stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry discuss the crucial elements for competitive advantage in a changing global energy landscape.
“The integrated centre will also entrench Nigeria’s status as a regional leader and position the nation for significant global impact in the provision of value-added services and breakthrough solutions for the industry in years and decades to come,” the statement said.
It was disclosed that the NOGEC complex was structured to house the various flagship centres in order to comprehensively cover key areas of the industry, including Search, Rescue and Surveillance, SeRAS Command and Control Centre and National improved Oil Recovery Centre (NIOR).
Others are Oil and Gas Dispute Resolution Centre, DRC, Oil and Gas Competence Development Centre, CDC, and Integrated Data Mining and Analytics Centre, IDMAC.
Mr Auwalu was quoted to have said “SeRAS is an industry-wide programme established to enhance safety management, emergency preparedness and response as well as bed space management and logistics services across the industry.
”SeRAS will entrench safe practices, drive cost reduction and improve operational efficiency across the industry.
“The SeRAS Command and Control Centre (CCC) established at the NOGEC Centre, Lagos while two other Rescue Coordination Centres (RCC) will be set up at Osubi and Brass, in the first instance, for effective coverage of areas of operations.”
According to him, the NIORC is established to formulate and implement strategies for improved and enhanced oil recovery methods in the oil and gas industry for the purpose of achieving maximum production at the lowest possible cost.
“The centre will partner with operators and technology innovators in their research and development efforts for achieving its objective.
“It will also collaborate with similar international oil and gas regulators in sharing lesson learnt and operational best practice.
“NIORC will focus on the implementation of a robust national IOR framework to enable the country to optimise its resources as well as create greater opportunities for operators,” he said.
He noted that the Oil and Gas DRC would offer arbitration, mediation and conciliation services for the Industry.
Mr Auwalu said the centre would leverage industry technical experts, Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners and resources of the National Data Repository, NDR to provide fair and balanced resolutions of industry-related disputes from an informed position.
He said: “The DRC is structured to adequately resolve disputes in a manner consistent with regulatory and commercial interests of the Industry.
“This will address suboptimal development of oil and gas assets associated with lingering disputes and the attendant consequences of value erosion in terms of national resource growth, global competitiveness, investment attractiveness, government take and investor’s profitability.”
Mr Auwalu said the Oil and Gas CDC was a world-class centre of excellence that would serve as the innovation hub for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, and beyond.
He said: “The centre will feature state-of-the-art training facilities, meeting rooms, conferencing, electronic library, digital visualisation centre, and co-working spaces designed to stimulate creative thinking to proffer solutions for the technical and business challenges facing energy sector practitioner.
“The CDC Is set up to be a regional hub to deliver trainings for oil and gas industry practitioner
“The centre will significantly reduce the cost of training and capacity building which is often associated with international travels by utilising both local and international subject matter experts (SME) to deliver world-class training in-country
“The centre shall leverage the National Data Repository, NDR and its robust suite of digital solutions as well as other existing real-time electronic services to deliver hands-on, practical solutions to industry challenges.
Mr Auwalu said the IDMAC would provide the platform for appropriate analysis of industry data to provide meaningful insights that would enable effective decision making for investment, asset development, portfolio management and operational excellence.
”Technical, operational and economic decisions across the value chain are underpinned by credible, reliable dataset both from a corporate and national planning perspective.
“IDMAC will take advantage of DPR’s resources and tools- Big Data, Internet of things, loT and Artificial intelligence, Al for evaluation, analytics and data synthesis by interested parties.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Food Concepts Plc neutralized the gains recorded by three securities, returning the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange into the negative territory with a 0.27 per cent loss on Thursday, December 4.
Yesterday, the share price of the parent company of Chicken Republic and PieXpress declined by 34 Kobo to sell at N3.15 per unit compared with the previous day’s N3.49 per unit.
This shrank the market capitalisation of the OTC bourse by N5.72 billion to N2.136 billion from N2.142 trillion and weakened the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 9.57 points to 3,571.53 points from 3,581.10 points.
Business Post reports that Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc went down by 50 Kobo to N38.50 per share from N38.00 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc gained 29 Kobo to sell at N55.79 per unit versus N55.50 per unit, and Geo-Fluids Plc added 5 Kobo to close at N4.60 per share compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N4.55 per share.
