Tag Archives: Oil

Nigerian Navy Arrest Boat With 400 Truckload Of Stolen Crude Oil

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The Nigerian Navy in the Delta state has arrested a self propelled barge loaded with estimated 4000metric tonnes, equivalent of 400 truck load of suspected crude oil in what the Central Naval Command, CNC, described as “a big break in the fight against oil theft” in the Niger Delta.

Flag Officer Commanding, FOC, CNC, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman who briefed the press Friday at the Nigeria Navy Ship, NNS Delta in Warri said the boat, MT Camille, was caught November 15 along with 11 man crew in Forcados waters where Shell operates an oil terminal.

Apochi said, “The crew captain is making serious confessional statement, but this is such a big break that we can’t let the details out now so as not to compromise the investigation. We have informed the oil majors operating in the area too.

“No ordinary person can put a 400 trucks capacity crude oil stealing boats on the river. This is a big break. We will get to the bottom of this and get the kingpins, working with other relevant stakeholders.”

The crew members were paraded by the Commander, NNS Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed who said they would be handed to relevant agency for further investigation and prosecution.

The crew captain whose name was withheld claimed they were sailing on a voyage from Thelma, Ghanna to Cameroon, adding that  the boat was at the Forcados Rivers for get fuel and food when it was allegedly hijacked by gunmen who deployed them for the oil theft.

Oil, Gas Sector Facing Sharp Low Revenues- Kachikwu

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The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr Ibe Kachikwu on Monday said the industry was facing a sharp lower revenues from the country’s oil assets.

Kachikwu said this at the 33rd Annual International Conference and Exhibition organised by Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos.

The NNPC boss was represented by the Group General Manager, Nigerian Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr Dafe Sejebor.

Kachikwu said the nation should put up strategies to stay afloat in order to mitigate the impact of the fall in oil price in the industry and on the nation.

“We must renegotiate our contracts to reflect current market realities.

“If the cost/unit barrel remains exorbitant at current low prices, oil production becomes economically not viable; it will simply be left in the ground.

“Portfolios must be re-evaluated because now is the good time to optimise the company’s overall portfolio by restructuring capital allocation away from high-cost, lower-return projects,” he said.

The GMD listed survival strategies to include external financing, operational optimisation, ?review of fiscal terms, strategic merger and acquisition.

Others are re-engineering business models, reduction in operating expenditure cost, and financial resilience.

Credit: Vanguard

Oil Close To Being Found In North East- NNPC

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Nigeria may well be on the verge of a significant oil find in the Lake Chad area in North East based on analysis of recent Seismic 3D data generated from the Basin, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has said.
Dr. Kachikwu revealed this in a presentation to the Petroleum Club, Lagos, over the weekend.
The NNPC boss in the presentation titled, “Ongoing Reforms in the Oil Industry: Impact of NNPC Reforms on the Nigerian Economy,” said that the Corporation was injecting a lot of energy into the effort to ensure success in this regard.
He said, “There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may well be very close to being found now in Lake Chad after very many years of trials. I think that this is very key.  It is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and it is also very key for the purpose of refinery placement in the north in terms of access to crude. I am optimistic that by the end of the year we should be able to announce something major on this,” the GMD said.
Dr. Kachikwu noted that in driving and developing Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, certain key areas of urgent intervention have been identified.
They are: running production acreages with transparent and profitable partnerships to bridge capacity and funding gaps; encourage investment inflow into Nigeria’s oil and gas industry; engagement with local communities and driving regulation to develop the sector income, among others.
Providing specifics on the intervention targets, Dr. Kachikwu stated that the NNPC is projecting the inflow of $20 billion in 2016 to enable the Corporation fund major projects and improve its bottom line going forward.

Credit: DailyTrust

Food Security: No One Eats Oil Or Gas- Adesina

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The president of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has emphasised the importance of agriculture and food security to the growth and development of Africa.

Speaking at a high level conference on agricultural transformation themed ‘Feeding Africa,’ Adesina said nothing is more important than food, noting that while Africa had risen on the back of new discoveries of oil and gas fields, in reality, no one eats oil or gas.

