Daily Watch – Kano DISCO sulks over ₦108 million vandalism hit, ExxonMobil labour dispute escalates

9th September 2016

  • Nigeria’s presidency has approved plans for external borrowing from the World Bank, China and Japan. Nigeria will take on debt from institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and Export-Import Bank of China, the presidency commented on Twitter. This will include “low-cost, long-term” loans with interest rates of 1.25 percent and maturities of 20 years, according to the tweets. Details of a Eurobond will be announced: “in due course.” The government is now waiting for lawmakers to approve the plans, the presidency said. President Muhammadu Buhari announced a record ₦6.1 trillion ($19.4 billion) spending plan this year to try and stimulate an economy which contracted in the first half of the year as oil revenue plunged. He said he expected the government to raise about $5 billion from the Eurobond market and multilateral and bilateral lenders.
  • Former employees of ExxonMobil Nigeria have asked the company’s management to pay them ₦11.4 billion in severance benefits. It is understood that at least 1,444 people were hired as service contract workers by the company and laid off in 2012 without commensurate entitlements as contained in a Collective Bargaining Agreement reportedly reached between them and the company. The CBA, dated July 1, 2010, and signed by a former Field Manager, Human Resources of MPNU and labour leaders was made available to newsmen but ExxonMobil, in a 2013 letter, denied having any direct or indirect obligation to pay terminal benefits to the disengaged workers.
  • Benue’s Attorney-General, Mike Gusa, on Thursday said an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court had ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of 12 former state officials recently arrested by EFCC and the police. Gusa listed the frozen accounts as including those of the former Benue State Commissioner of Finance, Omadachi Oklobia; former Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Solomon Wombo; former Permanent Secretary in the Bureau, Asen Sambe; the accountant of the bureau, Isaiah Ipevnor; and 12 others indicted by the Kpojime Commission of Inquiry for allegedly looting over ₦107 billion belonging to the state government. The AG said over ₦250 million has been recovered from the suspects.
  • The TCN transmitted about 3,810MW of electricity produced on September 8 by the generation companies to the nation’s 11 distribution companies, according to a statement by the Nigerian Electricity System Operator posted on its website on Thursday. According to its operational report for the day, the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry indicates that the power sector hit a peak generation of 3,810.5MW and its lowest peak generation of 2,834.40MW. The nation’s electricity generation has been stable in the last two months, with generation mostly staying above 3,000MW. A downturn in power supply in May was blamed on several attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, with power generation plunging to a new low of 1,400MW on May 17, according to the TCN. Nigeria’s power grid recorded 21 collapses in the first half of the year; 16 total and five partial collapses, the latest system partial collapse recorded on July 10, according to data from the National Control Centre.
  • The Kano Electricity Distribution Company says it has lost transformer oil, aluminium conductors, upriser cables and other assets worth ₦108.8 million to vandalism in three northern states, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa since the beginning of August. In a statement signed by the company’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Mohammed Kandi, the recent uptick in vandalism, energy theft and meter bypass in the company’s areas of operation was becoming unbearable. He called on customers, “who bear the brunt” to watch over the installations in their areas and report any suspicious actions to the appropriate security agencies.
  • Seven Energy International, an integrated gas company with upstream oil and gas interests in south-east Nigeria has taken a serious beating from the shutdowns of the Forcados and Qua Iboe terminals. The company, which stated this in its results for the six months ended June 30, said gross production under the Strategic Alliance Agreement between it and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company from Oil Mining Leases 4, 38 and 41 averaged 18,800 barrels of oil per day in the first half of this year, compared to 47,200 bpd in the same period last year. It attributed the fall in production to the shutdown of the Forcados terminal and the declaration of force majeure by Shell from mid-February, adding “Current expectations are that the force majeure will be lifted late in the third quarter of 2016.” The company said it lifted no oil from the OMLs during the first half of the year, compared to 1.8 million barrels last year. Seven Energy posted a loss after tax of $4.5 million in the first half of 2016, compared to a $53 million loss it recorded in the same period last year; the reduction in the loss was a result of a $40 million forex gain from the recent decline in the naira’s value.
  • Siemens Limited Nigeria has opened a new facility in Port Harcourt to increase local capacity in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The company said it invested about €3 million in the facility and developed it according to international specifications and standards. It said the Siemens Port Harcourt Service facility was equipped to repair and overhaul sophisticated equipment that would otherwise be sent overseas.