Economy
Nembe Oil Spill: Expert Wants Preservation of Failed Wellhead for Analysis
By Adedapo Adesanya
An American university professor, Rick Steiner, has said between 532,000 and 1,064,000 barrels of crude oil has been spilt in the Nembe Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 blowout, making the blowout one of the largest in world history.
Mr Steiner in a letter to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited advised that the failed wellhead of the Nembe oil spill should be preserved for independent engineering forensic analysis to determine the cause of failure.
The professor, who is the Technical Advisor to the Ijaw Diaspora Council, said the failed wellhead should be assessed by either the US offshore oil regulatory agency, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and or Det Norsk Veritas (DNV) in Norway.
He maintained that the Nembe spill was much larger than government and industry statements suggest to date, and it would be prudent to correct those estimates.
“I understand that the Nembe OML 29 blowout may have been killed as of December 8, 2021, and as Technical Advisor to the Ijaw Diaspora Council, I wanted to provide you with my estimate of total discharge.
“If we assume 1-2 cubic feet of discharge per second (a very reasonable assumption), and that the blowout first occurred on November 1 (as reported by the Nembe communities), then the release lasted for a total of 38 days. This would have released a total of 532,000 barrels – 1,064,000 barrels of oil and gas, making the Nembe OML 29 blowout one of the largest in world history.
“Now that the blowout has apparently been killed, I urge you to preserve the failed wellhead for independent engineering forensic analysis to determine the cause of failure. The wellhead must be preserved as evidence, in standard criminal evidentiary procedures, to prevent any further alteration or adulteration, and then submitted to independent assessment.
“The people of Nigeria clearly deserve an independent assessment of what caused this catastrophic failure, and this is essential in preventing a repeat of this catastrophic failure in the future.
“I encourage the failed wellhead infrastructure to be assessed by either the U.S. offshore oil regulatory agency – the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and/or Det Norsk Veritas (DNV) in Norway.
“Absent of a rigorous chain-of-custody, evidentiary preservation process for the failed equipment, and independent forensic evaluation, the true cause of the failure will never be conclusively determined.”
The university don regretted that the oil industry and government have been in the negative habit of underestimating oil spill volume, as was clearly seen in the 2010 United States’ deepwater horizon.
“A good example of the industry/government habit to underestimate spill volume was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon here in the U.S. BP and the US government first stated the flow rate from the failed seabed wellhead was 1,000 – 5,000 bbls/ day, and they clung to that estimate for some time (even though their internal engineers, and we, told them the flow was much higher).
“When an exact measure was finally conducted, using Particle Image Velocimetry and other engineering methodologies (by the Flow Rate Technical Group), the Macondo blowout outflow was put at 62,000 bbls/day. Again, this seems to always happen with spill volume estimates.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The duo of Geo-Fluids Plc and Afriland Properties Plc propelled the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange up 0.13 per cent on Friday, January 10.
Investors gained N1.4 billion during the trading session after the market capitalisation of the bourse ended at N1.053 trillion compared with the previous day’s N1.052 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) increased at the close of business by 4.07 points to wrap the session at 3,073.93 points compared with 3,069.86 points recorded at the previous session.
Geo-Fluids added 25 Kobo to its value to close at N4.85 per unit compared with the previous session’s N4.60 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 24 Kobo to close at N16.25 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N16.01 per share.
There was a 35.4 per cent fall in the volume of securities traded in the session as investors exchanged 4.3 million units compared to 6.6 million units traded in the preceding session, the value of shares traded yesterday went down by 37.4 per cent to N17.2 million from the N27.5 million recorded a day earlier, and the number of deals decreased by 47.2 per cent to 19 deals from the 36 deals recorded in the preceding day.
FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 1.9 million units worth N74.2 million, followed by 11 Plc with 12,963 units valued at N3.2 million, and Industrial and General Insurance (IGI )Plc with 10.7 million units sold for N2.1 million.
