20 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020 From left: Mrs Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma, Chairperson, Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) and Mallam Kasimu Garba Kurfi, MD/CEO, APT Securities & Trust Funds Limited during the CAMCAN review of the capital market in 2019 and the 2020 outlook Nigeria’s downstream business, economy suffers setbacks •Operators decry low margins on PMS By Michael Eboh, Ediri Ejoh & Prince Okafor Operators in the down stream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry, yesterday, lamented the dwindling fortunes of the country downstream sector, stating that the challenges in the sector are stifling their margins and impacting their businesses negatively. These were the issues raised at a panel session at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, NIPS, held in Abuja. The Director, Petroleum Resources, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Mr Sarki Awuwalu, stated that there was need for new thinking from operators to drive the expected development in the sector. He said, “The downstream oil sector will witness changes in few years with government’s commitment to drive business in the sector. The sector requires new thinking to achieve the goals needed to drive the sector for growth and development.” He said that with the upcoming of the modular refineries and mainstream refineries, local refining would be imminent thus bringing change to the downstream stream oil sector. He added that government was looking at ways of making domestic refining of crude in country possible. “The effort of the DPR as a regulator to reduce import of crude can be seen in the upcoming of some refineries and modular refineries. Domestic refining in two years from now will supersede the consumption in country.” He stated that government was supporting all efforts to ensure that business in these areas thrive with creating enabling environment. He added that the closure of the nation’s border had helped to know the actual daily consumption rate in the country. “The Ministry is also looking at alternative source of energy with the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to bring a change on energy demand.” This year has been declared the year of Gas by the Minister for State, Petroleum resources and we know that gas is cheaper. It will help to bring about change on the value 1 billion barrels of crude oil discovered in North-East — FG By Michael Eboh, Ediri Ejoh & Prince Okafor THE Federal Government, yesterday, disclosed that so far, one billion barrels of crude oil has been discovered in the North East region of the country. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit, NIPS, Minister Of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, also stated that negative comments about Nigeria are hindering the inflow of capital into the country. Sylva stated that exploration was continuing in the north east region of the country and when completed, the actual volume would be determined. He said, “The figure we are getting, the jury is not totally out yet but from the evaluation results we are getting, the reserve that has been discovered in the northeast is about a billion barrels. Those are the kind of figures we are seeing and we are beginning to understand the geological structure of the region.” He further stated that the Federal Government would soon commence the rehabilitation of the country’s refineries, noting that the government was committed to ensuring that the refineries returned to production. He said, “We are going to start the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery which is the biggest refinery in Nigeria. If we are able to finish the Port Harcourt refinery we would have achieved a lot as a government. Meanwhile we are also continuing with studies around Warri refinery, we are also continuing discussions around Kaduna refineries. chain.” He noted that East-West gas pipeline expansion project and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project were among the government’s project that would also help drive the downstream oil sector. “The Nigeria gas transportation code launched few days ago will help open access to the downstream, create opportunities and wealth.” He further assured that government would continue to look at major issues like uncertainty in pricing and multiplicity of regulations and ways to resolve them, as this would help to drive the downstream sector for change. In his view, CEO, OVH Energy, Huub Stokman said petrol margin remains the lowest in other oil countries, “Of all countries, Nigeria has the lowest margins on PMS and the most fragmented market. “We must understand what the customer wants. I think we sometimes forget that the customer wants good service, quality and quantity that he can trust, wants constant availability to be able to get the product whenever needed and wants it at the right price and wants the product delivered in a safe manner. I think Nigeria is struggling with these areas.” He calls for continuous investment in the downstream saying without which development may not be realized.” Also speaking, Managing Director of 11 Plc, Mr. Tunji Oyebanji, warned that the country may not enjoy the benefits and opportunities of upcoming refineries projects if it does not create the right environment for investment to thrive in the country. According to Oyebanji, who is also the Chairman of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, “Efforts must be directed by the government at creating environments that would unleash investments in the downstream, else operators of modular and traditional refineries would end up exporting their refined petroleum products outside of the country.” Capacity utilisation bane of oil sector local content — Stakeholders By Sebastine Obasi The local content policy of the Federal Government may not achieve the expected results if the issue of capacity utilisation is not urgently addressed, oil industry stakeholders said. Speaking at the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit, NIPS, Professor Wumi Ilebare, African Region Director, Society