Over US$25 billion will be spent on Nigeria’s upstream capex to 2020

Ultra-deepwater projects will be responsible for over 28 percent of US$25.3 billion of upstream capex in Nigeria, or US$7.2 billion by 2020. The shallow water projects will account for 26 percent of upstream capex with US$6.7 billion by 2020, while deepwater and onshore projects will necessitate US$6.0 billion and US$5.5 billion respectively in capex over the period.
GlobalData expects that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will lead Nigeria in capex, investing US$5.3 billion into the country’s upstream projects by 2020. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA will follow, with US$4.7 billion and US$2.8 billion respectively.
Zabazaba-Etan Project, a planned shallow water conventional oil field, will lead capital investment with US$4.8 billion to be spent between 2018 and 2020. Nigerian Agip Exploration Ltd. is the operator for the field. Owowo West, a conventional oil field in the Niger Delta Basin, will follow next with a capex of US$1.8 billion. Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited is its operator.
GlobalData reports the average remaining capex per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) for Nigeria projects at US$6.7. Ultra-deepwater projects have the highest remaining capex/boe at US$11.20, followed by deepwater projects at US$9.7. The shallow water and onshore projects have capex/boe at US$7.0 and US$3.3 respectively.  An average capital expenditure (capex) of US$8.4 billion per year will be spent on 249 oil and gas fields in Nigeria between 2018 and 2020. Capex into Nigeria’s oil and gas projects will add up to $25.3bn over the three-year period in upstream capex by 2020, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

IPOB:Nigerian president Buhari to seek re-election in 2019

 

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed on Monday he will seek another term in elections next year, ending months of speculation about his future after bouts of ill health.
The 75-year-old said he would seek his party’s presidential ticket to contest elections in February 2019 during a closed door meeting of the national executive committee of his All Progressives Congress (APC) party.
The announcement by Buhari, a northern Muslim who became the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent at the ballot box, was widely expected although stocks on the Nigerian market fell 1.01 percent on Monday to a three-month low.
“It takes away the concern of an open race which would have fuelled uncertainty,” said a Lagos-based equity sales analyst.
Buhari took office in May 2015 after vowing to improve security and crackdown on endemic corruption, but Africa’s top oil producer fell into its first recession in 25 years in 2016, largely caused by low crude prices and militant attacks in the Niger Delta, and its recovery remains fragile.
After spending five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed ailment, opposition groups in Africa’s most populous nation and other critics said he was unfit for office and his administration was beset by inertia.
If Buhari is selected to contest the presidential election, it is not clear who he would face as the PDP, which prior to the former general’s 2015 victory had held power since Nigeria adopted civilian rule in 1999, has yet to select a candidate.
“It takes away the concern of an open race which would have fuelled uncertainty,” said a Lagos-based equity sales analyst.

“The president said he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to recontest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honour of notifying them first,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in an emailed statement.
Antony Goldman, of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said although Buhari’s party - a broad coalition of groups which largely united to oust the PDP - was riven by divisions, it was nevertheless likely that he would become the APC candidate.
“With the PDP weak and still discredited, incumbency is still a powerful factor,” said Goldman. “It would be a huge surprise if he was not the APC’s candidate and the candidate to beat in 2019,” Goldman added.
Buhari led a short-lived military regime that was overthrown in a coup in 1985. His election victory three years ago was in large part due to his military credentials and his vow to end the Islamist militant Boko Haram insurgency.
The insurgents have lost most of the territory the size of Belgium that they held in northeast Nigeria in late 2014 but continue suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings in the northeast.
Other security challenges - militant attacks in the Niger Delta oil production heartland as well as communal violence between nomadic herdsmen and settled farmers, plus a resurgence of separatist sentiments, have flared up during his tenure.

BIAFRA:IPOB threatens bloodshed over Ohanaeze’s restructuring summit

 

 BIAFRA NATION

Describing the summit as “Fulani-sponsored Igbo summit”, the Biafra agitators said such a move was unacceptable.In a statement by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group accused the President-General of Ohanaeze, Nnia Nwodo, and some Igbo leaders of sabotaging the Igbo cause by hobnobbing with Fulani oligarchy.

