ISA WABOTE

Gen. T. Y. Danjuma GCon Chairman, South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRo)

Alhaji Aliko Dangote GCon President, Dangote Group (Dangote Petrochemicals)

Alhaji Mohammed Indimi oFR Chairman, oriental Energy Resources

LUKMAN JADESIMIBOBBOI

vALUECHAIN BEACONS OF THE INDUSTRY

vALUECHAIN STARS OF THE INDUSTRY

RANO

TINUBU

BARKINDO PETERS KACHIKWU BARU

Awardees

Awardees

5 EDITORIAL

INDUSTRY12 LPG VAT Removal: A Boost for

Low Carbon Economy

16 Nigerian Factor, Bane of Collaboration in the Oil Sector …Oilserv CEO

17 Supermajors lead in High Impact Exploration ...As Performance Dips in 2018

19 World Bank Says NGFCP Profitable but IOCs Reject Third Parties

20 $200bn LNG Capex Boom Expected in 6yrs ...Wood Mackenzie

36 World’s Biggest Semi-submersible Crane Vessel Debuts

38 May Short Takes

ENERGY34 World Energy Investment

Stabilises Above $1.8trn ...As insecurity and sustainability concerns grow

COLUMN44 Game Of Thrones: Finale

Review and Brands. Who Got Boosts from the Show, No Pawn Intended

PROPERTY48 Real Estate Sector Set for Boom

…as Abuja property demand rises

SPORTS52 Dambe: How Ancient Form

of Nigerian Boxing swept the Internet

CONTENTSMAy 2019 vol. 2 no. 5

27

23Dr. Amy JadesimiManaging Director, LADOL

Star of the Industry

How Kidnapping, Banditry Threaten oil Search in the north

NLNG @ 30: Celebrating nigeria’s

Finest Partnership in oil & Gas

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China’s Secret Agenda May COUNTER Saudi Arabia’s Moves to Acquire Nigerian

Petrochemical Assets

R E v E A L E D

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our Cover story for the month of May dwells around the recent se-

cret moves by some oil and gas fi rms from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to invest in nigeria’s oil & Gas assets. Though considered a positive development that could reawaken the once vibrant Industry, and bring about effi ciency in the ex-ploitation of oil & Gas re-sources, but Industry com-mentators will certainly view this secret moves a count-er to Saudi Arabia’s recent moves, as indicated by the Kingdom’s Minister of Ener-gy, when he recently made a public declaration of interest on his country’s readiness to sign MoU with nigeria on oil and gas infrastructural devel-opment. With these parallel developments being pur-sued by the Middle (Saudi Arabia) and far East (China) economic giants, a picture is seemingly being painted of an Asian scramble for nige-rian energy resources.

MB. UsmanNB. Feel free to send in your views and have your say @ 007mbu@gmail.com

II site, which was flagged-off by President Muhammadu Buhari in February this year. But the criminal activities of Bandits and Kidnappers has reached an alarming rate and is currently threatening the oil search in the region. We bring you a detailed re-port on these nefarious crim-inal activities.

We also have reports on the recent Federal Govern-ment’s gesture of vAT re-moval on lPG also known as cooking gas, and the 30th Anniversary of nigeria lnG, one of the most successful partnerships in nigeria’s oil and Gas history.

The oil search in the northern part of nigeria is progressing impressively as mentioned by the Group Managing Director of nnPC recently when he gave an up-date on the spud-in activity going on at the Kolmani river

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Editor

Graphic Consultant

Acting Deputy Editor

Circulation Manager

online Editor

Business Dev. Executives

Contributors

Musa Bashir Usman

Yange Ikyaa

Theresa Ogbonna

Benjamin Ike

Danlami Nasir Isah

Saidu Abubakar

Adeniyi Onifade (South)Abdulkarim Sani (North)

Fred OjiegbeGideon Osaka

Ironhand S. ChukwuemekaAisha SamboDavid Chukwu

info@thevaluechainng.com @thevaluechainng.com thevaluechainng.com

1-2 Abu-Rayyan Street, new nDC layout, Kaduna. Tel: 08077201571, Abuja: 07089626420, lagos: 08036840121. email: 007mbu@gmail.com www.thevaluechainng.com

5

The nefarious activities of armed bandits and kid-nappers across some

states in the north may threaten the ongoing search for crude oil in the north, analysis by Valuec-hain, shows.

Armed banditry and kidnap-ping have continued despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive last month to the mil-itary, police and other security agencies to put an immediate end to it as well as other crimi-nal acts ravaging the north.

According to the Inspec-tor-General of Police, Moham-med Adamu during the quarter-ly northern Traditional Rulers’ Council meeting held in Kadu-na State April 30, 2019, a total of 1,071 people were killed in crime-related cases across the country in the first quarter of 2019.

The killings, he said, were most prevalent in the north where 767 people were killed, the northwest region topping the list with 436. While the north central recorded 250 deaths, the south-south recorded 130.

The north western states has been terribly-hit with a wave of kidnappings and killings by ban-dits, making it the face of inse-curity in the country over the past few months. Zamfara and Katsina states in particular have witnessed an upsurge in kidnap-ping and banditry in recent time.

only last month a group of kid-nappers in a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kaduna state, about 120km from the

country’s seat of power, Abuja killed a British woman and a ni-gerian man, and abducted three others.

Unfortunately, the rise in the rate of banditry and kidnapping in the north is coming at a time nigeria national Petroleum Cor-poration (nnPC) is prospecting for oil in the region.

President Buhari had in 2016 directed the NNPC to explore for oil in the inland basins of the north.

nnPC then moved in to the Chad, Bida and Sokoto basins as well as the Benue Trough where the potential for commer-cial oil and gas have long been established for over 25 years.

During such oil explorations it is important that humans as well as vehicles and the pipes

that transport these oil/gas are safe from multi-faceted threats.

But the exploration at the Chad Basin, situated in parts of Borno State, was suspended in July 2017, following attacks on oil workers and military person-nel by the Boko Haram insur-gents. Exploration at the Chad Basin had remained suspended since then over concerns of in-security at the parts where seis-mic data gathering activities were going on at the basin.

nnPC then shifted focus on oil exploratory activities to the Benue Trough and Sokoto Basin after Boko Haram attack forced the suspension of exploration in the Chad Basin.

At the Benue Trough, Pres-ident Buhari had earlier in the year officially flagged-off drilling

Industry 05:19

How Kidnapping, Banditry Threaten Oil Search in the North

–By Fred ojeigbe

President Muhammadu Buhari during the official flag-off of drilling activities in the Kolmani River-II oil Well, a site near Barambu village in Alkaleri local Government Area of Bauchi State

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activities in the Kolmani River-II oil Well, a site near Barambu village in Alkaleri local Govern-ment Area of Bauchi State.

Drilling commenced follow-ing the identification of some prospects at Bauchi and Gombe states which together form the Gongola Basin in the northern part of Benue Trough after se-ries of seismic data acquisition activities had commenced in 2016.

The drilling activity which is known in the oil industry as Spud-in came to reality follow-ing a directive in 2016 by Pres-ident Buhari to the nnPC to resume exploration activities in the north especially the Chad Basin and the Kolmani River in the Benue Trough.

At the Benue Trough, nnPC said it was also planning mas-sive 2D seismic data acquisi-tion in other parts of the Benue Trough traversing Adamawa, nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and Taraba state.

However, there are growing concerns about the impact of activities of armed bandits and kidnappers on these projects.

In early April, four staff of the Independent national Electoral Commission (InEC) in Bauchi State were reportedly kidnapped by armed men at Jamare local Government. A month earlier, suspected bandits reported-ly killed an army commander on the Magama Gumau road in Bauchi. Pockets of related crimes have continued which have culminated in the launch by the police of a special oper-ation code-named “operation Puff Adder” to tackle security challenges such as kidnapping, armed robbery, and banditry.

The operation coincided with the arrest by the Bauchi State Police Command of 39 suspect-ed criminals across the state.

In nasarawa state where some of nnPC oil search oper-ations will take place, attacks among communities have re-sulted to killings and abduc-tions. Such crimes including cattle rustling have also been widely reported across Plateau, Benue and Taraba states where nnPC is gearing up to com-mence oil exploration. Certainly, there is no way oil exploration activities can take place in such an unsafe situation.

At the other basins in the North where exploration activ-ities have commenced, con-cerns over the sustainability of the search for oil, are mounting over the spate of insecurity in the region.

At the Sokoto Basin, prelim-inary work has started as field geological work is expected to be concluded soon.

The second phase, which is surface geochemistry, ground gravity and magnetics data gathering will soon commence in Bida and Sokoto.

nnPC, it was learnt, has al-ready procured aeromagnetic data on the Sokoto basin from

According to the country’s Inspector-General of Po-lice, Mohammed Adamu during the quarterly North-ern Traditional Rulers’ Council meeting which took place in Kaduna State April 30, 2019, a total of 1,071 people were killed in crime-related cases across the country in the first quarter of 2019. The killings, he said, were most prevalent in the north where 767 people were killed, with the northwest region topping the list with 436. While the north central recorded 250 deaths, the south-south recorded 130.

IGP Mohammed Adamu

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the nigerian Geophysical Sur-vey as well as awarded contract for the mapping and procure-ment of apt samples to further the understanding of the area.

nnPC, Valuechain gathered, has contracted its subsidiary, Integrated Data Services lim-ited (IDSl) to carry out various geochemistry investigations to boost the gathering and integra-tion of all relevant data ahead of the planned procurement of seismic 2D data position.

However, news reports in February indicated that bandit-ry in Sokoto State, so far, has claimed an estimated total of 81 lives since July 9 last year.

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in February con-firmed the death of 16 people in a fresh bandit attack at Dalijan, Rakkoni and Kalhu communities in the Rabah local Government Area of the state. only recently,

an 82-year-old district head in Gudu local Government Area of the State, was killed by armed bandits who also set ablaze the divisional police headquarters in the area, including patrol cars and some personal vehicles. Pockets of similar crimes occur regularly that put socio-eco-nomic activities in the area in jeopardy.

The problems of incessant militant attacks and sabotage, oil theft, kidnapping and armed robbery in the niger Delta from where much of nigeria’s oil is extracted, were part of the rea-sons the federal government turned attention towards the north. But growing insecurity in the region looks set to drag the government down.

The volatile security environ-ment in the country particularly in the north, has grave impli-cations for the nnPC and the

search for oil in region as securi-ty cost could affect the ongoing search.

A report by the oil Producers Trade Section (oPTS) of lagos Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (lCCI), showed that oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria spend five times more on security than their global peers, with over $500 million spent in 2016 on security services such as escort vessels, convoys and guards.

According to the report, oper-ating companies rely on costly transportation options for per-sonnel and goods, such as heli-copter transport and aviation as a result of the insecurity.

The report added that these security challenges result in a cost premium for the oil and gas sector, severely affecting both operational and project costs.

