Fuel prices at the local market in the Republic of Ghana are expected to witness a marginal increment of about 25 pesewas in the first pricing window in February 2022, energy think tank, Institute of Energy Security (IES) has projected.
The Institute pointed out that the projected increment in fuel prices is a result of an 8.52 per cent increase in the price of international benchmark Brent crude, as well as a marginal depreciation of the cedi to the US dollar during the last two weeks.
IES indicated that “Over the next two weeks, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) foresees the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), diesel and petrol recording yet another jump at the pump, despite a suspension of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL).”
It further added that “The pending increases come on the back of an 8.52 per cent increase in the price of Brent crude, a 5.5 per cent rise in LPG price, a 6.23 per cent increase in the price of gasoline, and 9.86 per cent jump in gasoline price; all on the international oil and fuel markets.”
According to the Institute, “Further depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar on the foreign exchange (forex) market adds on to the factors that will push up the prices of the commodities on the local market.”
The Institute pointed out that “the impending price increases could see all the major Oil Marketing Companies crossing the GH¢7 per litre mark for gasoil and gasoline, moving the price increases for both products over the past six months beyond the 16 percentage mark recorded at the end of January 2022.”
Crude oil prices have been soaring since the beginning of 2022.
As of midday Monday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at US$87.36 per barrel while Brent traded at US$91.12 per barrel
On the local market, leading Oil Marketing Company, GOIL, is selling both Super XP and Diesel XP at GH¢6.85 per litre while Total and Shell are selling at GH¢7.05 and GH¢6.99 per litre for super and diesel and GH¢6.95 respectively.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has led a delegation from the Authority to visit the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) of Kenya.
The visit is to strengthen NPA’s relationship with peer regulators on the African continent and share experiences for the mutual benefit of citizens.
Dr Abdul-Hamid, together with some NPA Board and Management members, as part of the visit, met Mr Daniel Kiptoo, EPRA Director-General, and his team in Nairobi, capital of Kenya.
The two entities discussed petroleum price deregulation policy, LPG distribution, planning of petroleum product importation, exportation, fuel adulteration and modern enforcement methods.
Dr Abdul-Hamid (Left), CEO of NPA and Daniel Kiptoo, EPRA Director-General (Right)
EPRA regulates the entire energy sector and has oversight responsibilities over both the petroleum upstream and downstream sectors, as well as electricity and other energy generation sources in Kenya, including renewable energy.
Neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo also import petroleum products through Kenya’s pipeline system.
Kenya operates an efficient network of petroleum product pipelines connecting its port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi and other counties in the country.
A new and modern oil jetty with the capacity to accommodate up to four vessels at a go is 95 per cent completed and ready to be commissioned in March in Mombasa. It is expected to handle 20 times more vessels than the current one.
As part of the experiential study visit, the delegation visited key petroleum facilities and institutions.
The NPA delegation met industry groups including the oil marketers who are the main importers and traders of petroleum products in the country.
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Kenyan Ministry of Interior has announced plans by the government to provide 24-hour security for all electricity infrastructure and installations in the East African nation.
The move follows recent vandalism of electrical installations and collapsing of some transmission towers which plunged the country into a nationwide blackout.
Three top management executives of Kenya Power are currently facing prosecution for their alleged involvement in the nationwide blackout on January 11, 2022.
Speaking during a security meeting on the energy sector attended by Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma, Regional and County Commissioners, County Police Commanders, County Senior Energy sector managers, Dr Fred Okengo Matiang’i, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Interior, said Kenya Power, Energy Mink, KenGen Kenya and KETRACO1 and other energy providers projects would be placed under 24-hr protection in a partnership that would also clear power lines way leaves as a safety measure.
He said County Commissioners and national government administrative officers leadership would coordinate the protection of critical energy sector installations from vandals and saboteurs within their jurisdictions.
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Meanwhile, Kenya Power & Lighting Company Plc has welcomed the decision by the government to secure the national electricity infrastructure to curb rising cases of vandalism.
