BusinessDay 24 May 2017

Wednesday 24 May 2017
06 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
WEST AFRICA ENERGY finance people appointments
Brief
Halliburton
announces leadership
transition
Ha lliburton
Company has
announced
that its Board
of Directors has unanimously
elected Jeff Miller,
the Company’s president
and a board member, to
the position of president
and CEO. Dave Lesar,
who has led Halliburton
as chairman and CEO
since 2000, will continue
serving the Company as
executive chairman. The
leadership changes are
effective June 1, 2017.
“I am grateful to the
Board and Dave for this
opportunity to serve Halliburton
shareholders
and employees,” Miller
said. “I have been fortunate
to work directly
with Dave for many years
and to learn from him as
we execute and deliver
industry-leading returns
by serving our customers
and growing our revenue
and margins. I look forward
to leading our organization
as we continue to
collaborate and engineer
solutions to maximize asset
value for our customers.”
Miller will provide the
day-to-day leadership
and management of
the Company. He will
also be responsible for
the planning and execution
of Halliburton’s
strategic direction, financial
objectives, and
technology development
along with Halliburton’s
management
team who will report
directly to him.
As executive chairman,
Lesar will continue
to play an important
leadership role focusing
on the strategic direction
of the Company,
advising the Halliburton
management team
and transitioning CEO
responsibilities to Miller
who will then continue
reporting to Lesar. He
will be actively engaged
with shareholders and
continue working with
customers to ensure the
Company is best addressing
their needs. Lesar has
entered into a new executive
employment agreement
that provides that
he will continue as executive
chairman through
mandatory retirement on
December 31, 2018, and
contains a 4 year noncompete.
South Africa open to Iranian
investment if new refinery goes ahead
South Africa, a
net importer of
refined oil products,
is looking to
West Africa and
the Middle East, including
Iran, for potential partners
on a new refinery project,
energy ministry officials
said.
Energy minister, Mmamoloko
Kubayi, said that
the cabinet expects to decide
by December whether
Ghana Oil Company
Limited
(GOIL) recorded
an impressive
performance in 2016 despite
increasing competition
and a fall in general
consumption of fuel.
The largest Indigenous
oil marketing company
posted a 58.7 percent increase
in profit after tax and
recorded a 26.95 percent
increase in turnover compared
to that of 2015. This
was announced at the 48th
Annual General Meeting
in Accra by the outgoing
Board Chairman William
Asomaning.
The Oil Marketing
Company which declared
a dividend of
0.025 cedis per share to
shareholders also wel-
to build the refinery that
has been under consideration
for almost a decade.
National oil company
PetroSA has promoted the
idea of building a refinery
with a capacity of up to
400,000 barrels per day on
the east coast, but the government
was put off by the
$10 billion price-tag in 2010
and a lack of equity partners.
Kubayi said the refinery
was now urgent because
South Africa’s oil imports
were increasing.
She said that a publicprivate
partnership to develop
the refinery, which
would be majority owned
by the government, was the
preferred approach.
“By the time any new
refinery is completed, the
country will be importing
in excess of a third of its fuel
requirements,” she said.
GOIL posts 58 percent profit,
maintains dividend to shareholders
comed a new Board of
Directors headed by the
Former minister of state,
Kwamena Bartels
Briefing Shareholders
of the performance of
the company in the year
under review, the outgoing
Board Chairman, Prof.
William Asomaning said,
“GOIL achieved 95.8 percent
of its fuel sales target
in spite of the tight competition
in the industry.
Despite a fall of about 5.6
percent in national consumption
of fuel products,
the company grew fuel
sales by 9.8 percent during
2016, LPG sales grew by
30 percent compared to
2015. Lubricant sales also
improved by 11 percent
compared to 2015. He
noted that GOIL remains
the biggest OMC with a
market share of 18.2 percent”.
Asomaning stated that
the right issue undertaken
by GOIL in 2016
raised additional capital
of GH¢150 million which
enabled the company to
undertake key projects
among which are the fully
The acting director
general at the ministry of
energy Tseliso Maqubela
said that South African authorities
were in talks with
countries and firms from
the Middle East and West
Africa to build the refinery.
“At this stage no country
is excluded,” Maqubela
said when asked if Iran was
among the countries being
considered.
He said there was no decision
yet on the new refinery’s
production capacity
or its construction costs.
Royal Dutch Shell, BP,
Total and Sasol are among
the main refinery operators
in Africa’s most industrialised
country. South Africa
bought around 68,000
bpd of crude from Iran in
May 2012, a month before
it halted crude purchases
as Western countries pressured
Tehran over its nuclear
programme.
Pretoria, which also gets
oil from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria
and Angola, has said
it wants to resume imports
from Iran since Western
sanctions were lifted in
2016.
automated 3-tank storage
facility at Takoradi Harbour
to store and supply
Marine Gas Oil (MGO), to
meet the ever increasing
demand by supply vessel,
the construction of a bitumen
plant and lubricant
blending plant in Tema.
He announced a dividend
payment of GH¢0.025 per
share to shareholders.
The new Board Chairman
of GOIL, Kwamena
Bartels acknowledged
the good work done by
Prof. Asomaning and his
team and assured the new
Board, Management, Staff
and Shareholders that his
team will continue the
good work begun by the
former board to bring more
success to GOIL during his
tenure.