The problems of incessant militant attacks and sabotage, oil theft, kidnapping and armed robbery in the Niger Delta from where much of Nigeria’s oil is extracted, were part of the reasons the federal govern-ment turned attention towards the North. But growing insecurity in the region looks set to drag the govern-ment down.

northern Traditional Ruler’s Council meeting in Kaduna

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Celebrating Nigeria’s Finest Partnership in Oil & Gas

–By Gideon osaka

When the nigerian lique-fi ed Natural Gas Limit-ed, otherwise known as

nlnG was incorporated on May 17, 1989, exactly 30 years ago, to harness nigeria’s vast natu-ral gas resources and produce Liquefi ed Natural Gas (LNG) and natural Gas liquids (nGls) for export though many people did not envisage then that the com-pany was a product of visionary plan that sees beyond the oil boom era. not many nigerians would believe that the nigerian Liquefi ed Natural Gas Limited, situated at Bonny, Rivers State, is truly a nigerian company.

The disbelief is based on the fact that many nigerian compa-nies are associated with what is often termed the “nigerian factor” – nepotism, favouritism, lack of corporate governance, absence of transparency, fi nan-cial impudence and the like.

However, the story is different in the case of nlnG, which has shone like a diamond in the sky. Perhaps the ownership struc-ture of the nlnG may have con-tributed in no small measure to the stellar performance of a company often associated with international best practices. The nlnG Act is based on initial terms of contract between gov-ernment and private sharehold-ers of the company. nnPC holds overriding 49 percent fi nancial interest in the company while Shell Gas Bv owns 25.6 percent operating interest. Also, Total has 15 percent in the company while Eni International n.v.S.a.r.l holds the remaining 10.4 per-cent interest. The terms include incentives, concessions, guar-antees and assurances in letters to lenders for the nlnG Trains 4 and 5 expansion by Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and

Offi ce of the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Central Bank of nigeria (CBn).

The main thrust of the guar-antees and assurances are to assure protection of foreign in-vestments by the non-breach of the nlnG Act which, in recog-nition of its sanctity, has been protected by all administrations of the federal government right from inception. The terms of the contract were modelled after similar packages of incentives flaunted by other competing countries such as Qatar, oman, Malaysia, Angola, and others to attract investors in gas liquefac-tion and export. Expectedly, the legal framework, commercial incentives and sanctity of con-tracts built into the nlnG Act formed the springboard for the company’s rapid growth from a single train gas processing company to an effi ciently run

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six train company with one of the healthiest balance sheets among the biggest commercial enterprises in Africa.

Six years after the company was Incorporated, final invest-ment decision, FID, by share-holders for Trains 1 and 2 was taken in november 1995, while commencement of plant con-struction was witnessed in February 1996. It is worthy of note that nlnG commenced production on September 15, 1999, while export of first cargo took place on october 9, 1999. one FID after the other, 6 trains were built in quick succession, making nigeria lnG the fastest growing lnG company in the world at the time. There is no gainsaying the fact that nlnG has made the most tremendous financial impact more than any other company in nigeria. It has remitted cumulative $40.47 bil-lion or n14. 6 trillion revenue to the nigerian government in the past 19 years. It has also mone-tized over 6.37 trillion cubic feet of associated gas to Liquefied natural Gas (lnG) and natural Gas liquids (nGls), thus help-ing to reduce gas flaring by up-stream companies from over 60 percent to less than 20 per-cent. From the monetization of

gas hitherto being flared, nlnG has generated over $100 billion revenue since inception; paid over $36 billion to shareholders as dividends, and 49 percent of the total dividends goes to the federal government through the nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (nnPC). Also of the $28 billion paid to Joint ventures (Jvs) feedgas suppliers, some 58.8 percent of that amount goes to the federal government through nnPC. In 2018, nlnG paid government about $864 million in incremental CIT alone.

other payments declared by the company include employ-ee income tax, state and local government taxes, as well as regulators’ levies and fees total-ling over n60 billion. out of cor-porate goodwill, nlnG has also voluntarily committed about n222 billion to social responsi-bility projects in nigeria, assist-ing plug gaps and solving needs in areas where government is yet to reach with overstretched hands. The huge social assis-tance budget places nlnG as clear leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility in nigeria. The company has spent over n25 bil-lion on community projects over the years; it injected over n2.0 billion in building world-class en-

gineering laboratories in six Ni-gerian Universities through the University Support Programme; The beneficiaries include Univer-sity of Port Harcourt, University of nigeria, nsukka, University of Ibadan, University of Maidugu-ri, Ahmadu Bello University and the University of Jos. nlnG is presently spending n120 bil-lion on the construction of Bon-ny-Bodo Road in Rivers State. The nlnG also signed a mem-orandum of understating, MoU, with the Bonny Island commu-nity to provide n3.0 billion each year for 25 years for the overall development of the Kingdom.

The company, in fourth quar-ter of last year, awarded con-tracts for Front End Engineering Design (FEED) of its planned plant expansion project, Train 7, to B7 Jv Consortium and SCD Jv Consortium, inching closer to realising its expansion goals of increasing liquefied natural gas production output from 22 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) to 30 MTPA.

It is crystal clear that the nlnG has taken a distinctive path and shown a way worthy of emulation by all nigerian com-panies.

The disbelief is based on the fact that many Nigerian companies are associated with what is often termed the “Nigerian factor” – nepotism, favouritism, lack of cor-porate governance, absence of transparency, financial impudence and the like. However, the story is differ-ent in the case of NLNG, which has shone like a di-amond in the sky. Perhaps the ownership structure of the NLNG may have contributed in no small measure to the stellar performance of a company often associat-ed with international best practices.

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A Boost for Low Carbon EconomylPG vAT Removal:

–By yange Ikyaa

The nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (nAlPGAM) re-

cently commended the Federal Government for the removal of VAT on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (lPG).

Its President, Mr nosa ogie-va-Okunbor, confirmed that the Federal Government had signed the approval of vAT removal on lPG and gazetted same.

According to him, clamour for vAT removal from domestically produced lPG otherwise known as cooking gas has been of pe-rennial concern to members of the association.

“We express our profound

gratitude and thanks to the Fed-eral Government and all relevant government agencies for listen-ing to our pleas to remove vAT from lPG products sourced lo-cally.

“We also want to use this op-portunity to thank and appre-ciate the Department of Petro-leum Resources (DPR) for the timely directive stopping the inappropriate and indiscrimi-nate installation of skid plants in petrol stations,” ogieva-okunbor said.

He said the directive that all skid plants in filling stations be dismantled and removed was apt considering the huge dan-

ger and risk to the public in the operations of lPG skid plants in filling stations.

He, however, appealed for a proper and thorough implemen-tation of the directive across the country.

He also pleaded with the government to create a more conducive and enabling envi-ronment for investors in the industry particularly now that deepening the consumption of lPG in the country had become of major interest to the govern-ment.

He said marketers were also geared toward ensuring the suc-cess of the programme by com-

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plementing the efforts of the government.

“We therefore appeal for a re-duction on import duty on lPG equipment and accessories.

“The increased awareness of lPG usage has seen con-sumption in nigeria growing from 50,000MT in 2007 to over 600,000MT in 2018 with more indigenous investments in lPG bottling plants.

“This will further ensure that majority of nigerians enjoy the convenience of the proximity of LPG refill or exchange points.

“We implore the Federal and State Governments to initiate a well funded social welfare pro-gramme to expand usage of lPG,” he said.

There is a global target to end gas flaring by 2030, but in ni-geria, the target is set for 2020, just one year away from now and about 10 years earlier than the Un target.

About 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide is emitted by Ni-geria yearly, making the country to lose approximately $500 mil-lion in emission credit value, as

indicated by data from the nige-rian Gas Flare Commercializa-tion Programme (nGFCP.

This amount of gas, if har-nessed, could power two to three liquefied natural gas trains and if used for power, we could generate around 3,000 mega-watts of electricity.

oil companies in nigeria pro-duce over 4 billion standard cu-bic feet of gas per day, but gov-ernment figures say nearly 80 per cent of the associated gas produced by the oil companies is currently utilized, with the rest re-injected into the earth to in-crease well pressure or simply for disposal. The companies contend that setting up gas har-nessing, processing, storage, transportation and marketing infrastructure would be more expensive than wasting it in flares.

Approximately 700 million standard cubic feet of gas is burnt in the open daily at 178 sites, causing tons of carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere, a gas globally blamed as a key contributor to

global warming and climate change.

The Federal Government is currently working on a piece of legislation, through the Depart-ment of Petroleum Resources (DPR), to compel petroleum product marketers to set up gas filling plants in all their petrol stations across the country.

This directive is aimed at deepening the use of lPG across the country, in addition to promoting the issue of clean energy, as well creating employ-ment opportunities.

The regulation is expected to increase cooking gas selling points across the country by about 10,000 or about the same number of filling stations in Ni-geria.

Also, the Federal Govern-ment, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, is already working with stakeholders across the lPG value chain, and has set a target to build at least one gas filling plant across all the 774 local government areas in the country within the next three years.

Mr nosa ogieva-okunbor Group Managing Director of the nnPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru welcoming the new vice Chairman and Managing Director of NAOC, Fiorillo Lorenzo in his office

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A total of 735 Million Stan-dard Cubic Feet of gas per day (mmscfd) was delivered to gas fired-power plants in Novem-ber 2018 compared with octo-ber 2018 where an average of 627mmscfd was supplied, ac-cording to data sourced by Val-uechain from nnPC.

Details of the report contained in the nnPC Monthly Financial and operations Report for the month of november, 2018 re-leased today showed that out of the 212.93 Billion Cubic Feet (bcf) of gas supplied during the period, a total of 123.29bcf of gas was commercialized, con-sisting of 36.14bcf and 87.15bcf for the domestic and export market respectively.

The release said this translat-ed to a total supply of 1,204.76 mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 2,905.06 mmscfd of gas supplied to the export mar-ket for the month, implying that 57.91% of the average daily gas produced was commercialized while the balance of 42.09% was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

The total gas supply from no-vember 2017 to november 2018 stood at 3,071.13bcf out of which 466.44bcf and 1,317.77 bcf were commercialized for the domestic and export market re-spectively.

A further breakdown of the report indicated that gas – In-

jected, fuel gas and gas flared - stood at 1,286.92 bcf.

The november report, the 40th edition in the series, an-nounced a trading surplus of N2.06billion which represent-ed a laudable improvement of 116% over the previous month’s deficit of N12.66billion. This in-crease in performance month-on-month was primarily attrib-utable to improved efficiency of the nigerian Petroleum Develop-ment Company’s (nPDC) opera-tions.

nnPC also posted a to-tal crude oil and gas sale of $668.57 in november, 2018 which is 26.13% higher than the previous month. Crude oil ex-port sales contributed $574.95 million (86.00%) of the dollar transactions compared with $425.00million contribution in the previous month.

Export gas sales amounted to $93.62 million in the month.

The november 2017 to no-vember 2018 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil & gas worth $5.97 Bil-lion was exported.

In the downstream sector, the nnPC has continued to assidu-ously monitor the daily stock of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to achieve smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the nation.

To this end, a total of 1.62bn litres of PMS, translating to

54.0mn liters/day, were sup-plied for the month.

In november, 2018 a total of 197 pipeline points were vandal-ized; out of which six pipeline points failed to be welded and two pipeline points were rup-tured.

The situation improved from the 219 vandalized points re-corded in october 2018, with Mosimi-Ibadan, Ibadan-Ilorin and Aba-Enugu accounting for 58, 35 and 34 points respec-tively or approximately 29%, 18% and 17% of the vandalized points respectively.