Dr. @FredMatiangi who chairs the Cabinet sub-committee on Energy also directed the officers to robustly enforce H.E. President directive on the moratorium on scrap metal trade. pic.twitter.com/CUW5KEc10K
Nigeria’s Minister for Power, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu has inaugurated a Ministerial Power Sector Working Group (MPSWG), as a top management tool to coordinate, monitor and evaluate activities in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
The Minister, who chairs the group, stated that the ministry and top institutional stakeholders’ meeting is to support one another to achieve a common goal in the sector, which is to give Nigerians a stable and affordable power supply.
Members of the MPSWG include the five directors from the Technical Departments of the Ministry-Transmission Services, Distribution Services, Renewable and Rural Access, Energy Services and Investment Sector, and top institutional stakeholders, comprising all the Chief Executives of the agencies under the Ministry, with the secretariat headed by Dr Mahmud Suleiman.
According to a media report, Dr Aliyu said his administration in the power sector is working towards actualizing the mandate to make sure everyone is up and doing and working hard to solve problems of epileptic electricity supply.
He further stated that the Ministerial Working Group is expected to meet two times in a month to strategize and discuss ways forward on how to carry out the activities and programme of the Ministry, and relating to stakeholders and the public(s).
The Minister also charged the Ministerial Working Group to work assiduously in order to achieve reliable and stable electricity, more than any other country.
The Ag. MD/CEO TCN, Engr. Dr. Sule Abdulaziz receives Honorary Doctorate Degree (Honoris Causa) from the LVIV University for Business and Law, Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/T3zwmXA14o
The three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has succeeded in stemming products losses at the refinery barely eight months after it was put in place.
For more than three months, the refinery has not witnessed product losses as was the case in the past.
The ICM was constituted by the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and took over the reins of the refinery after the dismissal of the then Managing Director, Francis Boateng, and his deputy, Ato Morrison.
In October last year, Ghanaians were shocked when energynewsafrica.com reported that 14 top management executives of the refinery were interdicted over their alleged involvement in various thefts at the refinery.
The ICM, in a statement issued later, said its investigation uncovered the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables valued at Ghc10.4million the disappearance of LPG belonging to a client between 2012 and 2015 as a result of which TOR became indebted to the client to the tune of US$4.8 million.
Also, the ICM revealed the disappearance of 105,927 litres of gas oil on September 4, 2021.
In addition, there was a wrongful loading of 252,000 litres of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) instead of regular kerosene into BRV trucks at the loading gantry between September 21 and September 25, 2021.
In a chat with the Chairman of the IMC, Ing Norbert Anku, he alluded that they have been able to put control measures in place, saying this has helped to stem product losses.
“We have not witnessed product losses for the past few months,” he said.
He said, going forward, they intend to enhance the security of products by installing flow meters at the loading gantry, construct a new laboratory, refurbish the gantry and installing a Close Circuit Television (CCTV) at the refinery.
He believed when these things are done, they would go a long way to guarantee product security at the refinery https://www.purc.com.gh/.
Meanwhile, at a meeting with executives of the TOR workers union, the Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh expressed the government’s commitment to revamping TOR.
“We remain committed to finding the critical development partnership for the company.
“TOR’s viability would impact positively on the Ghanaian economy and as sector Minister, my continuous engagements are directed towards this cause. I am confident that our efforts will yield the needed results and my doors remain open to the company until it finds a sound footing,” he said.
Rallying oil and gas prices and the economic rebound in 2021 helped Chevron to book last year a record-high free cash flow and its best annual earnings since 2014.
Chevron reported on Friday full-year 2021 earnings of $15.6 billion, compared with a loss of $5.5 billion in 2020. The U.S. supermajor also booked strong cash flow from operations of $29.2 billion and record free cash flow of $21.1 billion last year.
Chevron’s net oil-equivalent production grew in 2021 to a record 3.10 million barrels per day (bpd).
The company also added 1.3 billion barrels of net oil-equivalent proved reserves in 2021, with the largest net additions in reserves coming from assets in the Permian Basin, the Gulf of Mexico, and Australia.
Chevron’s U.S. upstream operations booked earnings of $7.319 billion for 2021, compared to a loss of $1.6 billion for 2020. The international upstream business earned $8.499 billion last year, compared to a loss of $825 million in 2020. Downstream operations also yielded earnings in 2021, with the U.S. downstream business earning $2.389 billion versus a loss of $571 million in 2020.