of Petroleum Engineers, stated that Nigeria is not suffering from lack of capacity but local capacity utilisation. He said, “Nigeria is not suffering from lack of capacity. What Nigeria is suffering from to derive benefits from local content, is local capacity utilisation. We need to move away from equalisation of everything. You cannot pay a professor of petroleum engineering the same amount you pay a professor of history. You have to look at so many things. You need to move away from centralisation of most of things we are doing if research and development are to take us to the next level. You must find a way to create incentive to make people to study more difficult subjects that are required to fill the gap. “There must be partnership if Nigeria wants to get the full benefits of local content policy. Local content is not about local pockets. It is not about my people. It is about who is there that has the capacity to provide the necessary and needed services. “All over the world, Nigeria’s local content has been a banner. I have had the privilege of travelling to many oil producing African countries. They said they have learnt something from Nigeria’s local content policy and they have fast. When it comes to research and development, the place for cheap labour is the university. If the universities are not fully developed, to be able to produce capable hands to fill the gap, all the conferences and the events we organise are mere jamborees.” Food, tech security: Sanwolu, Canadian mayor parley on bilateral cooperation By Olasunkanmi Akoni Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Mr. Patrick Brown, the Mayor of Brampton City in Ontario, Canada have expressed readiness to boost bilateral cooperation between the two cities in the areas of cyber, food security and technology, among others. The duo sealed the deal when the latter led a delegation to the Governor on a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja. Sanwo-Olu stated that the ongoing infrastructural development programme of the state government was a deliberate effort to make the state attractive to Diasporan investment. The governor noted that there would be no point requesting Nigerians abroad to come back home to invest if the local business environment was not made to support their aspirations. Sanwo-Olu said the Canadian city shared similar history with Lagos, stressing that both cities had grown over the decades to become the hubs of commerce and Information and Communi- cation Technology (ICT). He said: “It feels great to know how much effort you, as a Mayor of Brampton, are investing in driving more development in your city and this is similar to what we have been doing in Lagos. “All these efforts will sustain the position of Lagos as the first destination for business and keep our economy growing at a steady pace. Lagos is the tech hub in the sub-Saharan Africa and there are many collaboration we can seal with Brampton in the area of cyber security. “Only yesterday, (Monday), the state cabinet passed the development of 3,000-kilometre metropolitan fibre initiative all around the city. “When this is done, we will be able to leapfrog on this to build several capabilities using technology. It means that we are transforming Lagos to a smart city and city of the future driven by technology. “This will also enhance our Ease of Doing Business Policy, which foreign investors and Diaspora can tap into.” Nigeria LNG signs 10-year LNG deal with Galp Nigeria Liquefied Natu ral Gas (NLNG) has signed a deal with Galp Trading SA for the supply of one million tonnes of LNG per year The company is a statement said that the volumes will be supplied on a delivered ex-ship basis for 10 years from Trains 1, 2 and 3 of a six-train NLNG production facility on Bonny Island. The transaction follows a similar deal with Italy’s Eni and France’s Total announced last month and a 0.5 million tonnes per year deal with commodity trader Vitol signed in December. NLNG has been remarketing some volumes from its existing trains as some contracts approach expiry. In another development, NLNG, yesterday said it has concluded plans to sign the Engineering, Procurement and Construction, EPC contract for its $10 billion Train 7 project with Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo E&C (SCD) on or before the end of April 2020. Investigations by Vanguard at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, NIPS, Abuja, indicated that the expected signing of the contract would enable the contractors to mobilise to site, thus creating many multiplier effects, including jobs and award of subcontracts to indigenous companies.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020 — 21
- Page 1 and 2: OLU FASAN 31 26 Music The parliamen
- Page 3 and 4: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 5 and 6: vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguar
- Page 7 and 8: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 9 and 10: Borno killings: Govs call for great
- Page 11 and 12: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 13 and 14: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 15 and 16: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 17 and 18: When a PFA goes beyond the call of
- Page 19: BPE to raise N267bn from privatizat
- Page 23 and 24: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 25 and 26: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 27 and 28: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 29 and 30: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 31 and 32: WHY do most countries have prime mi
- Page 33 and 34: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 35 and 36: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 37 and 38: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 39 and 40: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 41 and 42: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 43 and 44: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 45 and 46: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20
- Page 47 and 48: Vanguard, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20