While Atlas Cove-Mosimi ac-counted for 13%, Warri-Kaduna and PHC-Aba accounted for 8% each and other locations ac-counted for the remaining 7% of the pipeline breaks.

The execution of Final In-vestment Decision (FID) on the development of the 4.3trillion cubic feet Assa north/ohaji South Fields (AnoH) in oMl 21 between nnPC and its Joint venture partners among, In-ClUDInG Shell Petroleum De-velopment Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Produc-tion nigeria (TEPnG) and nige-ria Agip oil Company (nAoC) WAS AnnoUnCED In February 2019.

The project, when fully devel-oped, would add about 600mil-lion standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) to the national

NNPC has already engaged two world-class project management consultants (DeltaAfrik/Worley Parson & Crestech/Penspen) who will work with NNPC JV Partners and other stakeholders to achieve set project deliverables. In addition, NNPC Project Management Teams are expected to strengthen oversight functions by ensuring prompt decision making and timely approvals.

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gas grid with capacity to expand to 1.2billion cubic feet per day, while another 197 million stock barrel (mmstb) of Condensate will also be realized.

Dr. Baru said the successful completion of the multi-faceted project which is an integral part of the 7-Critical Gas Develop-ment Projects, would be depen-dent on a number of critical suc-cess factors and enablers which include synergy and team work between nnPC and all the key stakeholders. He also thanked stakeholders for signing the FID on the AnoH Project after be-ing on the drawing board for 14 years.

He said the corporation and its Jv partners have worked on all the issues and have devel-oped a sustainable strategy to develop the considerable gas resources in Assa north-ohaji South Fields.

“Finally, I will like to conclude with immense compliments to the nnPC, Shell Petroleum De-velopment Company (SPDC), Total Exploration and Produc-

tion nigeria (TEPnG) and nige-ria Agip oil Company (nAoC), project teams and other critical stakeholders as we enter into the next major phases – Engi-neering, Procurement and Con-struction (EPC) of this project”, he said.

The nnPC helmsman said the corporation would continue to leverage on available exper-tise and capital from its global outreach to accelerate and de-liver on first gas from the project between the last quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.

nnPC has already engaged two world-class project man-agement consultants (DeltaAf-rik/Worley Parson & Crestech/Penspen) who will work with nnPC Jv Partners and oth-er stakeholders to achieve set project deliverables. In addition, nnPC Project Management Teams are expected to strength-en oversight functions by ensur-ing prompt decision making and timely approvals.

Mr. osagie okunbor, Manag-ing Director SPDC and Country

Chair, Shell Companies in nige-ria, operators of the AnoH proj-ect, said Shell was committed to the successful implementation of the project.

osagie, who commended the resilience, diligence and enthu-siasm of the project team, em-phasized that the AnoH proj-ect would offer immeasurable opportunities for Nigerian firms to benefit from engineering, pro-curement and construction con-tracts.

He also announced the inau-guration of boards to adminis-ter the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) for the two clusters of the project to the tune of n1billion for devel-opment projects within the host communities for the next five years.

nicholas Terraz, Managing Director of TEPn, and lorenzo Fiorillo, MD, nAoC, also aligned their companies with the nn-PC’s aspiration of ensuring timely completion of the project.

Mr. osagie okunbor, Managing Director SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in nigeria

nicholas Terraz, Managing Director of TEPn

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The much needed collabora-tion among indigenous oil companies in nigeria may

not happen if the nigerian factor, a syndrome associated with indi-vidual capability, is not eliminated, so as to compete favourably with the international oil companies.

Making this assertion at the just concluded offshore Technol-ogy Conference, oTC, in Houston, Texas, United States of America, the Chief Executive Officer of Oils-erv, Mr. Emeka okwuosa, stated that a situation whereby every-body does things his own way cannot augur well for indigenous companies who want to play big in the industry. According to him, “It is the nigerian factor. Every-one wants to do things in his own way and it is not the way to go. If you go to houses with 20 flats, instead of one tenant providing energy and everyone connects to it, you will see everybody with his own generator. It is a nigerian factor. It is about understanding that the way to create value re-quires working together and not as an individual and we are going to get there.”

Speaking on the inhibiting fac-tors to the movement of indig-enous companies into deepwa-ter terrain, okwuosa stated that technology and capital are vital. He said, “We are already operat-ing in that terrain in reality. When you say deepwater operation, you look at it from two different points of view. Are you looking at exploration and production (E&P), which is ownership or are you looking at services. I will talk from services point of view. nige-rians have been participating in services in Bonga, Akpo, Usan. All

these have had nigerians’ input.“There are two key issues with

participation in deep-water arena. It is about technology and cap-ital. Both will take time normally to scale up. nigerians are partici-pating but we are only scratching the surface. There is still more opportunities for participation. now, how do we increase that? We require to assemble capaci-ty and integrate that capacity by working together in other to have synergy and be able to deal with bigger scope. But we are in the in-tegration of FPSo (Floating, Pro-duction, Storage and offloading) which is the issue of topsides. nigerians are in drilling, pipelines, flow-risers. We are doing a lot but it is very competitive and capital intensive and we have to slowly build it up as soon as we can be-cause we have proven capacity but we need to do more because there is so much out there.” To ensure effective collaboration among indigenous players, the oilserv CEo advocated for syner-gy, synergizing between entities

like the Petroleum Technology Association of nigeria, PETAn to be able to handle bigger scope and compete with international service providers.

Also speaking on the oB3 project, he said, “let’s put oB3 in proper perspective. no pipeline has been built in nigeria of that size or capacity. you may recol-lect that in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, we had the likes of Wilbros and others but no nigerian player in the pipeline industry. look at all our pipeline infrastructure today. nowhere has 48 inches pipelines been built. It is not about the pipe-line. We have the Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) at oben, which is part of our scope.

“This is a GTP that is handling two billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (2bscuf/d). This has never existed anywhere in Afri-ca. When we talk about oB3, it is not just about building a pipeline. Don’t forget there are two lots there. We are building loTB that will take the gas from mid-point all the way to oben plant, plus the oben plant itself. now, our pipeline was finished three years ago, but the treatment plant took a longer time because the loca-tion was changed from oben north to the GTP location and it took us two years to go through re-engineering it and getting the approval. But the story is clear, the pipeline and the GTP are go-ing through pre-commissioning now on our own section. By Sep-tember, our own lot would have been done, and I can only speak for oilserv.”

Nigerian Factor, Bane of Collaboration in the Oil Sector …oilserv CEo

–By Gideon Osaka just back from Houston, Texas

Mr. Emeka okwuosa, CEo oilserv

16

Industry 05:19

Supermajors lead in High Impact Exploration

...As Performance Dips in 2018–By Gideon osaka

The largest oil companies are playing an increasing-ly dominant role in high

impact exploration but perfor-mance was down in 2018, lim-ited by a lack of depth in the quality of global drilling oppor-tunities, according to experts at research consultancy, West-wood Global Energy Group.

It’s 10th annual ‘State of Ex-ploration’ report reviewed global conventional exploration over the last five years and looked ahead at the prospects for 2019. The report shows that the industry is following a twin track strategy, increasing short cy-cle exploration over the period in mature basins with existing infrastructure whilst maintain-ing the hunt for new petroleum provinces, particularly in deep water.

The report also stated that companies are also moving away from onshore frontier drill-ing opportunities in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, due to the time (16 years or more) that some have taken to commercial-ize. Above-ground challenges including lack of infrastructure and political/regulatory hurdles are effectively ruling these out, together with an anticipation of the energy transition for some companies. Other key findings from the State of Exploration re-port are: Exploration drilling in-

creased by nearly 30 percent in 2018 compared to 2017 but performance was down, with

fewer big discoveries and a low-er commercial success rate.Discovered volumes from

high impact drilling fell overall by 50 percent in the 2014-2018 period compared to the previous five years.In 2019, high impact drilling

is forecast to increase by 20 percent to around 80 wells, with more high impact wells planned in maturing and mature plays, especially north West Europe and Mexico.Supermajors participated in

over 50 percent of the high im-pact wells in 2018 (up from 34 percent in 2015) and over 70 percent of high impact wells in 2019 to-date.

Dr. Keith Myers, president research for Westwood Global Energy Group, explains the find-ings. He said, “Whilst exploration is recovering, it’s from a very low base. There’s an acknowledge-ment amongst many explora-tion companies that it may nev-er again reach 2014 levels.

“There are three main reasons for this. First, the quality of the drilling portfolio globally is de-clining overall; despite improved drilling numbers there has been decrease in discovered volumes, average discovery size, and suc-cess rates. Second is the com-petition from the U.S. onshore for reserves replacement capi-tal. Third is the looming energy transition away from fossil fuels that are starting to impinge on exploration thinking.

“The competitive landscape is changing with the largest companies like Total, Equinor and Exxon now leading the way on conventional high im-pact drilling, which is forecast to increase by 20 percent this year. At the same time, mature regions such as north West Eu-rope are seeing a renaissance, as explorers focus on trying to find more hidden gems.”

The State of Exploration Re-port covers all high impact and frontier drilling, key discoveries of 2018, key plays explored and all frontier drilling. Exploration performance trends were anal-ysed using a benchmark group of 36 international exploration and production companies that participated in 756 conventional wildcat wells between 2014 and 2018, drilled at a cost of $28.3 billion and discovering 22.4 Bbbl of oil and gas.

Dr. Keith Myers

17

Industry 05:19

The Programme Manager for the nigeria Gas Flare Commercialization Pro-

gramme (nGFCP), Mr. Justice Derefaka, recently disclosed that a market analysis carried on the nGFCP by the Interna-tional Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank showed that the programme would be profit-able if implemented.

Derefaka, stated this in a re-cent presentation he made at the third edition of the ‘lawyers in oil and gas conference,’ in la-gos.

He emphasized that based on the market studies of the IFC, it was discovered that a realis-tic pricing range for flare gas to market (FG2M) would incentiv-ize off-takers to participate in the project.

He noted that apart from the cost-benefit analysis and net back pricing that was done in the process, the market survey also covered areas such as risk and sensitivity analysis, market sounding and challenges that could derail the project, with all showing that implementing the NGFCP would be beneficial to all

parties.However, flare capture is ex-

pensive, therefore it is often only done at production sites where there are economies of scale, and there had been no teeth in the flare payment structure that was set in 1998 at n10/million standard cubic feet, which was approximately $0.50 in 1998

Currently, this flare payment sum had been eroded by infla-tion, as “the value of that flare payment today is approximately

$0.028/mscf.”This has equated to a total of

about $8m in flare payments for 2017. The moral hazard is that these are tax-deductible which, at 85 per cent tax rate, means that the Federal Government re-ceived net $1.2m (gross export revenue of crude oil in 2017 was $33bn).

“This net figure expressed as an average cost per barrel of crude oil produced is less than $0.002 (one fifth of a US cent).”

World Bank Says NGFCP Profitable but IOCs Reject Third Parties

–By yange Ikyaa

Mr. Justice Derefaka

Flare gas is essentially associated gas that is pro-duced with oil, as they both come out of the ground, but pollutes the environment, causing sickness and other environmental hazards, particularly in locations where these IOCs operate, like in the Niger Delta region of the country.

