Enforcing Ghana’s local content policy

When in November 2013 Ghana’s lawmakers passed regulations for local content in its nascent oil industry, Afua Amissah must have seen that feat as a cause for celebration as well as a challenge for her.

The regulations are aimed at providing a transparent monitoring system to meet the objectives of the govern¬ment’s local content policy.

As the country’s head of Local Content, Ministry of Energy, the task before

Amissah is clearly cut out and enormous at that.

She is tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the development of policies and practices to ensure that local companies in Ghana have fair access to business opportunities in the oil and gas sectors.

Just two weeks ago, tension was said to have mounted at the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, operating in the Jubilee oil fields off the coast of Ghana as three Ghanaian workers were reportedly dismissed from the fields and foreigners took over their jobs.

Sao Tome shortlists four companies in oil block licensing round

The government of Sao Tome and Principe has short-listed four companies, including Portugal’s Galp Energia, to bid on two oil blocks in its exclusive economic zone, according to a statement released by the state oil company ANP. The tiny Central African island nation announced its plans to open a new licensing round for its Blocks 1 and 6 last month.

The statement said Petrogal, the former name of Galp, and London AIM-listed New World Oil and Gas will compete for both blocks. Blue Skies World Group is bidding on Block 1, while London Global Energy is seeking to acquire Block 6. ‘The result of the analysis of expressions of interest will be announced shortly,’ the statement said.

Sao Tome began awarding offshore blocks after signing an agreement with Nigeria in 2001 to jointly develop acreage in waters between the two countries. However, it has been slower to attribute blocks in the territorial waters surrounding its two main islands.

Sinoangol, a joint venture between China’s Sinopec and Angolan state oil company Sonangol, acquired Block 2 in the exclusive economic zone last year, promising to invest $154 million to develop the

Senate to probe CBN, NNPC, others for breach of Fiscal Responsibility Act

The Senate is set to order its Joint Committee on Finance, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to commence a probe into perceived loss of revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation through the breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) as well as alleged breach of public procurement laws and regulations by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other government agencies.

The directive is fallout of a motion to be moved by Senator Ita Enang (Akwa-Ibom North-east), alleging breach of Section 80 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, which stipulates that all revenues raised or received by the federation shall be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

The motion is also aimed at determining why the balance of their operating surplus is not paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund and why affected agencies have failed to establish a general reserve fund for the purpose of allocating one-fifth of their operating surplus at the end of the year to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as stipulated in Section 22 (1) and (2) and Section 23 (1) of FRA.

NNPC contains fire outbreak at its Kaduna Refinery

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Thursday said that a fire incident that earlier broke out at the truck park of its  Kaduna Refinery has been brought under control.

It said in a statement in Abuja that the fire which consumed two tankers and also led to injuries for two persons was swiftly controlled, adding that production and distribution of petroleum products from the refinery will not be affected by the development.

The statement was signed by its acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim who also hinted that investigation to determine the cause of the inferno was underway.

Tanzania’s TPDC upbeat on gas pipeline

The over 530-kilometre gas pipeline linking the gas-rich southern region of Mtwara and the port city of Dar es Salaam will start by transporting 210 million standard cubic feet (mmscfd) daily when it is commissioned in December, this year.

In an interview with the ‘Daily News,’ the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) spokesperson, Mr Sebastian Shana, pointed out that since the completion of the work on the laying of the pipeline is scheduled for the beginning of December, the three gas plants would be commissioned at the end of the month.

“The pipeline will first tap from the three wells in Mtwara, with each giving 210mmscfd,” he said. The major domestic gas production and transportation project will likely transform the country’s economy, economists predict.

Uganda to increase power generation

The commissioning of the 250MW Bujagali Hydro Power dam in 2012 gave Uganda a sigh of relief given that the months preceding it, were characterized by widespread load-shedding.

This had grossly affected Uganda’s competitiveness as manufacturers and traders incurred high costs of operation because they resorted to using generators.

Statistics from Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) show that Uganda’s current total installed capacity is 682MW. Registered peak system demand in December 2013 stood at 503MW compared to 506MW in November.

However, the country needs to find additional sources of power given that the demand for electricity is growing at an annual rate of between 10-12%.

Oil market, other factors threaten Nigeria’s 2014 budget

The implementation of the nation’s 2014 budget has not yet started, as stakeholders, especially legislators continue to debate it. Udeme Akpan reports that developments in the global market and other factors constitute serious threat to the key budgetary assumptions and implementation of the budget.

Many nations, including Nigeria have come to over depend on their crude oil as the Egyptians look up their River Nile for agriculture and other purposes. Take the 2014 budget as an example. The Federal Government of Nigeria has already projected to base the implementation of its 2014 N4.77 trillion budget on oil reference price of $77.5 per barrel.

The budget which ordinarily should have been passed for implementation before now is still a subject of discourse at the National Assembly. Many legislators have picked holes on the budget. For instance, the government has been criticised for allocating more funds to some issues, including former Niger Delta militants than others. These and others are expected to be harmonised or resolved before the budget is passed for execution.

GE Africa, Standard Bank sign $350m partnership deal

Efforts to increase access to power infrastructure in Africa has received a boost with a US$350million financing agreement between global infrastructure giant General Electric and one of Africa’s leading financial institutions, Standard Bank.

The partnership seeks to provide affordable access to power infrastructure to augment traditional large scale grid capacity development.

The partnership will target 10 priority countries: Nigeria, Angola, Tanzania, South Africa and Ghana.

Others are Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Financing activity will center on project finance, equipment finance, trade finance and advisory.

The program will be open to independent power producers and non-recourse infrastructure projects, industrials and manufacturers, natural resource companies, food and agricultural processors, small to medium enterprises, and other potential borrowers.

House C’ttee assures of PIB passage by year end

The Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Peterside Dakuku, has revealed that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly would be passed before the end of this year.

Dakuku, who noted that the bill has passed first and second reading in the House of Representatives, made the revelations when he led members of the committee on an oversight function  to the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board, (PEF) in Abuja, yesterday.

Meanwhile, the executive secretary of PEF, Mrs Adefunke Kasali, who received the committee, said the Board may begin to pay marketers one week after submission of their bridging claims as the introduction of ‘Project Aquila 2’ was intended to further fast-track payments.  

Calling on agencies in the oil and gas sector to gear up for re-positioning on how to fit into the new regime that PIB passage would usher in, Dakuku said the sector was almost in transition to another phase, which was post-PIB phase.

Marginal oil field bidders uncomfortable with guidelines

Interested bidders who are uncomfortable with the marginal field bid guidelines are piling pressure on the Presidency to prevail on the Department of Petroleum Resources, which is overseeing the exercise on behalf of the government, to review them.

The investors are said to be uncomfortable with portions of the guidelines which reduced the tenure of asset holding, which is now two years, as against five years in the previous exercise.

In the 2003 bid round, investors were allowed to hold the assets for five years. Many of them are still inactive on the assets they won, for want of technical and financial capacity.

One of the most contentious issues agitating the minds of some of  the investors is the statement allegedly made by  George Osahon, the director of  the DPR, to the effect that considerations would be given to new investors that are just coming into the business.

Some of those that already have assets and had thought that the new exercise would give them the opportunity to grow their businesses by getting more to their portfolios, are uncomfortable with this decision. Some of them are said to be pulling strings in the corridors of power, to ensure that they allowed to participate.