He stated, “People eat food. Access to food in quantity and quality is a fundamental human right. Just few weeks ago at the United Nations General Assembly, the world took a bold decision to approve the Sustainable Development Goals. In my meeting with the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, he told me: ‘The SDGs must succeed in Africa. If they do not succeed there, they cannot be said to have succeeded’.

“Africa is clearly the continent on the rise. Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world are in Africa. Real income has risen by 30 per cent in the last 10 years. Foreign Direct Investment has risen to $64 billion, while remittances have reached $56 billion, exceeding total official development assistance.”

Credit: Leadership

Nigeria’s Armed Forces To Guard Oil, Fuel Pipelines- Kachikwu

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The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has said that the nation’s armed forces will soon be deployed to guarding the nation’s oil and fuel pipelines.

The GMD revealed this last week Wednesday when speaking on the Corporation’s effort to curb the activities of oil thieves in the country.

“Efforts are in top gear to fix all the crude and petroleum products pipelines across the country. The Nigerian Airforce would be engaged to provide aerial survey of the pipelines, the Nigerian Army Engineering corps to fix and police the pipelines and the Nigerian Navy to provide marine surveillance for the network of pipelines,” he said.

Read More: dailytimes

Nigeria’s Economy In Trouble, As Oil Price Crashes Even Lower

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Nigeria’s economy may be heading for trouble, as oil price crashed even lower at the weekend, thereby threatening the 2015 budget and fiscal plan.

The international price of crude hit a six-year low below USD40 per barrel with West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures as low as USD39.89, while Brent crude declined further to USD45.10 from previous week’s level of USD48.87 per barrel. Nigeria’s sweet crude is similar to the Brent.

It is envisaged that prices will crash even further once Iran begins to enyoy its international pardon by pumping more oil into the already saturated market.

This will spell more doom for Nigeria, which is producing less than its projected 2 million barrels daily, thereby increasing the cash crunch and liquidity flow in the economy, with many states still unable to pay salaries.economy1

The steep decline in oil prices had in March this year forced the National Assembly to settle for USD53 per barrel as the oil benchmark price for 2015 budget, down from USD65 earlier proposed by the Federal Executive Council under ex-president Goodluck Jonathan. The government had earlier in the year effected downward review of the budget benchmark twice in response to sliding oil price from USD78 to USD73 and later to USD65. It even said it had planned for possible price fall scenarios of up to $50/barrel.

With this development, economists are expecting further downwards adjustments in the budgetary benchmark, revenue projections and ultimately expenditure provisions. Also, they expect further pressure on the value of Naira as the development has wiped off any accretion to the country’s Excess Crude Account.

According to the Global Chief Economist, Renaissance Capital, Mr. Charles Robertson, lower oil price will be painful for the budget. It means less money is available for much-needed investment in infrastructure.

Budget projections

The 2015 budget had envisaged federal government’s share to be about N3.6 trillion of total oil component revenue at USD65 per barrel, with estimated production output of 2million barrels per day.

At current oil price, the component accruable to the federal government would drop massively to less than N2.5 trillion, putting the entire budget in disarray. Evidently all the projected expenditure, Vanguard learnt, are already being curtailed in the recurrent expenditure provisions in the budget, while capital expenditure of N634 billion is completely dropped.

Read full story via:  Vanguard

Over 250,000 Barrels Of Oil Siphoned Daily, PMB Raises Alarm

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President Muhammadu Buhari has raised the alarm that oil theft continues at the moment with an average of more than 250,000 barrels being siphoned daily.

Speaking yesterday on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) programme tagged “Good Morning Nigeria”, Buhari promised  that he would soon ensure that those committing that crime against Nigeria are faced with facts and prosecuted.

He said crude was  being illegally loaded from the country’s terminals by unpatriotic Nigerians that only considered  their own selfish interests to get money.

Besides, Buhari said his government had to maintain a high level of confidentiality in order not to risk the lives of people in Nigeria who were helping to trace the destinations of the stolen crude and the accounts the proceeds were being paid into.

The president said:  “I don’t think the NNPC knows how many accounts are there in which payments are made on Nigerian crude. The monumental fraud has been going on for a number of years.  A lot of Nigerians cannot comprehend it”.

Buhari said foreign countries were  willing to let go of the looted oil funds but Nigeria had to comply with their own system by getting the documents, especially the shipping papers.