18

Industry 05:19

The 2018 regulations required a higher flare payment, ex-pressed in $/mscf, adding that a legislative change was being developed to make the flare pay-ment non-tax-deductible.

The Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regula-tions 2018 has been approved by Mr. President and gazetted to underpin the implementation of the nGFCP. It was approved on July 5, 2018, and gazetted on July 9, 2018.

“The primary focus of the market study is on the off-tak-ers (market) inputs and the to-tal value chain economics and each of its corresponding links to determine whether and under what conditions flare gas can be taken to market based on sound economic and market criteria,” Derefaka explained.

According to him, focus was equally on current market con-ditions and potential adverse changes in market conditions within the next five to ten years.

He explained “this is premised on the fact that the flare gas-to-market projects will mainly pro-vide services and products to unaddressed markets (e.g. sup-ply electric power where today communities have no electricity, fertilizers where there are none.), generate savings by substituting a higher-cost with a lower-cost energy source (e.g. providing lower-cost power, substituting diesel or HFo with CnG, lnG or pipeline gas.)”

Derefaka further stated that the main objectives of the mar-ket study were to determine the feasibility, attractiveness and sustainability of flare gas to market projects which includes the transformation of flare gas to end products and the delivery and sale of these ‘end products to the off-taker.

International oil companies that are involved in the flaring of gas in nigeria are said to be showing increasing reluctance in selling the commodity to third parties under commercially via-ble arrangements, according to the Federal Government.

Instead, the oil producers pre-ferred to pay the tiny penalty cost incurred in gas flaring than to deal with a third-party inves-tor that might be interested in off-taking the commodity.

Flare gas is essentially asso-ciated gas that is produced with oil, as they both come out of the ground, but pollutes the envi-ronment, causing sickness and other environmental hazards, particularly in locations where these IoCs operate, like in the niger Delta region of the coun-try.

“Although the Federal Govern-ment owns the flare gas and has the power to take it, oil produc-ers have, up till now, treated flare gas as if it is their own, to sell or to flare as they choose,” the Pro-gramme Manager, nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Pro-gramme, Justice Derefaka, said.

He made the assertions during the 3rd lawyers in oil and Gas conference in lagos, explaining that IOCs were reluc-tant to sell flare gas because the cost of gas flaring to a producer had been tiny and tax deduct-ible.

The presentation was enti-tled, “The Impact of Govern-ment Regulatory Policy and the Road to Sustainable Economic Growth through the lens of the nGFCP.”

Typically, producers have been reluctant to sell to third parties, preferring to make the miniscule flare payment than have the operational hassles of dealing with third parties, the poor technical gas evacuation system and the poor gas pay-ment record.

“The result is that the low hanging fruit has been fully picked for producers’ own proj-ects, and the higher hanging fruit, i.e. the 178 flare sites left, have been ignored.”

However, under the new reg-ulations approved in 2018, the Federal Government has assert-ed its right to take gas free at the flare site and auction it off to third parties. Those third parties will have surety of title from the Federal Government.

Under the regulations flare payments have been increased substantially.

Historically, associated gas used to be regarded as a waste product, as the commodity was separated from the oil and flared in site.

Meanwhile, oil was piped to local refineries or for export and progressively associated gas has been captured or harnessed and used for power generation, in industry for fertilizer, metha-nol and petrochemical plants, and for production of liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied nat-ural gas.

19

Industry 05:19

There is every likelihood that global liquefied natural gas, LNG, market will experience

boom in the next six years, Wood Mackenzie, a research and consultancy group stated.

The group is of the view that capital spending on both the lnG plant and upstream infrastructure will total more than US$200bn in 2019-2025. Specifically, it stated that over the next two years, almost 90 million tonnes per annum (mmtpa) of LNG is expected to take final investment decision (FID) and start construction. This will provide a major boost to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and other providers along the supply chain. Wood Mackenzie however took into cognizance the fact that the lnG industry is replete with cost overruns and project delays, as it noted that just 10 percent of all lnG projects have been constructed under budget, while 60 percent have experienced delays.

Though it did not mention the countries where these delays occurred, it could be recalled that nigeria’s Brass lnG and olokola lnG have been in abeyance more than 14 years due to lack of final investment decisions, FID. The $20bn Brass lnG project in Bayelsa State and the $9.8bn olokola lnG project, located on the border town between ogun and ondo states, were initiated in 2003 and 2005 respectively. The Brass lnG project, which was designed to produce 10 million metric tonnes per annum, was to be built by the nnPC, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Eni Group. But ConocoPhillips and Chevron have withdrawn from

the project. oK lnG project, which was also designed to produce an initial 10 million metric tonnes per annum, was being built through a joint venture by the nnPC with Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and BG Group. But all the international oil companies have pulled out of the project. Speaking on the expected boom in the LNG industry, liam Kelleher, senior global lnG research analyst, Wood Mackenzie, said: “The many projects jostling for FID right now have low headline costs, but in light of the historical reality of lnG construction, some project delays are likely. “While there is a risk that current low lnG prices may see some proposed projects cancelled, Wood Mackenzie believes the risk to new lnG supply development is low and we see considerable upside supply potential.” He added: “In our high case, we anticipate that a further 70 mmtpa could be sanctioned in the next three years. Should even some of this materialise, construction would be stretched beyond the height of the 2010-14 boom.” But that does not mean the upcoming cycle is destined to be a replay of the last. There are a number of key differences this time round, Kelleher said.

“Firstly, the global spread of projects will mean that the local inflation pressure, particularly in terms of manpower, which hit Australia and the US in previous cycles, is lessened.

“Secondly, developers are also being more cautious about lnG development solutions, opting for modularisation and capex phasing. This, coupled with renewed caution with investment programmes

across the upstream sector, should help limit global upstream inflation.” lower raw material costs should also help keep a cap on expenditure, as global steel prices are set to ease from their 2018 peak. He added that new players entering the EPC market mean that competition for construction contracts is strong. Kelleher said: “While lnG operators have enjoyed a return to profits in recent years, many lnG EPC contractors remain firmly in the red. “Tough times bring tough contract conditions and EPC contractors have taken financial hits from project cost overruns as seen at Ichthys, Cameron and Freeport. “With an increase in workload, there is the potential for a recovery in project revenues for EPC contractors.” other parts of the value chain are also likely to see an increase in workload and with it, costs. A lean time for upstream subcontractors has resulted in a 25 percent drop of workload capacity across the sector. An uptick in activity is expected to bring higher rig rates and subsea costs, a risk for major integrated projects in Mozambique and Qatar. He added: “Cost overruns in the previous boom averaged 33 percent, with Australian projects overrunning by 40%. While Wood Mackenzie does not expect similar increases this time, the potential for operators and contractors to drop the ball on project delivery remains. “This risk will only be heightened if more projects go ahead than our base case forecast. only time will tell whether lnG will start to shrug off its difficult delivery reputation.”

$200bn LNG Capex Boom Expected in 6yrs ...Wood Mackenzie

–By Gideon osaka

20

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call:

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Star of the Industry 05:19

Dr. AmyJadesimiManaging Director, LADOL

23

Star of the Industry 05:19

Amy Jadesimi (born 1976) is a nigerian physician, businesswoman, entrepre-

neur, and corporate executive, who serves as the chief execu-tive offi cer of the Lagos Deep Off-

shore logistics Base (lADol), a privately owned state-of-the-art logistics and engineering facility in an industrial Free Zone, locat-ed on an island within the Port of lagos, in nigeria.

She was born in nigeria in 1976. Her father, a successful entrepreneur, is Chief oladipo Jadesimi, the Executive Chair-man of lADol. Her mother, Alero okotie-Eboh, was a former broad-

Through LADOL, Jadesimi joined the Venture Strat-egies for Health and Development (VSHD) organization where she works with other Nigerian doctors and birth attendants to reduce the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria. Upon addressing the many cases, Jadesimi and other practitioners noticed that the drugs used to help reduce the maternal mortality were expensive; therefore, not many pregnant women could afford them. The VSHD came up with a drug that was well suited for maternal mortality and was better for the market.

–By Danlami nasir Isah

Dr. Amy JadesimiManaging Director

lagos Deep offshore logistics Base (lADol)

left to Right: Chief oladipo Jadesimi, President Muhammadu Buhari and Dr. Amy Jadesimi

24

Star of the Industry 05:19

caster and she is presently the CEo of FlowerStalk Company, a company that deals with natural flowers for weddings and events. Her maternal grandfather, Chief Festus okotie-Eboh, was the ni-gerian Minister of Finance.

Jadesimi attended boarding school in the United Kingdom. She was admitted to the Univer-sity of Oxford, fi rst graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) de-gree in Physiological Sciences and later with a Bachelor of Med-icine and Bachelor of Surgery (BMBCh) degree, in 1999. later, she graduated with a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

After medical school, she was recruited by Goldman Sachs. She started work in the Invest-ment Banking division of the fi rm, based in their offi ces in Lon-

don, focusing on mergers, acqui-sitions, and corporate fi nance. She worked there for three years. Even though Jadesimi is better known as a businesswoman, she never intended to leave the medical fi eld and pursue another career. She was offered a job by Goldman Sachs while working with a fi rm in Oxford. After work-ing there for three years, she never went back to the hospital or her previous job and instead went on to pursue an MBA at Stanford.

Following graduation from Stanford University, she interned for one year at Brait SE in Jo-hannesburg, South Africa, where she worked in the private equity division, as a transaction ex-ecutive. In 2004, she relocated back to her homeland and joined LADOL, the logistics fi rm that her father started in 2001. over

time, she rose through the ranks and in 2009, she was appointed by the board as the Chief Exec-utive Offi cer of the business. Through lADol, Jadesimi joined the venture Strategies for Health and Development (vSHD) orga-nization where she works with other nigerian doctors and birth attendants to reduce the high rate of maternal mortality in ni-geria. Upon addressing the many cases, Jadesimi and other prac-titioners noticed that the drugs used to help reduce the maternal mortality were expensive; there-fore, not many pregnant women could afford them. The vSHD came up with a drug that was well suited for maternal mortali-ty and was better for the market. Under Jadesimi’s supervision, the organization partnered with a leading pharmaceutical com-pany in nigeria, Emzor Pharma-

left to right: Mr. Ashraf Bakry (Co-Chairman AmCham Egypt Industry & Trade Committee; Managing Director – Unilever Mashreq); Mr. Mohammed El Kalla (Chair, AmCham Egypt Education Committee; Co-Founder and Chief Technical Offi cer – Ahead of the Curve); Dr. Amy Jadesimi (Commissioner – Business and Sustainable Development Commission; MD & CEo – lADol); Mr. Frederic Sicre (Managing Director – The Abraaj Group)

25

ceuticals, to distribute the drugs through nigeria. Beyond lADol, she is on the Prince’s Trust Inter-national global advisory board, a founding commissioner of the Business and Sustainable Devel-opment and Commission and a Forbes contributor.

Featured as a guest panelist at the london Business School African summit, speaking on integration and growth on the continent, parallel to the events Jadesimi took part initialing an art collaboration piece called Re-member To Rise.