IGI Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 10.6 million units sold for N2.1 million, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 1.9 million units valued at N74.2 million, and Acorn Petroleum Plc with 1.2 million units worth N1.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira witnessed a depreciation on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, January 10.
According to data from the FMDQ Exchange, the local currency weakened against the greenback yesterday by 0.12 per cent or N1.80 to sell for N1,543.03/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,541.23/$1.
The pressure on the domestic currency came as the access granted to the Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to purchase FX from the official market through the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) platform prepares to end next week, precisely on January 19.
The CBN had given a 42-day window to the operators to access the platform to help stabilise the Naira in December, and this expires next week.
On Friday, the Nigerian currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N30.78 to sell for N1,889.29/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,858.51/£1, but gained N5.48 against the Euro to finish at N1,583.81/€1, in contrast to Thursday’s rate of N1,589.29/€1.
As for the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira remained stable against the US Dollar during the trading session at N1,650/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post.
In the cryptocurrency market, it was bearish as the US economy added 256,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, topping forecasts for 160,000 and up from 212,000 in November (revised from an originally reported 227,000).
However, the readings came after a number of recent economic reports triggered a broad-market pullback across asset classes such as crypto as investors quickly scaled back the idea of a continued series of Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.
Cardano (ADA) fell by 3.6 per cent to trade at $0.921, Solana (SOL) slumped by 2.8 per cent to $185.93, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 1.4 per cent to $3,233.27, Litecoin (LTC) lost 1.3 per cent to finish at $103.62, Dogecoin (DOGE) shed 0.5 per cent to sell at $0.3315, Bitcoin (BTC), waned by 0.2 per cent to $94,154.43, and Binance Coin (BNB) went south by 0.1 per cent to $693.30.
On the flip side, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 1.5 per cent to settle at $2.34, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.
By Dipo Olowookere
Profit-takers took control of Customs Street on Friday, plunging it by 0.08 per cent at the close of trading activities.
The sell-offs were across all the key sectors of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on last trading session of the week.
The insurance space went down by 1.53 per cent, the banking index depreciated by 0.41 per cent, the consumer goods sector weakened by 0.16 per cent, and the energy counter slumped by 0.08 per cent, while the industrial goods sector closed flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) tumbled by 79.68 points to 105,451.06 points from 105,530.74 points and the market capitalisation retreated by N48 billion to N64.303 trillion from N64.351 trillion.
Yesterday, investors traded 1.5 billion shares worth N19.4 billion in 12,877 deals compared with the 489.5 million shares worth N13.1 billion transacted in 13,010 deals in the preceding day, indicating a decline in the number of deals by 1.02 deals and a rise in the trading volume and value by 203.14 per cent and 48.09 per cent, respectively.
Wema Bank was the busiest stock with 976.2 million units valued at N9.8 billion, Tantalizers traded 53.0 million units worth 129.6 million, Universal Insurance sold 34.8 million units for N26.8 million, Access Holdings exchanged 33.9 million units valued at N843.8 million, and Nigerian Breweries traded 27.3 million units worth N873.3 million.
The heaviest loss was suffered by Sunu Assurances with a decline of 9.99 per cent to trade at N7.30, Eunisell shed 9.96 per cent to N17.35, SAHCO crumbled by 9.87 per cent to N30.15, DAAR Communications plunged by 9.28 per cent to 88 Kobo, and Sovereign Trust Insurance went down by 7.04 per cent to N1.32.
On the flip side, C&I Leasing gained 10.00 per cent to close at N4.51, Honeywell Flour appreciated by 9.99 per cent to N10.02, Trans Nationwide Express jumped by 9.89 per cent to N2.00, RT Briscoe rose by 9.83 per cent to N2.57, and Secure Electronic Technology grew by 9.46 per cent to 81 Kobo.
Business Post reports that the bourse ended with 33 price gainers and 25 price losers, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.
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