Speaking on the report that he planned to unbundle the NNPC, Buhari said: “I read the story too that I intend to break the NNPC. I think the best way to go about it to first establish the fact of the magnitude of the inexplicable way the NNPC conducted itself.”

Read More: dailytrust

Oil Theft: What We Found Shocked Us, Says APC

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The All Progressives Congress has said it was shocked at the magnitude of cases of corruption it has so far unearthed while going through the records of the previous administration.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja, on Thursday.
He was reacting to the announcement by President Muhammadu Buhari that some officials of the immediate past administration were involved in stealing one million barrel of crude oil daily.
Mohammed said, “We are not just shocked but taken aback by what we have found. We have always known that there was monumental corruption under the previous regime but we did not know it was this huge.

“Anybody who calls the questions we are asking a witch-hunt is a person who condones corruption,

and again, when we were raising the alarm over this level of corruption they were engaged in, they said we were crying wolf where there was none.

“They said it never happened. They even went as far as manufacturing figures to cover up. We must ask questions so that whoever is coming into government will know that it cannot be business as usual and that he/she must be prepared to answer questions after they leave office.”
On its part, the Peoples Democratic Party said the allegations of impropriety levelled against the officials of the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration must be proved in court.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, said to the best of his knowledge, the PDP-led administration conducted its affairs transparently, as such, the party was not afraid of any probe.
He said, “Like I told you before, the PDP provided a transparent leadership for this country for the 16 years we were in power.
“It was the PDP that established the anti-corruption agencies we are celebrating today, like the EFCC and the ICPC. All we ask is that any probe of the last administration should not be used as an avenue to villify people who served this country diligently.”
Source: The Punch

Buhari Promises Reforms, New Policies To Boost Oil, Gas Income

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday restated his administration’s promise to initiate appropriate reforms and implement policies to boost income from the oil and gas industry.

Speaking at separate meetings with delegations from ExxonMobil and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company, President Buhari listed the removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks created by multiple government agencies that currently impede the operations of companies in the oil and gas sector as one of the reforms to be undertaken by his administration.

The President said that his government would also give priority attention to the security of oil and gas installations as well as maritime security in its bid to boost national earnings from the sector.

Read More: premiumtimesng

El-Rufai Stops Free Ramadan Rice, Oil, Sugar Distribution

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Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i, has ordered a stop to government’s free distribution of grains during fasting in the month of Ramadan.

The Governor said that his administration would not continue with what he described as the People’s Democratic Party’s culture of sharing state’s resources.

“I have been made to understand that this Ramadan period, we are supposed to have started sharing rice, milk and sugar, but we will not do that,” El-Rufa’i said yesterday at the Government House.

He spoke when the executive members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) visited him.

El-Rufa’i explained that he took the decision to stop the annual tradition of distribution of the products because he does not want government to be involved in religious affairs, more so, according to him, “as the government is broke.

“If his government continues in such direction, the administration will only exist to pay salaries and allowances.

“This beautiful office complex in which we are cost the government about N10 billion.

“The Deputy Governor and I would not have built this when there are many masses-oriented projects yet to be executed, but it has been built, we have to use.’’

“So, we solicit your prayers to be able to stabilise the situation and we hope that things will improve.”

Read More: vanguardngr

We Can Succeed Without Oil- Orubebe

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A former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has called on people of the region to look beyond oil, noting that the oil boom has kept the region in untold poverty.

Orubebe, made this remark while speaking at a seminar organised by the Ijaw Professional Association, IPA, in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: “The place of the Ijaws in Nigeria: A Call to Strategic Action”, the former minister said that it was necessary for leaders of the South South, especially the Ijaw nation, to come up with a roadmap that would create employment for its people instead of putting hope on oil.

He said: “Because of oil, we have abandoned what God gave to us. We have people who are naturally fishermen and palm oil tappers. You heard when I spoke about Ogogoro (local gin), which is celebrated in China, but the authorities here are not doing anything to improve on it”.

Credit; dailypost

Gen. Buhari Blames Slow Growth Of Oil & Gas Sector On Politicians

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President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has blamed politicians for the slow rate of development in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

He said this when he received a delegation from Total Oil Exploration and Production Group who were on a congratulatory visit.

Buhari said the slow progress recorded in the development of the country’s gas production and distribution infrastructure was due to sabotage by politicians and inefficiency by the officials.