In 2012, Jadesimi was named an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow. In 2013, she was named as a young Global leader by the World Economic Forum. Also that year she was given the title of Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and So-

ciety. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Un De-velopment Programme’s Africa Human Development Report. Forbes included her in the 2014

20 youngest Powerful Women in Africa article. The Financial Times named her one of the top 25 Africans To Watch.

vice President, yemi osinbajo visits and inpects lADol FreeZone facilities

Star of the Industry 05:19

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–By yange Ikyaa

oil and gas firms from the People’s Republic of Chi-na (PRC) are currently in a

secret plot to hatch a far-reach-ing agenda aimed at acquiring a broad spectrum of state-owned nigerian oil and gas assets, Val-uechain can authoritatively re-port.

very high level sources in the nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources confirmed that Chi-nese companies in question

are interested in the combined acquisition of pipelines, refin-eries, and also in the exchange of crude oil grades between ni-geria and the Republic of niger through a mutually satisfactory barter arrangement.

Their interest in crude oil ex-change between nigeria and ni-ger Republic indicates that the brown and green field refineries, which are respectively located in Kaduna (presently) and Kat-

sina (future), will be their most likely targets for acquisition and operation.

According to Valuechain in-vestigations, negotiations that will make it possible for these oil and gas deals to go through are being perfected between nige-ria and China at the highest level of government to government interface, alongside the private Chinese firms that will actually acquire and operate the nigeri-

Cover Story 05:19

Will Saudi Arabia’s current moves for the same petrochemical plants and other assets create what could be best described as the mid-far East Scramble for

nigeria?

China’s Secret Agenda May COUNTER Saudi Arabia’s Moves to Acquire Nigerian

Petrochemical Assets

R E v E A L E D

27

Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi ArabiaDr. Zhou Pingjian, Chinese President

The Chinese secret agenda came just at the same time that the government of Saudi Arabia was making frantic efforts to acquire either brown field legacy assets or build new ones in green field situations in the Ni-gerian oil and gas industry. With these parallel devel-opments being pursued by the two middle and far East economic giants, a picture is seemingly being painted of an Asian scramble for Nigerian energy resources.

Industry 05:19

an petroleum assets under re-view.

“The Chinese Ambassador to nigeria had gone to China in March 2019 to hold meetings with the parties involved in the talks for acquiring these oil as-sets and returned back to the country in the first week of April.

“He was actually billed to re-turn on April 5, 2019 to Abuja, which coincided with the same day that the nigerian side and a few Chinese Embassy staff held a meeting at the Foreign Affairs Ministry under directives from Geoffrey onyeama, the nigeri-an Minister of Foreign Affairs,”

Valuechain gathered from a very highly placed source in the Min-istry of Petroleum Resources.

Investigations conducted by Valuechain authoritatively con-firmed that Eng. Rabiu Sulei-man, who is the Senior Techni-cal Assistant on Refineries and Downstream Infrastructure to Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was billed to be part of the meeting at the Foreign Af-fairs Ministry.

However, he was unavoidably absent because, at the time of the meeting in Abuja, he was rather attending the nigerian oil

and Gas opportunity Fair (no-GoF), which was held in yene-goa, the Bayelsa State capital between April 4 and 5, 2019.

Before the Chinese Ambas-sador’s trip to his country, it had been agreed that the relevant authorities from both nigeria and China would meet again in an expanded but yet secret ses-sion in the second week of April after the Ambassador’s return from the world’s most populous nation and largest market.

In other words, the Ambassa-dor’s visit to his home country in March and the secret meeting in nigeria, which was held on April

28

5 and made up of people from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Petroleum Resources Ministry, and some diplomats from the Chinese Embassy in Abuja were all mutually linked activities in preparation for a joint and big-ger meeting between represen-tatives of nigeria and China in the second week of April.

According to Valuechain find-ings, the higher level and more expanded meeting between Ni-geria and China that would fol-low after the Abuja secret talks was to be held in Dubai and was tentatively fixed for April 8.

“The Chinese Ambassador to nigeria was directed to go and fix an appointment with the business interests in his country during a previous meeting held in South Africa, which he was part of and travelled to China for that purpose during the Chinese new year, that suggested that the Chinese new year was over and he was coming back to ni-geria, April 5.

“We also suggested to him to attend a meeting with the in-terested parties in the second week in April and one company

had been brought to terms and they were ready for negotiations and we would have to do that in Dubai, but we had to confirm the possibility of the date from the Chinese Ambassador to nigeria because we didn’t want to go twice.

“Already there was a meeting in Abuja at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, April 5, and one am-bassador had been directed by the Foreign Affairs Minister to follow up with the Chinese Em-bassy and they fixed a meeting for April 5. So if they were done with the meeting, they would extract the date for the meeting in Dubai in the second week of April,” said an official from the nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

The Chinese secret agenda came just at the same time that the government of Saudi Arabia was making frantic efforts to acquire either brown field lega-cy assets or build new ones in green field situations in the Ni-gerian oil and gas industry.

With these parallel develop-ments being pursued by the two middle and far East eco-

nomic giants, a picture is seem-ingly being painted of an Asian scramble for nigerian energy resources.

on April 24, the Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Re-sources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, expressed the strong readiness of his country to sign a Memorandum of Understand-ing (MoU) with nigeria in order to pave way for the partnership investment in the nation’s oil and gas sector. The Saudi Min-ister was speaking during a high level bilateral meeting with nige-ria’s Minister of State for Petro-leum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, in Riyadh.

While stating that his team will undertake the task of draft-ing an outline of the MoU in consonance with nigeria and consequently move through the bureaucratic channels of get-ting the requisite approvals and endorsements, it was also re-vealed that, Eng. Adeeb y. Al-Aa-ma (Saudi Arabia) and Dr. omar Farouk Ibrahim (nigeria), who are Governors of the organiza-tion of Oil Exporting Countries

Ibe Kachikwu

Cover Story 05:19

vice President yemi osinbajo

29

(oPEC) for the two countries, have already been nominated to fast track the process for official endorsements and signing at the highest level of government and political responsibility.

The agreement in view is expected to, in principle, open doors for nigeria to potential-ly benefit from Saudi Aramco’s recent aggressive oil sector in-vestments across the globe. The Saudi Arabian proposal also includes areas of interest cov-ering existing refinery revamp, building of brand new refinery, lnG investments and product supply trading in crude and re-fined products. H.E Khalid Al Fa-lih also reiterated the possibility of establishing an independent refinery in Nigeria as the coun-try considers nigeria as the best hub to reach other African coun-

tries.Dr. Kachikwu, who led a high

powered delegation drawn from the Ministry of Petroleum Re-sources, nigerian national Pe-troleum Corporation (nnPC), Department of Petroleum Re-sources, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and Petroleum Equalization Fund for an exploratory visit to Saudi Ara-bia at the invitation of his Saudi counterpart, H.E. Khalid Al Falih, disclosed that nigeria aims to leverage on the huge success of the Saudi Government in the sector , likely due to the fact that the Saudi Aramco’s turnover in the year 2018 was over $200 billion.

He also visited the Jubail In-dustrial City, where the Presi-dent of the Royal Commission for Jubail and yanbu (RCJy),

Eng. Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Saadan, and his strategic team took the Minister on a tour of the gigantic project complex, where Dr. Kachikwu expressed his an-ticipation for a replication of the innovative project in the ongoing oil and Gas Industrial Park in ni-geria being championed by the nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (nCDMB).

At the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), the visit presented an opportunity for the Chief Operating Officer, Re-fineries and Petrochemicals of nnPC, Mr. Anibor Kragha, and the Senior Technical Adviser to nigeria’s Petroleum Minister on Refineries and Downstream Infrastructure, Mr. Rabiu Sulei-man, to deep-dive into issues of shared interest with SABIC.

Then, at the national Indus-

Whether or not there is a scramble for Nigerian oil and gas installations, what the country has for years been looking forward to is willing investors with private capital that can put in their money to turn the facilities around.

Cover Story 05:19

Engr. Wabote SimbiGeoffrey onyema

30

Cover Story 05:19

trial Development and logistics Program (nIDlP) Centre, consid-ered to be the most ambitious, innovative and most impactful programme under Saudi’s vi-sion 2030, Dr. Kachikwu was intimated that the core objective of the Programme is to position Saudi Arabia to become Global leaders in the areas of Mining, Energy, logistics and Industry.

Clearly reflecting the bold ambitions of the “Project100” initiated by Dr. Kachikwu and incubated by the nCDMB, it was highlighted as a shared interest for both nations. This further formed the foundation for the nCDMB boss, Engr. Wabote Simbi, to fi rm up plans for a pro-posed technical working visit to

the nIDlP Centre.Whether or not there is a

scramble for nigerian oil and gas installations, what the coun-try has for years been looking forward to is willing investors with private capital that can put in their money to turn the facili-ties around.

“When I started in 2015, in August, September, october as GMD nnPC and minister of state for petroleum, and I dis-cussed this with the President seeking his approval, one con-cern was that we did not want to sell the refi neries as scrap, we preferred that we repair the refi neries, but he also acknowl-edged the fact that we did not have the resources and so pri-

vate sector money was essen-tial, but what he wanted us to do was to go out and seek whether people will be interested in pro-viding the fi nancing,” Kachikwu maintained.

In his words, “I did go to India as part of our investment drive and I did go to Italy to EnI and then we signed an MoU that promised investments of about $13 to $14 billion in the nigeri-an economy, covering upstream investments, covering refi ning, and then covering power plants and all that, so this is a global MoU, which is an outstanding agreement or a statement of in-tent but is meant to channel ef-forts towards providing invest-ment to this country.”

Very high level sources in the Nigerian Ministry of Pe-troleum Resources confirmed that the Chinese companies in question are interested in the combined acquisition of pipelines, refineries, and also in the exchange of crude oil grades between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger through a mutually satisfactory barter arrangement.

Mr. Anibor Kragha, Chief Operating Offi cer, Refi neries and Petrochemicals of nnPC

Mr. Rabiu Suleiman, Senior Technical Adviser to nigeria’s Petroleum Minister on Refi neries and Downstream Infra-structure

31

Cover Story 05:19

The Minister was also said to have held meetings at the oTC a few years ago with the presi-dent of EnI, where we reached an agreement and they came to nigeria to see Prof. yemi osin-bajo, then Acting President, and reached an agreement to do a different green field refinery in Brass of 150,000 barrels per day capacity.

Valuechain learnt that further meetings were later held with these producers and the discus-sions went in four stages, cover-ing NNPC refineries in Port Har-court, Warri, Kaduna, and the collocation of refineries, which would place some of those plants where they can share fa-cilities, such as pipelines, power and storage.

Kachikwu has often favoured the idea of building new refiner-ies over sinking money into co-matose ones.

According to him, “I think we should primarily focus on green field refineries in those areas so that we are sure of the technolo-gy. At the time that I started, vir-tually nobody was interested in putting financing in this for very many reasons: First, the market pricing of products was a chal-lenge and so nobody was going to put in his money and then get a subsidized petroleum prod-

uct, you won’t be able to recover your funding.

“Second was the fact that the whole investment climate at the time was very problematic, we all went with my team all over the world trying to sensitize the big refiners, the big refinery owners, and I learnt that the dis-cussion had shifted from who is interested in doing it, how many people, to who are not partici-pating, which means a lot more interest has been gathered and a lot more people are interested in participating.”