Trading data indicated that the volume of securities recorded at the session surged by 6,885.3 per cent to 4.3 million units from the 61,570 units posted a day earlier, the value of securities increased by 10,301.7 per cent to N947.2 million from N3.3 million, and the number of deals went up by 146.7 per cent to 37 deals from the 15 deals achieved in the previous trading session.
At the close of business, Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc was the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 5.8 billion units for N16.4 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 170.4 million units worth N8.0 billion, and Air Liquide Plc with 507.5 million units valued at N4.2 billion.
InfraCredit Plc also finished the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units transacted for N16.4 billion, followed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.2 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units traded for N524.9 million.
By Dipo Olowookere
The upward trend witnessed at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited in recent sessions continued on Thursday as it further improved by 0.10 per cent.
This was despite investor sentiment turning bearish after the local equity market ended with 23 price gainers and 28 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index.
UAC Nigeria gained 10.00 per cent to finish at N88.00, Morison Industries appreciated by 9.94 per cent to N3.54, Ecobank rose by 8.53 per cent to N36.90, and Coronation Insurance grew by 8.47 per cent to N2.56.
On the flip side, Ellah Lakes depreciated by 10.00 per cent to N13.14, Eunisell Nigeria also shed 10.00 per cent to finish at N72.90, Transcorp Hotels slipped by 9.95 per cent to N157.50, Omatek shrank by 9.23 per cent to N1.18, and Guinea Insurance dipped by 8.46 per cent to N1.19.
Yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 152.28 points to 145,476.15 points from 145,323.87 points and the market capitalisation chalked up N97 billion to finish at N92.726 trillion compared with the previous day’s N92.629 trillion.
Customs Street was bubbling with activities on Thursday, though the trading volume and value slightly went down, according to data.
A total of 1.9 billion stocks worth N19.2 billion exchanged hands in 23,369 deals during the session versus the N2.3 billion valued at N21.0 billion traded in 21,513 deals a day earlier.
This showed that the number of deals increased by 8.63 per cent, the volume of transactions depleted by 17.39 per cent, and the value of trades decreased by 8.57 per cent.
For another trading day, eTranzact led the activity chart with 1.6 billion units sold for N6.4 billion, Fidelity Bank traded 31.0 million units worth N589.3 million, GTCO exchanged 28.3 million units valued at N2.5 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 27.1 million units for N1.6 billion, and Ecobank traded 21.9 million units worth N744.3 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira marginally depreciated against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, December 4 amid renewed forex pressure associated with December.
At the official market yesterday, the Nigerian currency lost 0.01 per cent or 18 Kobo against the Dollar to close at N1,447.83/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,447.65/$1.
It was not a different scenario with the local currency in the same market segment against the Pound Sterling as it further shed N15.43 to sell for N1,930.97/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing price of N1,925.08/£1 and declined against the Euro by 20 Kobo to finish at N1,688.74/€1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,688.54/€1.
Similarly, the Nigerian Naira lost N5 against the greenback in the black market to quote at N1,465/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,460/$1 but closed flat against the Dollar at the GTBank FX counter at N1,453/$1.
Fluctuations in trading range is expected to continue during the festive season as traders expect the Nigerian currency to be stable, supported by intervention s by to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)in the face of steady dollar demand.
Support is also expected in coming weeks as seasonal activities, particularly the stylised “Detty December” festivities, will see inflows that will give the Naira a boost after it depreciated mildly last month, according to a new report.
“As the festive Detty December season intensifies, inbound travel, tourism spending, and diaspora inflows are expected to provide moderate support for FX liquidity,” analysts at the research unit of FMDA said in its latest monthly report for November.
Traders cited by Reuters expect that the Naira will trade within a band of N1,443-N1,450 next week, buoyed by improved FX interventions by the apex bank.
Meanwhile, the crypto market was down as the US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, core PCE, likely rose in September—moving in the wrong direction. However, volatility indices show no signs of major turbulence.
If the actual figure matches estimates, it would mark 55 straight months of inflation above the US central bank’s 2 per cent target. The sticky inflation would strengthen the hawkish policymakers, who are in favour of slower rate cuts.
Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 4.5 per cent to $2.08, Solana (SOL) went down by 3.8 per cent to $138.11, Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 3.1 per cent to $83.23, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 2.5 per cent to $0.1463, Cardano (ADA) declined by 2.1 per cent to $0.4368, Bitcoin (BTC) fell by 0.9 per cent to $91,975.45, Binance Coin (BNB) crumbled by 0.9 per cent to $899.41, and Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 0.7 per cent to $3,156.44, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 apiece.
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