The Chief Executive Officer of Total Group, Mr. Patrick Pouyanne, however, assured that his company was doing its best to assuage the pains of Nigerians with the ongoing fuel scarcity. It has therefore directed its downstream subsidiary to ensure all-round supply of petroleum product to its 500 distribution outlets throughout the country.

“We have discussed and I think some solutions are being implemented. Our downstream subsidiary, Total Nigeria Plc, is doing its best in order to supply its 500 outstations throughout the country with fuel to help check the scarcity.

“Nigeria is an important nation in our business outlook. It presently accounts for over 10 per cent of Total Group’s investment worldwide. We are not just involved in the Upstream and natural gas production, but in the downstream operations.

“We are deeply concerned on the current challenges being witnessed in Nigeria and global oil market,” he said.

Lagos Will Survive On Tax Income Despite Dwindling Oil Revenue, Says Fashola

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Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Wednesday said the state would continue to survive on tax income generation following the decline in Nigeria’s oil revenue.

Fashola spoke at the public presentation of a book titled,” Nigerian Tax Law and Administration in Lagos”.

The 15-chapter book was authored by the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ade Ipaye.

The governor said the crash in oil prices had led to shortages in allocations received by states from the Federal Government.

“Today,many states cannot pay salaries due to dwindling allocation and whenever the government cannot pay salary, it affects the economic life of the state.”

Fashola said that taxation was a legal obligation which was critical to the prosperity of any society, adding that withholding of taxes under any guise, was a crime.

“If there is a bad government in power, your recourse is not to withhold tax. Your recourse is to withhold your vote for that government at the next election.”

The governor advocated judicious use of the state’s resources for the provision of infrastructure and other services.

Also speaking, Justice Amina Augie, the presiding judge, Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, said the book would assist the jurists in reaching their decisions on issues relating to tax.

Mr Babatunde Fagbohunlu (SAN), who reviewed the book, said that government was gearing to increase its revenue base through a more aggressive and efficient tax administration because of the contraction in oil revenues.

– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/lagos-will-survive-on-tax-income-despite-dwindling-oil-revenue-says-fashola/#sthash.nxjcutje.dpuf

Why We Stopped Buying Nigeria’s Oil -White House Economic Director

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Zients, US Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez, and White House Policy Council Director, Cecelia Munoz, were addressing a few US journalists on Thursday afternoon on the state of the American economy when The Guardian raised the question wondering why the US brought oil imports from Nigeria to a complete zero, while still importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other major oil producing countries.

According to the White House Economic Council Director, “across the last several years, US oil production has ramped up significantly by more than 50 percent to now over eight and a half million barrels per day.”

He explained that such a high turn up in local US oil production “has now dramatically reduced our dependency on imports,” Zients noted, adding that “in fact, we now produce more here than we import.”

The White House official stated that the development is consistent with President Barack Obama’s energy strategy, which has changed “quite a bit over the last few years as we are much less dependent on oil imports.”

That strategy has not only left Nigeria in the lurch, but has generally also driven down the international market price of oil to a ridiculous $60 range by the close of trading on Friday. Oil price, which soared around $100 in September, is now $56.52 for the WTI Crude and $61.38 for the Brent Crude oil.

But Zients and the other US officials at the press briefing did not address the issue of the ongoing importation from other oil producing nations, including OPEC members like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and non-OPEC suppliers like Canada. In fact, as at last month, it was reported that, while US completely halted oil imports from Nigeria, it increased its importation from those three countries.

The reduction of US oil importation from Nigeria to zero is the very first time since 1973 that the US did not import oil from Nigeria. US Shale oil production is responsible for the infusion of “light, sweet crude,” said to be similar to Nigeria’s Bonny Light oil, and US refineries are said to have preferred buying the locally produced oil, which is cheaper than Nigeria’s light crude.

Before Zients explanation on Thursday, there have been muted concerns whether the decision to completely end oil importation from Nigeria has any political connotation. For instance, a German top bank, Deutsche Bank had commented last month that “as if the recent drop in oil prices was not enough bad news for Nigeria’s economy, recent data show the US completely stopped importing crude oil from Nigeria. This marks a dramatic reversal for Africa’s largest economy, which in 2010 was still among America’s top 5 oil suppliers and exported at its peak 1.3m barrels per day to the United States.”