Valuechain investigations from the nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources show that what the ministry has succeed-ed in doing is to ascertain what volume of work is required to be done and how much it will cost, and the total cumulative amount is in the region of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion within all the refineries.

now, with the entry of Sau-di Arabia into the fray of major nations showing interest in the nigerian hydrocarbon sector, ni-geria may learn from the biggest oPEC producer’s current invest-ment plans and end up freeing many of its government held oil and gas companies for private ownership.

This may help nigeria in at-

tracting more foreign exchange that is currently in shortage in the country, resulting in the pe-rennial weakness of the naira against major international cur-rencies, thereby putting a wedge in the way of project financing for the development of critical infrastructure in the oil and gas industry and across the rest of other sectors of the national economy.

In Saudi Arabia, the govern-ment wants to boost non-oil revenue by selling stakes in state assets, including Aramco, the stock exchange and soccer clubs. It set up the national Cen-ter for Privatization in 2017 and it has been reported that privat-izations could exceed $350 bil-lion in about five years. In April 2018, authorities put forward a target of as much as 40 billion riyals or $11 billion by 2020.

The possibility of selling a mi-nority stake in the giant oil com-pany was first mentioned in a newspaper interview published in January 2016 by then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spawning an enormous amount of activity from consul-tants, bankers, stock exchang-es, governments and journalists all competing to benefit from the sale of the century.

Saudi Aramco has reported-

“I did go to India as part of our investment drive and I did go to Italy to ENI and then we signed an MoU that promised investments of about $13 to $14 billion in the Nigerian economy, covering upstream investments, covering refining, and then covering power plants and all that, so this is a global MoU, which is an outstand-ing agreement or a statement of intent but is meant to channel efforts towards providing investment to this country.”

32

Cover Story 05:19

ly prepared a set of corporate accounts to international stan-dards and commissioned an external audit of its oil reserves ready for investors.

The pending sale had trig-gered a scramble among stock exchanges, including in the United States, the United King-dom and Hong Kong, to secure a slice of the listing, with each receiving government backing.

Technical preparations for a

sale appear to have been large-ly completed over the last two years but the actual date for any sale has been repeatedly pushed back, and there is still no timeline for a decision, let alone an actual listing, and the timeta-ble still slipped into 2019.

Saudi policymakers have indi-cated shares will be listed on the domestic stock exchange but there is no firm commitment to list them internationally.

The government has a range of options, from a domestic-on-ly listing, a private sale of shares to a strategic partner, an inter-national listing, or some com-bination of any of these three. And it is expected that Nigeria will learn from this and also plan ahead, while making the most of the present opportunities in the international oil and gas market.

The agreement in view is expected to, in principle, open doors for Nigeria to potentially benefit from Saudi Aramco’s recent aggressive oil sector investments across the globe. The Saudi Arabian proposal also includes ar-eas of interest covering existing refinery revamp, build-ing of brand new refineries, LNG investments and product supply trading in crude and refined products. H.E Khalid Al Falih also reiterated the possibility of establishing an independent refinery in Nigeria as the country considers Nigeria as the best hub to reach oth-er African countries.

33

Energy 05:19

World energy investment stabilised above $1.8 trillion in 2018, thereby

ending three consecutive years of decline, as capital spending on oil, gas and coal supply bounced back while investment stalled for energy efficiency and renew-ables, International Energy Agen-cy IEA’s, latest annual review stated.

The findings of the World Ener-gy Investment 2019 report signal a growing mismatch between current trends and the paths to

meeting the Paris Agreement and other sustainable development goals.

According to the report, global energy investment totalled more than USD 1.8 trillion in 2018, a level similar to 2017. For the third year in a row, the power sector at-tracted more investment than the oil and gas industry. The biggest jump in overall energy investment was in the United States, where it was boosted by higher spending in upstream supply, particularly shale, but also electricity net-

works. The increase narrowed the gap between the United States and China, which remained the world’s largest investment des-tination. IEA noted that even as investments stabilized, approvals for new conventional oil and gas projects fell short of what would be needed to meet continued ro-bust growth in global energy de-mand. At the same time, there are few signs of the substantial real-location of capital towards ener-gy efficiency and cleaner supply sources that are needed to bring

World Energy Investment Stabilises Above $1.8trn...As insecurity and sustainability concerns grow

–By Gideon osaka

34

investments in line with the Par-is Agreement and other sustain-able development goals. “Energy investments now face unprece-dented uncertainties, with shifts in markets, policies and technolo-gies,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director. “But the bot-tom line is that the world is not investing enough in traditional el-

ements of supply to maintain to-day’s consumption patterns, nor is it investing enough in cleaner energy technologies to change course. Whichever way you look, we are storing up risks for the fu-ture.” The report also stated that the world is witnessing a shift in investments towards energy supply projects that have shorter lead times. In power generation and the upstream oil and gas sector, the industry is bringing capacity to market more than 20 percent faster than at the begin-ning of the decade. This reflects industry and investors seeking to better manage risks in a chang-ing energy system, and also im-proved project management and lower costs for shorter-cycle as-sets such as solar Pv, onshore wind and US shale.

Eventhough decisions to in-vest in coal-fired power plants declined to their lowest level this century and retirements rose, the global coal power fleet continued to expand, particularly in develop-ing Asian countries. The continu-ing investments in coal plants, which have a long lifecycle, ap-pear to be aimed at filling a grow-ing gap between soaring demand for power and a levelling off of ex-pected generation from low-car-bon investments (renewables and nuclear). Without carbon capture technology or incentives for earlier retirements, coal pow-er and the high Co2 emissions it produces would remain part of the global energy system for

many years to come. At the same time, to meet sustainability goals, investment in energy efficiency would need to accelerate while spending on renewable power doubles by 2030. It noted that among major countries and re-gions, India had the second larg-est jump in energy investment in 2018 after the United States. However, the poorest regions of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, face persistent financing risks. They only received around 15 percent of investment in 2018 eventhough they account for 40 percent of the global population. It thus recommended that far more capital needs to flow to the least developed countries in or-der to meet sustainable develop-ment goals.

The report also found that pub-lic spending on energy research, development and demonstra-tion (RD&D) is far short of what is needed. While public energy RD&D spending rose modestly in 2018, led by the United States and China, its share of gross do-mestic product remained flat and most countries are not spending more of their economic output on energy research. “Current in-vestment trends show the need for bolder decisions required to make the energy system more sustainable,” Dr Birol said. “Gov-ernment leadership is critical to reduce risks for investors in the emerging sectors that urgent-ly need more capital to get the world on the right track.”

According to the report, global energy investment totalled more than USD 1.8 trillion in 2018, a level sim-ilar to 2017. For the third year in a row, the power sector attracted more investment than the oil and gas industry. The biggest jump in overall energy investment was in the United States, where it was boosted by higher spending in upstream supply, particularly shale, but also electricity networks.

35

36

Industry 05:19

–By Gideon osaka

The world’s biggest semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCv) is set to blaze the

trail when it enters into service in the coming months, armed with the strongest pair of revolving cranes for offshore oil, gas and renewable energy installation and decommissioning jobs.

named after the norse God odin’s eight-legged stallion and newly completed at Sembcorp Marine’s Tuas Boulevard yard for owner Heerema Marine Contractors, Singapore, SSCv Sleipnir has a 220-m by 102-m reinforced deck area, making it the largest crane vessel to be built. The vessel also has two 10,000-ton revolving cranes which can lift loads of up to 20,000 tons in tandem. no other existing crane vessel has this capability.

Sleipnir can accommodate 400 persons and will be deployed globally for installing and removing jackets, topsides, deep-water foundations, moorings and other offshore structures. Importantly, with its single-lift capability catering to larger integrated structures than previously possible, Sleipnir is expected to minimize offshore assembly work and raise operational efficiency to a new level, while not compromising the flexibility and robustness of traditional installation methodologies. The vessel further stands out as the world’s first crane vessel with dual-fuel engines running on Marine Gas Oil (MGO) and Liquefied natural Gas (lnG). Coupled with an IMo- and US Coast

Guard-approved ballast water management system, Sleipnir will operate sustainably across all environmental jurisdictions. Heerema has already secured contracts to deploy the vessel in various offshore energy developments, including: leviathan topsides installation in the Mediterranean Sea; Tyra jackets and topsides installation and removal in the Danish north Sea; Brae B jackets and topsides removal in the UK north Sea; as well as transportation and installation of the Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) Alpha HvAC platform in the north Sea, off the Dutch coast. In the offshore wind sector, Heerema sees a significant growth in the size of wind turbines and foundations, which requires specialized equipment for their installation. With its large cranes capable of a 129-m lifting height and a combined 20,000-ton lifting capacity, Sleipnir is very well placed to accommodate this trend of increasingly bigger offshore wind turbines. Speaking at Sleipnir’s christening in Tuas Boulevard yard, Mr. Pieter Heerema, chairman of the board

at Heerema Marine Contractors said:

“I am immensely proud that Heerema Marine Contractors is again taking things further with the introduction of our new semi-submersible crane vessel. Sleipnir scores several firsts in the industry. It is the largest crane vessel yet built, it has the strongest pair of revolving cranes, and it’s also the world’s first crane vessel with dual-fuel engines running on MGo and lnG, dramatically reducing harmful emissions. Sleipnir’s innovative capabilities will place Heerema even firmer at the forefront of developments in the offshore oil, gas and wind energy industry for both installations and decommissioning.” Mr, Heerema added, “Sembcorp Marine in Singapore was chosen to build Sleipnir for their professionalism and dedication to the project. The excellent cooperation between Heerema and Sembcorp Marine ensured that the project was executed smoothly, on budget and according to the best possible safety and quality standards.”

World’s Biggest Semi-submersible Crane vessel Debuts

1-2 Abu-Rayyan Street, new nDC layout, Kaduna. Tel: 08077201571. Abuja: 07089626420, lagos: 08036840121.

email: 007mbu@gmail.com

Marketi ng Communicati ons Public Relati ons Event Management Publicati ons

Industry 05:19

Report Queries NNPC, Others Over Disclosure Failure In $3.1trn Oil Assets

The nigerian national Petro-leum Corporation (nnPC) and other national oil companies failed to disclose information critical to the oversight of pub-lic revenues and these national oil Companies, with $3.1 trillion in assets, are dangerously un-der-scrutinised.

Oil Firm Begins Work On 25kbd Modular Refinery

Waltersmith Petroman oil limited, operator of Ibig-we field located in Oil Mining lease (oMl) 16, has indicat-ed it is already working on the development of an additional 25,000 barrel a day (bd) modu-lar refinery few months after it commenced work on a 5,000bd modular refinery.

NNPC Pays N153.01bn Into Federation Account In Jan

The nigerian national Petro-leum Corporation (nnPC), says it transferred n153.01 billion into the federation account in January.

OPEC’s April Oil Supply Down To 30.23mbpd

The organisation of Pe-troleum Exporting Countries, oPEC’s April supply dropped to 30.23 million barrels per day (bpd) showing a four-year low.

Nigeria Says Ex-President, His Oil Minister Took Bribes –Court Filing

The nigerian government has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan and his

then oil minister of accepting bribes and breaking the coun-try’s laws to broker a $1.3 billion oil deal eight years ago, a lon-don court filing shows.

