A proposed law to force indigenous and foreign oil companies to set aside a certain percentage of their training budgets to fund operations of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) is generating concerns among stakeholders in the industry. PTDF is the government agency dedicated to manpower development through research and training in relevant oil and gas fields. Its major source … Read More
FG Offers Incentives for Oil Exploration in Inland Basins
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has urged the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) to explore the hydrocarbon potentials of green inland (frontier) basins in order to increase the depleting reserves in the country. He said the federal government would be willing to make provisions for incentives for such prospective investors. … Read More
Avengers Bow to Niger-Delta Leaders’ Plea
Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, last night, in deference to Niger Delta monarchs and leaders, who asked them, on Friday, in Warri, Delta State, to stop blowing up oil pipelines, said it would cease hostilities in the region. The cessation of hostilities, it said, was in support of “genuine Niger Delta stakeholders conference to engage the Federal Government” on the issues … Read More
Oil Production Drops by 29%, Against Projection – FG
The Federal Government on Thursday revealed that the country’s crude oil production had dropped by 29 percent, as against the nation’s 2016 budget target of 2.2 million barrels per day, an indication that Nigeria’s current economic crisis might still linger for a longer time. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who disclosed this at the national … Read More
Niger Delta Militants Willing to Negotiate With Government
After a sustained bombing of oil facilities reducing Nigeria’s oil output and revenue, the Niger Delta Avengers has said that it is now willing to dialogue with the Federal Government. As a prelude to the talks and an expression of readiness to lay down arms and embrace peace, the NDA, Wednesday, raised what it calls “Contact and Dialogue Team headed … Read More
Nigeria Government to Commence Oil Exploration in Benue Trough
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to commence the search for crude oil and other hydrocarbon exploration in the Benue Trough. According to a statement by the NNPC, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikaniti Baru, disclosed this while receiving a delegation from the Benue State Government, who paid him a courtesy visit in … Read More
Economic Recession and the Petroleum Industry
The Nigerian economy has slipped into recession. The evidence is showing up in all the usual ways: slowing output growth, slumping purchasing-manager indexes, widening credit spreads, declining corporate earnings, falling inflation expectations, receding capital investment and rising inventories. The economic recession in the country has been blamed on the decline in crude oil prices, which led to reduction in the … Read More
Federal Government Recommences Payments To Repentant Militants
The Federal Government has resumed cash payments to repentant militants in the restive Niger Delta, in a calculated bid to end the wave of militant attacks on oil and gas facilities. It had, in February, stopped the payments to former militants who had agreed, under a 2009 amnesty programme, to stop bombing crude oil pipelines in exchange for cash, Reuters quoted a … Read More