The German bank analysis further questioned why Nigeria was singled out, an aspect of the question posed by The Guardian to which the US government officials did not address. According to Deutsche Bank, the decline in US imports from Nigeria, “proceeded much faster than for the US’ other major suppliers.’ It is the rather drastic and complete zero oil imports from Nigeria that suggested a possible political connotation, which was however left unexplained by Zients.

Observers say it is not unlikely that oil imports termination with Nigeria and the refusal of the US government to sell weapons to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram might both be political signals from President Barack Obama to the Nigerian presidency as it can be seen as demonstration of a lack of commitment by the US government to a supposed strategic partner –Nigeria — in Africa.

The Obama administration’s outright refusal to approve the sale of specific military equipment to Nigeria, in a clear-cut public renunciation of the Nigerian military and security apparatus which requested the okay from the US Defense department is also a potential dampener to US claims of a thriving diplomatic relationship with Nigeria. First, it was the US Ambassador in Nigeria who confirmed that the country would not okay the weapons sales to Nigeria, and then the State Department in response to Nigeria’s Ambassador’s complaints on the issue.

This particular refusal is sending clear indications that there are strong oppositional voices against President Jonathan in the White House, the State Department and Pentagon, causing further strain between Nigeria and the American governments, according to knowledgeable US sources.

Read More: tribexmarketing.com

The Robber State Can Now Drink Her Oil By ?Erasmus Ikhide

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THE hope of restoring normalcy to a morally bankrupt nation to a place in the sun greater than it had ever been is ebbing gradually. Nigeria is in economic straits, maimed by official corruption, which slices off more than 50 % of her GDP in revenue. The nation’s oil deals which has been shrouded in the caucuses of bargaining and appalling crudity has left the people in abject poverty.

But President Goodluck Jonathan’s sidekick wouldn’t have any of such. They are used to thinking that the ugly picture is a mere grotesque hodgepodge concocted by half-baked, uneducated neurotics who are bent on sabotaging the humane president. It’s time Mr President summon the moral courage and pledge the reversal of the nation’s menacing presence and the future.

Regrettably, the argument of Jonthanians is not supported by Mr president’s broken promises, overt corruption, oil theft and pipeline vandalism. The gruelling grind of irony in a land flowing with energy under its belly vanquished presidential hollowness for its failure to boon the economy.

In 2011 NNPC signed a USD28.5 billion Memorandum of Understanding, MOU with the Chinese to build the  NNPC Greenfield Refineries in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Lagos States’. So far, none has been built, four years down the road. In 2012 at the Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference, the bogey minister promised that Turn Around Maintenance’, TAM, will gulf USD700 million, which amounts to USD2.8 billion – for the four refineries within 12 months.

As we speak, none of the four Nigerian Refineries operates with more than 60% capacities. Kaduna refinery operates below 30% of her installed capacity. That is after billions of and billions of dollars was expended.P How else can we explain that TAM was a waste of our common patrimony and the crudest form of corruption? The four refineries can produce 445,000 barrel of oil per day, if they are functioning at 100% capabilities; which is still  below Nigeria’s current need of about 39 million litres according to the PPPRA per day!

President Jonathan’s government expended trillions of dollars in the so-called Fuel Subsidy that was reeked with hyper-corruption. When Nigerians protested the enrichment of the president’s cronies with the oil scam, Mrs Diezani Allison-madueke deadened her concerns scornfully and bluntly told the nation to go to hell or that the Fuel Subsidy would be reduced by half any time she choses.

It was a show of sheer unconcealed disdain for the Nigeria masses. The protest against Fuel Subsidy was partly against her career of gross abuse of office and blatant assault on the volition of the people to benefit from the resources of their nation. While the people haggled and groaned under the excruciating  fuel’s price spike, the federal government remained blunted in her constitution responsibilities to the electorate.

That profound deadening of consciousness is the sheerest  negation of nation-building, where the peoples’ demand for access to common till is viewed as doing them favour. Any surprise that President Jonathan gloated and gloried suppressing protesters who seek the reversal of fuel increments in the past? Even after many people have lost their lives, all the promises of palliatives never came.