Malabu Scandal: Jonathan Re-plies FG, Speaks On Role

A former nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, has repeat-ed his claim that he did nothing wrong when his government brokered the controversial Mal-abu oil deal.

OB3 Gas Pipeline To Be Completed By September – Oilserv

The Chairman and Chief Ex-ecutive Officer of Oilserv Group, Mr. Emeka okwuosa, has said that efforts were being put in place to ensure that the obi-afu-obrikom-oben (oB3) ‘loT B’ gas pipeline being handled by

his company will be completed by September 2019.

Nigeria’s Reliance On Imported Fuel Rises

Oil production from fields in nigeria in 2018 were 70,166,496 (70 million) barrels more than what were produced in 2017, a report by the nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (nnPC) has disclosed.

NNPC Saves $1.6bn From Arbitration With Atlantic Energy

The nigerian national Petro-leum Corporation (nnPC) has disclosed that it recorded sav-ings of $1.6 billion from arbitra-tion between its upstream flag-ship subsidiary, the nigerian Petroleum Development Com-pany (nPDC) and the Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept nigeria limited.

Nigeria’s Bonny Light Crude Force Majeure Lifted

operator Royal Dutch Shell lifted the force majeure in place on exports of major Nigerian grade Bonny light, as tight glob-al oil supply encourages sellers of nigerian crude to offer many varieties at all-time high prices.

Cooking Gas Marketers Laud FG On vAT Removal

The nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Mar-keters (nAlPGAM) Thursday commended the federal gov-ernment for the removal of val-ue Added Tax (VAT) on Lique-fied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

MAY SHORT TAKES–Compiled By Saidu Abubakar

Former President Goodluck Jonathan

38

Industry 05:19

NNPC Saves $2.2bn On Petroleum Products Imports Through DSDP Scheme

The nigerian national Petro-leum Corporation (nnPC) said it has saved $2.2 billion through the Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase (DSDP) scheme of petroleum products supply since its incep-tion in 2016.

Delta Plans Industrial Gas Park, Modular Refinery

Delta State Government is planning an industrial gas park in Kwale and a modular refin-ery in Sapele, as part of efforts to harness its huge oil and gas potentials.

Petrol May Rise As Senate Deletes Equalization Fund From PIGB

nigerians living far from pe-troleum depots or in mountain-ous and riverine communities may be burdened with high price of petroleum products, es-pecially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol if President Muhammadu Buhari signs into law the current ver-sion of the Petroleum Industry

Governance Bill (PIGB).

Depot Owners Want Total Deregulation Of Petrol

The Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of nige-ria (DAPMAn) says the rise in landing cost of petroleum prod-ucts has renewed calls for full deregulation.

Anti-Smuggling: Navy Arrests 197 Suspects, Destroys 637 Illegal Refineries

The nigerian navy said Wednesday that it arrested no fewer than 197 suspected smugglers between 2015 and 2018.

Cosgrove Wins 2019 Best Real Estate Developer Award

Cosgrove Investment lim-ited, a leading real estate de-velopment firm in Nigeria, has been named as the “Best Resi-dential Innovation and Real Es-tate Developer of the year 2019.

Nigeria Begins Production Sharing Contract Negotiations With Shell -Kachikwu

nigeria has begun renegoti-

ating oil contracts with Royal Dutch Shell that could lead to major energy companies gen-erating billions of dollars less in revenues from lucrative off-shore blocks in Africa’s largest producer.

Investors’ Interest In Nigerian Refineries Drag On FG’s Stringent Conditions

Several global investors who have shown interest in investing in the rehabilitation and even building of refineries in Nigeria have been shut out on the Fed-eral Government’s firm stance on securitization of the funding options for would-be investors.

Oando Announces Q1 Results …Records N4.6bn Profit

oando PlC (referred to as “oando” or the “Group”), nige-ria’s leading indigenous energy group listed on both the nige-rian and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, announced unaudit-ed results for the three months period ended March 31, 2019.

oilServ Gas Pipeline work

39

no present-day plane can compete with the Air-bus A380 for passenger

passion. We adore the dou-ble-decker.

For another airliner that has aroused anything like the same adulation, you must reach back to Concorde. Which, I contend, demonstrates that the more passengers love an aircraft, the less it appeals to airline ac-countants – and, by extension, the people who order planes.

I have been covering the “Su-perJumbo” since it was a draw-ing-board project called the A3XX. As the design took shape, the marketing team chose to award it the same designation as the Torquay bypass.

The first A380 I saw (not counting the trunk road that loops west under Torbay) was, rather appropriately, flying over the super-jumbo-sized munici-pal swimming pool in Toulouse. I floated, mesmerised, as the

giant aircraft floated overhead on an early test flight from the nearby Airbus factory. Ever since I have been looking opti-mistically skywards to see if I can spot the implausible bulk of the four-engined monster.

More even than the Boeing 747, there is an enduring sense of wonder that such a vast ma-chine can get off the ground, let alone carry 500 people from one side of the world to the oth-er – safely and comfortably.

Airbus A380: A Love Letter to the Double-Decker Plane

Destined for Oblivion

Aviation 05:19

40

Concorde once had similar ca-chet.

The A380 is even better to fly in than it is to look at, at least rel-ative to economy class on oth-er aircraft. When I conducted a Twitter poll for the favourite air-craft for an overnight 10-hour flight in economy, the Super-

Jumbo was rated way ahead of the competition – even against its much more modern sibling, the A350, and the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner”.

Having flown on a range of A380s, the difference is clear. British Airways and Singapore Airlines have an economy sec-tion at the back of the upper deck, configured eight-abreast

and bestowed with an air of quiet calm – feeling rather like premium economy but without the premium. Even on the main deck, there is a generous sense of space.

While the A380’s main deck cabin is wide enough for 11 seats abreast, no airline has installed more than 10 across. Contrast that with the long-haul workhorse, the Boeing 777 – which began in a nine-abreast configuration but now has a de-fault of 10 across.

The worst long-haul flight I have experienced was on an Air France 777 into which no fewer than 468 passengers had been crammed – just one seat fewer than the capacity British Air-ways offers on its A380.

no wonder the dull, cramped Boeing twin-jet has outsold the spacious SuperJumbo by six to one: the economics are far better. Passengers prefer the A380, but the premium we are prepared to pay collectively is not enough to support its own-ership and running costs.

Next weekend, I am flying via the Gulf to India. Emirates, of-fering A380 comfort via Dubai, was priced £80 higher than Gulf Air via Bahrain. I bought the latter.

The A380 would be even more of a financial basket case were it not for the bold decision by Emirates to buy up half the world’s supply of SuperJumbo jets. Moving people 500 or 600 at a time through Dubai works

for a surprisingly wide range of routes (when the A380 first took to the skies, I bet the boss-es of Birmingham and Glasgow airports weren’t expecting to welcome daily arrivals and de-partures).

But in downsizing its plane order to smaller single-deck Airbuses, Emirates is drawing attention to the Achilles heel of the A380: there are simply not enough routes where so many empty seats can reliably be filled.

Airbus was betting that the A380 would come good. As hub airports become ever more congested, the theory went, or-ders would pick up. But I imag-ine the firm is glad that it can stop running a loss-making pro-duction line within a couple of years.

If you have not yet enjoyed flying aboard the plane, don’t fret. “Peak A380” will occur with the final delivery in 2021. After that the numbers will start to dwindle, but Emirates will still be filling the planes a decade later. And who knows: as the SuperJumbo acquires some rarity value, perhaps we will be willing to pay more to keep the amazing Airbus aloft for many more years.

This article was written by Simon Calder @SimonCalder, Travel Correspondent, The Independent in February 2019

More even than the Boeing 747, there is an endur-ing sense of wonder that such a vast machine can get off the ground, let alone carry 500 people from one side of the world to the other – safely and comfortably. Concorde once had similar cachet.

Aviation 05:19

41

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Column 05:19

Talk about taking us by sur-prise.

What a shocking twist for the season finale of the world’s most popular show that aired Sunday night, May 19, 2019.

It’s been a week since the season finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones (GoT). To say the least nigerian fan’s were far from pleased with how the sea-son finale played out. Daenery’s rampage on King’s landing, John Sown’s reaction and a sig-nificant other’s death, to who fi-nally sat on throne. That was a big shocker, eventhough some fans predictions turned out to be right.

In my opinion the last sea-son felt rushed, so many unan-swered questions, we deserved at least three more episodes. let’s not dwell too much on that, I wasn’t displeased with the way it ended but I was sad because the show had really come to an end. A show that lasted (8) eight years and we

GAME OF THRONES: FINALE REvIEW AND BRANDS WHo GoT BooSTS FRoM THE SHoW,

no PAWn InTEnDED

Step into SHUBOX where you will unbox Aisha’s journey to discovering the stories behind people in Africa and interesting places all over the world. Expect an eclectic dive into history and current events on the intriguing developments in media and entertainment. I am here to give you a piece of myself through my writing by reporting and reviewing all things educative, entertaining and engaging.

– By Aisha Sambo

44

Column 05:19

literally saw these characters grow through our screens. Ev-eryone wanted a piece of GoT, from the fans to the brands. But did they get the most out of it. Was it a hit and miss for the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky, Johnnie Walker (JW) to tie-in advertising with GoT? let’s dissect.

JW created a limited edition scotch whisky inspired by the most enigmatic and feared characters from GoT, in addi-tion hosted several viewing events across the world to pro-mote the bottle. JW had two events in nigeria and the win-ter-themed event saw guests treated to popcorn, ice-inspired attractions, and delicious cock-tails of the White Walker whisky. With the unprecedented popu-larity of the show, the pressure for fans to get invitations to an event sponsored by JW was like a war zone, causing dou-ble the screening capacity in both lagos and Abuja. Die hard

45

Column 05:19

fans trooped in to say their final goodbyes to their most beloved character. Celebrity guests in lagos who attended the event included Don Jazzy, Uriel and Dr Sid. The premiere hosted in two screens, one at Filmhouse Cinema, lagos and in Abuja at Silverbird Cinema, Jabi. The series were truly loved and you could feel it in the energy in the room through casual conversa-

tions. An average GoT episode has

over 32.8 million views world-wide, but did Johnnie Walker re-ally get a piece of the pie during their engagement with the show. let’s dive deeper. Market research shows that several major brands benefited from ty-ing their promotional efforts to the final season of GoT, includ-ing oreo, Urban Decay, Addidas and Johnnie Walker.

overall, the sentiment was positive for brands with GoT tie-ins during the final season, which reached new viewer-ship highs on HBo. However, brands using social media to promote their collaborations failed to target female fans, a huge misstep that could have been one reason why some brands didn’t get as much mile-age out of their collaborations as they might have, as 42% of the show’s viewers are wom-en. In addition, because HBo

doesn’t have ads, brands didn’t have visibility during the actual showings of GoT so they devel-oped other strategies for con-necting with fans. The ability of tie-ins to generate buzz for brands was mixed, with only Oreo experiencing a significant difference compared to all oth-er brands.

All in all, the show was fan-tastic, sad to see it has come to an end but I would watch GoT all over again. The buzz around it was also fantastic, brands and individuals did their fair share of branding their goods and services to tie-in themes and characters from the show. Kudos to HBo, the entire cast and the talented team behind shooting Game of Thrones, an unforgettable journey through the years and an ending fitting for the broken.