The group maintained that the only summit that it would support was one that would educate the people on a referendum to decide on Biafra and “not on restructuring to remain in Nigeria.’’

The statement partly read, “We, the indigenous people of Biafra,  and its leadership worldwide, once again warn Chief Nwodo of Ohanaeze Ndigbo not to dare hold the Fulani-sponsored Igbo summit in Enugu.

“IPOB warns Nnia Nwodo and his collaborators not to dare IPOB or face the consequences from the youth. We are well aware of the nocturnal meetings between Nwodo and a certain Brigadier General affiliated to the GOC of 82 Division Enugu. The same people, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South-East governors ran to and convinced to launch Operation Python Dance II are the same people Nwodo and his Ohanaeze Ndigbo are running to now for security.

“If Ohanaeze Ndigbo likes, let them surround the venue with armoured tanks and Fulani soldiers; one thing is certain, the summit will not hold unless Nwodo and his collaborators kill us all on that day.”

It vowed to go after Nwodo’s children, those of the South-East governors and other organisers of the summit should anything untoward happen to IPOB members who would come out en masse to disrupt the summit.

Asked to speak on IPOB’s threat, Nwodo said, “As a father, I would not want to enter into any crossfire with my children (IPOB members).

“They can say what they like. I’m not interested. These people are my children; I don’t want to enter into any crossfire with them. I’m their father, I can’t be replying to anything they say. I think the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze has replied them. I’m not interested.” The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra on Saturday vowed to stop the Ohanaeze Ndigbo from holding its planned summit to discuss the restructuring of Nigeria.

BIAFRA LAND:IPOB threatens mass protests over Kanu’s whereabouts

 

IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, in a statement, noted that the group would mobilise forces in the countries for the protests. The Indigenous People of Biafra, on Saturday, said it would stage fresh protests in 88 countries to compel the Federal Government to produce its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The statement read in part, “It is a known fact that IPOB is rooted in every community and town in the South-South and South-East. Our presence is felt even in remote villages where IPOB family members are preaching the gospel of restoration of Biafra.

“So, rather than diminish, our influence is growing on a daily basis. Our positive impact resonates with the people. Our presence in over 88 countries of the world is a testament to our global influence.

“Everybody has come to the realisation that our leader is the only person that can make a difference that is capable of shaking the foundations of Nigeria. The marginalised and the oppressed all miss him.   We are still conducting our meetings across the world and pursuing vigorously the liberation of the Biafran people.”

He added, “We will continue our protests until the Nigerian Army releases our leader, Nnamdi Kanu, whom they kidnapped or presumably killed during the Operation Python Dance II in his hometown on September 14, 2017.”

BIAFRA NATION:Why we have not realized Biafra – Igbo group

BIAFRA NATION

BNYL asserted that lack of coordination, indiscipline and what it termed “I don’t care attitude” among Igbos were responsible for the inability to actualise Biafra. The Biafra Nations Youth League, BNYL, has highlighted reasons hindering the actulaisation of Biafra.
The group made the remark while condemning the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, for threatening the leadership of Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
IPOB had warned the leadership of Ohaneze against holding the proposed summit on restructuring in Enugu.
The group had said it would ensure that such summit was disrupted, whether the venue is flooded with security or not.
Reacting to the threat, BNYL’s leader, Obuka Princewill warned that should IPOB carry out its threat, there would be daring consequences of internal fights within the South East.
Princewill said, “Gradually we have become laughing stock by this our everyday exchange of words, and threats here and there.”
In a statement he signed and sent to BIAFRA NATION, Princewill said, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo Summit is for the Ohanaeze; it is their organizational affair, they can hold their Summit, it is Ohanaeze affair, the question whether the Summit is in favour of restructuring of Nigeria should not be our business, they are on their own, it cannot stop the Independence of Biafra”.
Princewill noted that the “lack of central coordination in the movement, indiscipline and ‘I don’t care attitudes’, is our problems.
“When are we as Biafra agitators going to hold our own Summit to present our position to the world as to how and what we have done so far in favor of Biafra?
“The world needs to know how we intend to run Biafra government, they have not seen 70 percent togetherness in us; where is the Constitution of Biafra.
“I don’t think Ohanaeze Ndigbo has that power to stop Biafra since they don’t represent the interest of Biafra, they may only try to scuttle efforts being made, which of course is a failed mission, and they themselves will suffer more”.