Till now, the consistent figure of the about N200 billion the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, pays to petroleum marketeers quarterly for subsidy hasn’t changed. Yet, Nigeria remains one of the few OPEC members still importing majority of Refined Petroleum products to the tune of over USD15 billion yearly.

There is no doubts that the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, has accumulated dust wherever is it kept. This is due largely to the frosty relationship between the Hon. Minister and the Natioal Assembly members. This has resulted into her getting Court Injunction stopping them from investigating the alleged N10 billion allegedly expended on private jets. This is away from the USD20 billion missing in the NNPC accounts as alleged by the former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano.

The Presidency is aware that the no-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, is gravely affecting investment in the oil and gas industry and that the continues delay is inimical to the nation’s economy. The passage of the PIB would have fast-tracked the exploration of oil in many part of the country where oil has recently been discovered.  The President is also aware that the passage of PIB will steam the tide of mega-corruption and the suitcase oil portfolios will come to an abrupt end.

We are back to the same position. My former union, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, in alliance with the Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has embarked on industrial action, grounding the already traumatised economy for lack of faith in the government of the day. The oil unions are accusing the president of inability to fix existing and build new refineries, bad roads, arbitrary sacking of union members by oil companies. The Trade Union Congress even took it further.

Arising from its Nation Executive Council, NEC, the central labour union enthuse: “The congress expresses dismay that the prices of refined petroleum products have remained unchanged despite the significant fall of crude oil prices which the CBN acknowledged as a steady one. “We therefore called on the government to direct the appropriate agency to respond by adjusting the pump price of petroleum products, which will ameliorate the impact on the purchasing power by the devaluation of the Naira.

Now, Nigerians are reminded to be contented with the oil goddess with the burning beauty who the alternate lot falls upon as the OPEC’s Chairman that becomes a shinning jewel  on her scrap-iron crown! A fourth-grade schoolmarm could have thought the minister that even the hewers of wood and the drawers of water knew when to demand for wage increase to cushion their labour. She was the least possessed of that burning sense of mission to end the ogre of corruption the perennial crisis of fuel scarcity.

Over the weekend, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele disclosed that Nigeria loses N24 billion yearly on waivers granted to importers of crude oil. This is in spite of the fact that those enjoying the waiver are the same people as those criminally benefiting from Fuel Subsidy graft.

Both the International Energy Agency and former U.S. Energy Information chief Guy Caruso predict oil prices are likely to remain lower for a while, barring a major disruption in supply. “It’s highly unlikely OPEC gets their act together, so I see prices being weak for the next six months or so,” Mr Caruso said.

It’s obvious that Nigeria will remain politically stunted, economically traumatised, developmentally backward for many years to come for refusing to diversify. It’s a stark choice we have to make. Either we diversify or we start drinking our oil! An anti-State agent? A megalomania? A sadistic fancy? All of them in part.  It’s because the State itself has become the biggest swindler and crook. A robbers’ state! The hope of nation-becoming, which early in 2011 vividly accomplished President Jonathan’s restoration’s campaigns has faded in the twilight of 2014.

There is no retelling that Mr Jonathan’s moribund regime represents the most harrowing of the nation’s nightmares over and beyond even the horror visited on the nation by military juntas. I am certain Nigeria will be approaching the polling boots across the country on February 14, 2015 with one thing in mind: Nations collapse or perish for whom it exists when the loss of force of resistance by the people give way to oppressive despots to triumph in their oppression.

Erasmus Ikhide,  @ErasmusIkhide

Nigeria’s Loss Is East Africa’s Gain as Oil Prices Plummet

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Investors targeting Africa are looking east as an oil-market rout depresses economic growth prospects in Nigeria and other crude-producing nations.

Stocks have surged 22 percent in Tanzania, 18 percent in Uganda and 9.4 percent in Kenya since oil began falling from a peak of $115.71 a barrel on June 19. Lower fuel-import costs are helping to keep inflation and interest rates in check and bolster their economies. That contrasts with a 24 percent slump in the benchmark stock index in Nigeria, which relies on oil for 95 percent of foreign-exchange income and faces political instability ahead of elections in February.

