Daily Watch – Dangote reaches deal with Chevron, NNPC takes over OML 11
15th March 2019
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the NNPC to take over the entire operatorship of the OML 11 from SPDC, Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. The directive was given in a letter to the GMD of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru dated 1 March and signed by the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari. It states that the state oil company should take over the OML11 no later than 30 April, 2019, and ensure a smooth re-entry given the delicate situation in Ogoniland. It also directed that NNPC and the NPDC to confirm the ownership change by 2 May 2019. The letter was received on 5 March by the NPDC, the flagship oil exploration and production subsidiary of the NNPC and the liaison office of the firm. OML 11 lies in the southeastern Niger Delta and contains 33 oil and gas fields of which eight were producing as at 2017, the latest year for which figures are available.
Figures from the CBN have shown that the total non-oil export earnings received through the banks in Q4 2018 amounted to $1.16 billion. The earnings represent a 1.5 percent and 85.9 percent increase above the levels in the Q3 2018 and the corresponding Q4 2017 respectively. The development, the regulator said, was due, mainly, to the respective increases of 39.1 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.5 percent in earnings from foods products, industrial, and minerals sub-sectors. Breakdown of the earnings into various sectors showed that the proceeds were from minerals, $657.80 million; manufactured products, $195.65 million; agricultural sector, $164.74 million; industrial sector, $109.51 million; and food products, $36.43 million. The percentage shares of minerals, manufactured products, agricultural products, industrial sector and food products in the total non-oil export proceeds were 56.5 percent, 16.8 percent, 14.2 percent, 9.4 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. Similarly, the all-items composite CPI, at the end of December 2018, according to the regulator’s consumer prices report, was 274.6 (November 2009=100), indicating a 2.3 percent and 11.4 percent increase over the levels in the Q3 2018 and the corresponding period of 2017, respectively. This was as a result of the increase in both food and non-food categories.
Chevron Nigeria, operator of the CNL and the NNPC joint venture has signed a Gas Sale and Aggregation Agreement with Dangote Fertiliser and Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria as the ‘aggregator’. The agreement executed on behalf of the three companies by Jeffrey Ewing for CNL; Morgan Okwoche for GACN, and Devakumar Edwin for Dangote respectively, commits NNPC and CNL to supply 70mmScf/d of natural gas to Dangote Fertiliser to enable the startup and operation of the newly- built fertiliser plant. The Dangote Fertiliser Plant at Ibeju Lekki, Lagos, is a flagship mega fertiliser project designed to support the FG’s drive to develop the agricultural sector and in-turn improve the Nigerian economy.
The Ministry of Water Resources, says the FG has completed the concession process required for the handing over of the ₦6.68 billion Gurara Hydropower Plant to a concessionaire. The 30MW power plant project located in Kaduna is expected to enhance power supply in the northwestern part of the country. The government, according to the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, would not concede the entire dams in the arrangement as the concession only involves the hydropower component of the dams while the FG still own the dam. Adamu noted that the transmission lines to evacuate power from the hydropower plant were not yet ready, moreover it is not within the purview of the ministry, but a responsibility undertaken by the TCN. The ministry plans to integrate the 30MW power plant into the Gurara dam works, which is expected to produce 115 gigawatts-hour of energy annually, representing a 44 per cent annual capacity factor, according to the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.