NIGERIA LIFE:Strange snake swallows N36 million cash in JAMB office

Before now, JAMB candidates purchased scratch cards from JAMB state offices and other designated centers, to gain access to the Board’s website for either registration or to check their admission status but the reforms introduced by JAMB registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, recommended an end to the use of scratch cards. A mystery snake is said to have sneaked into the accounts office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital and made away with N36 million cash.     

A team of auditors was dispatched to different state offices of JAMB to take inventory of the sold and unsold scratch cards and recover whatever money that might have either been generated or mismanaged during the period of the sale of scratch cards.
On their visit to Makurdi office of JAMB, a sales clerk, Philomina Chieshe, told JAMB registrar and his team that she could not account for N36 million she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards.

In the course of interrogation, Philomena confessed that it was her housemaid that connived with another JAMB staff, Joan Asen, to “spiritually” steal the money from the vault in the accounts office.
She said: “I was one of the four sales clerks attached to JAMB office in Makurdi. My responsibility was to sell scratch cards to candidates and not involved in handling the revenues. It was the responsibility of Joan Asen and my other senior colleagues. I only remit money when am done selling the cards.  
“Few months ago, there was issue of fraud in the Makurdi office. Auditors were sent from Abuja to carefully flip the record books of the office, to perhaps, ascertain the current state of affairs.
“The state Coordinator, Obilo, was not around when the audit team came. But in the course of the audit, N36 million was discovered to have been missing from the account. An investigation was launched. In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Joan Asen, who is account staff and a lady outside JAMB have connived to steal the money.”
Philomina in her confessional statement said that Joan Asen and her accomplices confessed that they have been stealing the money “spiritually” through a mysterious snake that always sneak into the office to swallow the money from the vault.
According to her “It was a mystery to me too. I have been saving the money in the bank, but I found it difficult to account for it. So I started saving it in a vault in the office. But each time I open the vault, I will find nothing. I became worried and surprised how the millions of Naira could be disappearing from the vault. I began to interrogate everybody in the house and office, and no one could agree on what might have happened to the money. I continued to press until my housemaid confessed. She said that the money disappeared “spiritually”. She said that a “mysterious snake” sneaked into the house and swallowed the money in the vault.”

about seven Biafra activists were arrested in a Jewish synagogue in Aba during a prayer meeting.

A police source said the men were holding “illegal meeting,” an allegation which the men refuted, saying they were only praying in the synagogue before they were arrested.

Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, had while parading the suspects on Monday in Umuahia, said they were arrested with IPOB and Biafra insignia, arguing that IPOB remains an outlawed terrorist organization.

He said IPOB members had devised a new strategy to further their agitation for Biafra by joining the same religious group of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and using their synagogue as a clandestine meeting place.

Asked why police also paraded some members of Biafra Independent Movement since the organization is not proscribed, Ogbizi said if they did something contrary to the law, they would also be arrested.

He said the police would not allow any part of Abia to be used as a “breeding ground for terrorists.”

But irked by the development, Ohanaeze Youth Council has called for the immediate release of the Biafra agitators, insisting they have committed no offense to be paraded as criminals.

National President of OYC, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said the police had no moral justification to arrest peaceful agitators seeking self-determination, whereas armed herdsmen have continued in their killing spree unchecked.

Isiguzoro urged the security agencies to go after “murderous herdsmen” who are “known terrorists committing genocide across Nigeria,” instead of dissipating energy on nonviolent agitators.

He called on the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to order the immediate release of the arrested Biafra activists so as not to create “unnecessary tension” in South East again. police have arrested and subsequently paraded some Biafra activists in Aba, Abia State.

It was gathered that about seven Biafra activists were arrested in a Jewish synagogue in Aba during a prayer meeting.