“It’s mostly the east African countries that will benefit from the lower oil price,” Joseph Rohm, a fund manager who helps oversee Cape Town-based Investec Asset Management’s $2 billion Africa fund, said by phone on Dec. 2. “Lower inflation implies lower interest rates for longer, which is good for consumers. Low rates are also good for credit growth, which is good for the banks. Kenya (NSEASI) is one area where we have increased our exposure.”

Oil exporters such as Nigeria, Angola and Ghana, which are on Africa’s west coast, have been left exposed to financial market turmoil after a 42 percent plunge in the price of Brent crude in the past six months. Authorities were slow to build adequate savings and reduce the reliance on oil earnings to fund their budgets when crude prices soared, putting their economies now at risk.

Credit: Bloomberg News

Too Much Boom Time Oil Savings Spent on State Governors- Okonjo-Iweala

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Nigeria’s finance minister said on Thursday that a significant portion of the billions of dollars drained from the oil savings account over the past two years was distributed to powerful governors instead of being saved for a rainy day.The central bank devalued the naira by 8 percent on Tuesday because it was running out of forex reserves with which to defend the currency.

The Excess Crude Account (ECA) had around $9 billion in December 2012, but it has since fallen to around $4 billion, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala noted in a speech to capital market authorities. Most of the falls occurred during a period of record high oil prices, when oil savings are supposed to accrue.

Okonjo-Iweala said some of the money had been needed to cover revenue lost due to outages caused by oil theft and pipeline vandalism, thought to drain hundreds of thousands of barrels a day.

“Some of it (the ECA) was then legitimately used to offset revenue shortfalls arising from quantity shocks and to narrow the fiscal deficit,” she said. “But against our advice, significant portions were also used to augment monthly allocations,” to local and state authorities.

“States argued that rainy days were already at hand and in fact (the rain) was already pouring, so the money needed to be used right away,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

Money from oil sold over and above the finance ministry’s benchmark price is in theory deposited into the ECA, which can later be used to protect against oil price shocks or to plug the deficit.

However, there are disputes about who should control this money, and state governors often argue the central government is hoarding the money and should distribute more to them.

 Credit: Yahoo News

Ebola Spreads Through Red Cross Vaccine – Ghana Nurse

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A nurse from Ghana is passionate in “exposing” the truth about the deadly Ebola virus. He or she claims the Red Cross is responsible in bringing the virus to four West African countries for four specific reasons with the grand goal of bringing U.S. troops on boots in Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

According to the nurse, U.S. wants to stop the protests conducted by the diamond miners in Sierra Leone. The miners were allegedly protesting against “cheap slave labour forever.” The region is said to be the “world’s largest supplier of diamonds.” An Ebola outbreak is the most valid reason for U.S. to send in its troops, the nurse alleged.

Essentially, the nurse from Ghana claims that the very vaccine injected to people to prevent the spread of the virus is in reality the means of spreading the disease. And the whole scheme is being orchestrated by the U.S. – the Red Cross its “accomplice” – to cover up its goal of taking over the diamonds of Sierra Leone and the prosperous Nigerian oil.

Read More on: http://au.ibtimes.com

ENI Boss in International Corruption Mess for Nigerian Oil Deal

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ENII

The chief executive of the Italian oil and natural gas company (ENI), Claudio Descalzi, is being investigated over international corruption allegations.

Descalzi is facing questions about a large Nigerian oil deal. The company said in a statement that “it is cooperating with the Milan prosecutor’s office” and that it “continues to deny any illegal conduct”.

However, trading shares in the company this afternoon had dropped to 2%, Thursday afternoon.

RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA’S ECONOMY; THE CHINA EXAMPLE BY RICHARD CHILEE

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Today, China’s economy is reasoned to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Their economy is so big, fast and modernized that they are also the biggest donors in Africa in terms of direct investments and openness to trade.

But China’s economy wasn’t always as robust as it is today. Life in China in the nineteenth century was worse than the present day Nigeria; it was associated with economic hardship, poverty and food shortages. It took China’s government, under the Supreme Leader Deng Xiaoping, the determination to make sustainable differences in the life of every Chinese and this determination made him lead a reformation team that ushered in a new era of economic, technological and political reforms which enabled China to open up to the world. That single idea of modernizing strategic areas in China through urbanization and industrialization benefited the country economically as it rises as a world power in the 21st century.