46

Property 05:19

operators in the real estate market are reporting im-provements in demand

for real estate products and ser-vices in the country with Abuja being at the centre of the poten-tial boom.

The reports of improvements in the off-take for estate proper-ties comes as a respite for devel-opers from the turmoil the sector went through between 2016 and 2018.

The fall in the value of the naira occasioned partly by the drop in global oil price and crude oil pro-duction as well as double digit inflation saw the country fall into negative growth consequently leading to economic recession in 2016. These weighed heavily on investor confidence.

The devaluation of the naira meant higher import cost and corresponding increase in local

prices of building and construc-tion materials which are mostly imported. A slowdown in new constructions was expected, likewise reduction in the demand and supply of properties.

There were increasing number of uncompleted estate projects across the major cities of Abuja, lagos and Port Harcourt. Those which manage to get completed remain unoccupied.

The sector was generally slug-gish between 2016 and early 2018 because of the lull in the nation’s economy.

The real estate sector’s contri-bution to GDP in 2016 suffered a decline compared to the pre-ceding year just as lending to the sector also dropped.

The glut in the property mar-ket due to low purchasing power, interest rate, was a major clog in the wheel of real estate funding.

But recent reports of an up-surge in demand by developers tallies with forecast by experts of a potential boom in the sector this year.

In its 2019 nigeria Real Estate Market outlook published in Jan-uary, northcourt, a real estate in-vestment and research compa-ny, said the industry would see more supply across the various sub-sectors.

According to the report, the developments will be driven by new technologies, and both the government and private devel-opers will be more innovative in products delivery.

“2019 will see a boom for the savvy real estate investor,” the report added.

Expert and Managing Direc-tor and Chief Executive Officer of Propertygate Development & Investment Plc, a real estate de-

–By David Chukwu

Real Estate Sector Set for Boom…as Abuja property demand rises

48

velopment firm, Mr. Adetokunbo Ajayi, also said at the beginning of the year that the improvement in the nation’s micro environ-ment was a pointer to the posi-tive future outlook for real estate sector of the nation for 2019.

He said the sector will expe-rience better performance this year because of signs of im-provement in the economy and the expected political and eco-nomic stability in the country af-ter the general elections.

Valuechain analysis shows that the real estate sectors picked up massively from the economic meltdown that hit the country in 2016 and became a key contributor to the country’s economic recovery.

Among the sectors that led the expansion in real terms were the construction and slightly real estate sectors, including cement and wood product manufactur-ing.

The growth in the real sector could be attributed partly to the availability of foreign exchange and the improving economic climate which has encouraged investment in the country gen-erally.

others linked the boom to the billions of naira severance pack-age paid out to the outgoing pol-iticians at the federal, state and local government levels. nigeria is one of the countries in the world that politicians earn huge allowances.

Also, there has been a flurry of road construction and rehabilita-tion, rail, infrastructure and other capital projects that have been sustained up to this year which have seen both federal and state

governments as well as the pri-vate sector pumping billions into them.

The federal government last year said around n1 trillion cap-ital vote was, the highest ever budgetary release in nigeria’s an-nual funding, for capital projects, with a promise to do more this year based on the current stabil-ity in oil price and the return of normalcy in the niger Delta.

The capital city of Abuja seems to be the lead in the an-ticipated boom with economic and political stability returning to the country’s capital after the elections.

A survey of some new estates at major parts of the city showed that subscription for homes in Abuja have improved with devel-opers reportedly selling out most of their housing units.

For instance, Aso Savings and loans Plc, the developers of the Karsana Project, a serene com-munity of exquisite homes on a 22 hectare site, located just after Gwarinpa, along Kubwa Express Road, said on its website that it had sold out units in the estate.

The Estate is located within the Karsana East District which is part of Abuja Phase Iv. The Es-tate consists of 1, 2 and 3 Bed-room Apartments, 2 Bedroom Terrace Duplexes and 4 Bed-room Terrace Duplexes.

Hall 7 Real Estate, the firm behind the construction of the apartments, named The Bridge Peridot, which sits on four hect-ares of prime real estate in Mbo-ra district of Abuja and unveiled recently said all the apartments were sold out even before they were formally opened.

The Bridge Peridot consists of some 47 duplexes and six apart-ment units are meant to be fully residential, with a common area on the rooftop and down in the basement of the six-unit apart-ment.

Another Abuja-based develop-er Cosgrove Investment limited also reported that all of its estate developments have already been sold out even before construc-tion on some of them started.

Umar Abdullahi the Chief Exec-utive Officer (CEO) of the compa-ny in a media interview said their Smart Estate at Wuye/Utako, Mabushi and Guzape were also fully sold out under two months before the firm mobilised to site.

The story is the same for lesser known estate developers. Trendy Homes limited develop-ers of Graceland Estate, Sabon lugbe, Abuja reports that its ten semi-detached bungalows each of 3 bedrooms in its mini estate were sold out.

Developers and experts are even more optimistic that the real sector will experience boom with more development take-offs and delivery witnessed in recent times.

For instance, following the resolution of all political Issues and hiccups that hampered the smooth progress of the massive Abuja Centenary city project, de-velopers of the famous Centena-ry City, Front Range Developers and Centenary City Plc, jointly known as Centenary City Devel-opers FZE, recently commenced construction of the city, with the launch of their first co-develop-ment effort, tagged ‘The Grove’.

Property 05:19

The growth in the real sector could be attributed partly to the availability of foreign exchange and the improving economic climate which has encouraged investment in the country generally.

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Sports 05:19

In the early summer of 2002, Abubakar Usman made his debut as a Dambe fighter in

Kebbi, a state in northwest of nigeria.

Usman, who was 15 at the time, had been surreptitiously learning the sport’s rules and techniques by watching other fighters from the sidelines of the ring.

On the day of his first match, under the scorching sun, he took on a challenge to spar with an opponent everyone was afraid

to face.He lost, but has since become

one of the famous sportsmen of the martial art, with many ac-colades and prizes - including cash, a car and a motorcycle - to his credit.

“I’ve only lost a few match-es as a fighter,” Usman boasts, flashing a grin wide enough to show his missing teeth; two in-cisors lost to heavy blows.

“I still beat the guy that day,” he says of the opponent who knocked out his teeth.

Rooted in CultureDambe is a style of boxing as-

sociated with the Hausa people of West Africa, including south-ern niger and southwest Chad.

Starting out as more of a wrestling sport, known as “koku-wa” in the Hausa language, Dambe today is a “striking sport” where one fist is used as a spear to strike an opponent and the other as a shield.

Unlike the five-round max-imum of the United Fighting

DambeHow Ancient Form of Nigerian Boxing

Swept the Internet

–Compiled by Saidu Abubakar

Dambe has evolved from a sport belonging to a West African caste to a sensation enjoyed by millions online

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Sports 05:19

Championship (UFC) in the US, Dambe is fought in three rounds or fewer if a knockout punch is delivered.

Winners receive prizes in the form of money, cattle, presents from fans, or motorcycles and cars. on rare occasions, young women are married off to fight-ers as rewards.

Muktar Muhammed is a 31-year-old whose scarred face tells the tale of the injuries he’s sustained over a decade-long career. He told Al Jazeera that his cousin, who also competes, was gifted a young woman after he won a local tournament in Kebbi.

Many fighters are butchers by trade and were taught the sport from a young age.

Abudullahi Rabiu is from the

Kudu fighting community and dropped out of high school against his parents’ wishes to focus on Dambe. “I am just interested in the fight, not be-cause of money but because of the cultural nature of the Dambe game,” said the 24-year-old, who has won national tournaments.

From Ancient Sport to Internet Spectacle

Dambe began when clans of travelling butchers from the Hausa tribe started fighting tour-naments with the local commu-nities; they were soon compet-ing for fame and glory as locals huddled around the ring to cheer their favourite fighter on.

Today, the game has become an Internet sensation. Fans across the world have viewed

videos posted to youTube mil-lions of times. Anthony okeleke and Chidi Anyina stumbled upon Dambe online and instantly saw potential for the nigerian mar-ket, which is crowded with clips of football, Afropop music and nollywood.

In January 2017, with a de-sire to showcase the game to the world, they launched Dambe Warriors on youTube.

“The first thing we did was to reach out to the communi-ty and the fighters. We knew we had to gain the trust of the community first and the associ-ation of Dambe fighters before doing anything,” Anyina told Al Jazeera.

“We are looking at the UFC model. However, we want to make it indigenous and unique,”

Although Dambe is very popular in Northern Nige-ria, attracting a good number of fighters and spectators, it can’t be regarded as a standard sport yet. Unlike other combat sports like mixed martial arts, it doesn’t have for-mal weight classes, there are no uniforms and there are hardly any rules.

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Sports 05:19

said okeleke. “our mission was to push it to the mainstream.”

At the time of publication, Dambe Warriors had 46,000 subscribers and their videos had been viewed 11.7 million times. Their content is enjoyed by en-thusiasts in countries from the Philippines, Thailand and Brazil, to Indonesia and the US.

“We have a culture that has been basically traditional and re-stricted to people in the commu-nity, but now you have an inter-national audience taking a look at it and enjoying it,” said lolade Adewuyi, former editor of Goal.com, nigeria.

“I am very happy to see the videos because people all over the world are watching me fight. It’s better than when I started 15 years ago” -ABUBAKAR USMAn, A DAMBE FIGHTER

But, for all their fame, Dambe fighters are not paid fairly. The chiefs control the irregular pay-ments, and there are no welfare or health packages for partici-pants.

Adewuyi hopes that the sportsmen will become interna-tional stars one day and be paid better than UFC fighters.

“There’s limitless potential in

the game,” he said.For Usman, the fighter from

Kebbi State, nothing beats the feeling of people watching him throw and parry punches in on-line videos. “I am very happy to see the videos because people all over the world are watching me fight. It’s better than when I started 15 years ago,” Usman said, beaming with pride.

…On Its Way To Becoming Standard Sport

Known for its brutality, Dam-be is a form of traditional boxing that is said to be as old as the Hausa people. It was originally a way of practising military skills, but with its comeback, it has fast become a form of entertain-ment in nigeria.

Although Dambe is very pop-ular in northern nigeria, attract-ing a good number of fighters and spectators, it can’t be re-garded as a standard sport yet. Unlike other combat sports like mixed martial arts, it doesn’t have formal weight classes, there are no uniforms and there are hardly any rules.

However, two groups have set out to change this with the hope

of exporting it to other countries. The new york Times reports

that one is a promotional outfit called Dambe Warriors and the other is the nigeria Traditional Boxing League Association, a league of clubs.

Founded by Chidi Anyina and Anthony okeleke, Dambe Warriors use the media to re-cast the boxing for a modern audience. The outfit promotes fights through YouTube and live events, giving people across the world a chance to experience the rawness and reality of the ancient sport.

In addition to setting up a reg-ular season and drafting a com-plete set of rules, the league has designed uniforms for fighters, limited rounds to three minutes, created a system for scoring fights and included a code of conduct that will ensure specta-tors behave. They’ve also hired a doctor to monitor fights. With 10 clubs currently registered, soon we may have a full-fledged league that cuts beyond nigeria.

SoURCE: Al JAZEERA nEWS/ADDITIonAl AGEnCy REPoRT

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