Infrastructure development was, and still remains, a top priority for China’s government. They have long recognized that a modern economy runs on reliable road and effective rail system, they also understand the strategic importance of constant electricity, quality education, excellent health care and the eradication of corruption in their political atmosphere. The country leaders have charted ambitious plans for the future of their country, their goal is to bring the entire nations urban infrastructure and educational standards to the level of standards in the advanced country, a vision which they are still aggressively pursuing.

The explosive growth of China’s middle class is also a contributing factor to the country’s sweeping economic and social transformation. The middle class continued expansion is powered by policy and labour market initiatives that increase wages, financial reforms that stimulates employment and income growth and the rising role of private enterprises which encourage productivity and help more household acquire more income.

Now, China and her rapid development should be a big example for African leaders, especially Nigeria. It is clear that Nigeria’s economy needs re-balancing because from the recent crying out by our finance minister, it is clear that the country is on the verge of collapse and only strategic economic principles are the panacea to the impending problems facing the country. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

It’s high time Nigeria’s leaders acknowledged that Nigeria’s economy must be re-positioned by reducing its reliance on oil and increasing consumption of goods produced by other countries. I haven’t seen a nation that prospered with a single source of income, especially when that source is riddled by the highest proportion of corruption imaginable. China’s prospered because it killed corruption, diversified her economy and vigorously increased consumption by establishing and promoting the country’s manufacturing sector. A sector which is fueled by Africa’s unabashed quest for low cost made in China commodities.

Nigeria’s leaders must understand that maintaining growth and stability in the country requires both sustainable economic and radical political changes. Our economic policy adjustments must focus on eradicating poverty, shifting our Nigeria from a consumer oriented society to a producer oriented one, tackling unemployment through creating more job opportunities and establishing a sound educational model.

Our leaders must acknowledge educational development as instrumental to nation building and socioeconomic development. My belief is that the implementation of a progressive curriculum with an emphasis on practical, adult and teacher training, in a national system of education, is a basis for self-development. And a model that focuses on entrepreneurship, youth policies and science and technology, is the basis for national development.

Entrepreneurship must be allowed to thrive. Globally, SME’s are regarded as the backbone of every thriving economy, it also allows for the creation of environments that allows jobs to flourish.

One salient way to bring about radical changes in our political atmosphere is to make our political environment less attractive. If we look closely, Nigeria’s political environment is one of the most expensive in the world. The leadership of Nigeria is less than 5% of the population of the country, yet they live in the kind of luxury that exists only in the imagination of 90% of the entire population, all in the name of politics. The irony of this is that they lavish the country’s wealth without having anything to account for year after year.

Believe me, if Nigeria’s political environment is sanitized and made less attractive, if the politicians don’t enjoy bonuses and allowances worth huge millions of naira, they won’t bother running for political positions unless they have the motivations and deep capacity to serve. No kind of political transformation will succeed until we have fully embarked on the process of making the political positions less attractive.

 If Nigeria really wants to re-position and re-balance her economy, China’s example must be important because it has shown clearly that it can be done, it also shows that modernization does not mean westernization. China embraced modernization but their management was completely Chinese, they showed that developing countries need to learn from developed ones but they do not have to abandon their cultures and traditions in the process, except the ones that are inimical to modernization. We have to look up to China and copy their best methods. We have to harness their ideas and technologies and build the kind of society that we need, we also need not sacrifice our values and traditions on the altar of modernization.

Westernizing our lives is one of the major problems in Africa and, to a large extent, Nigeria. I doubt if the Chinese are concerned about issues like who has the hottest legs or who has the hottest bum. I doubt if they allow programmes that encourage their youths to spend three months of their adult lives in the atmosphere that encourages acts of moral and cultural degradation. I think they would rather encourage their youths to think creatively. I also think they would create programmes that stimulate the youth’s intellectual capacities to solve huge, impending, problems.

We must act with the urgency of now to correct the ills in our society so that we can re-balance our economy before it collapses. China understands that development depends on good governance, and good governance is that single ingredient that has been missing for a long time in Nigeria. Good governance is the change that can unlock Nigeria’s potentials to the world of immense possibilities and it is a responsibility that can only be met by Nigerians in Nigeria, not the Chinese in Nigeria.

Richard Chilee is a writer, thinker and entrepreneur.