“We’re more capital and cost efficient, enabling us to return more cash to shareholders,” Mike Wirth, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
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Earlier this week, Chevron raised its quarterly dividend by around 6 percent, putting it on track to make 2022 the 35th consecutive year with an increase in annual dividend payout per share.
Chevron’s stock rallied on Thursday to an all-time high of $136, but fell by 4 percent pre-market on Friday following the results release, which showed fourth quarter 2021 earnings below analyst estimates.
For the fourth quarter, Chevron booked adjusted earnings of $4.9 billion, or $2.56 per share, significantly higher than the adjusted earnings of $298 million, or $0.16 per share, for the fourth quarter 2020.
Still, the Q4 2021 earnings per share fell well short of analyst expectations. The analyst consensus of the Wall Street Journal expected Chevron to post $3.12 per share earnings.
Source:Oilprice.com
A Commercial High Court in Accra, capital of Ghana, has ordered ENI Ghana Limited and its partner, Vitol Upstream Ghana Limited, the operator of the Sankofa Oil Field, to immediately pay 30 per cent of revenue realised from the sale of crude oil from the aforementioned field to the court registrar.
The court presided over by Justice Mariama Sammo, gave the directive last Monday, January 24, 2022.
This followed an application by Springfield Exploration and Production Limited, Operators of West Cape Three Points (WCTP) Block 2, for the court’s clear interpretation of its ruling last year.
Eni and its partner are supposed to US$40 monthly effective June 2021 until the court determined a substantive matter between them and Springfield E&P, a wholly-owned Ghanaian upstream player.
Upon receipt of the payment, the registrar would then pay the same into an escrow account and furnish the court and the parties with payment records.
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Springfield’s application was precipitated by ENI and Vitol’s failure to comply with the ruling of June 25, 2021.
On June 25, 2021, the court ruled in favour of SEP’s application to freeze revenues from Eni and Vitol from the sale of crude oil from the Sankofa field, pending determination of their substantive case filed in July 2020.
The companies have been in dispute since an April 2020 directive was issued by the Energy Ministry to unitise the Afina and Sankofa fields to ensure optimal recovery of the resources in the common reservoir in the interest of all the parties involved, including the state.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
A report reaching energynewsafrica.com indicates that a gas tanker has caught fire on a section of the George Walker Bush Highway, popularly known as the N1 Highway in Accra.
The incident, which occurred at Awoshie, around the Victory Bible Church Junction on the N1, resulted in pandemonium as many cars were seen trying to flee while occupants of cars abandoned their vehicles in the middle of the road.
An eyewitness, Ernest Ofori, confirming the incident on Atinka FM a while ago, said the situation has resulted in huge vehicular traffic.
At the time of his report, there was no fire service on the scene.
Three top managers of Kenya’s power utility company, Kenya Power, are facing prosecution for their alleged involvement in the nationwide blackout on January 11, 2022.
The three top brass are Raphael Ndolo, Network Manager; David Kamau, Transmission Manager, and Julius Karani, Transmission Engineer.
They have been arraigned before the Kahawa Law Courts.
The three were among nine top managers of Kenya Power who were put before the court on Wednesday 19th January 2022 for willfully sabotaging the power utility company.
The court, however, discharged six of them because the prosecuting team failed to provide reasonable evidence.
At the court sitting on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, the Kahawa Law Courts Chief Magistrate, Diana Mochache found that the three had questions to answer in the January 11 blackout.
The three were, consequently, released on Sh1 million cash bail or Sh2 million bond each.
The three are accused of willfully and unlawfully, with intent to sabotage, failing to maintain and reinforce the Dandora-Embakasi high voltage power lines, leading to the collapse of Towers Numbers 11, 12, 13 and 14 at Imara Daima in Embakasi South Sub-County, Nairobi County.
The said negligence happened between November 29, 2021, and January 11, 2022, culminating in a power crisis that saw many parts of the country including Nairobi, Central Kenya, Nyanza, Western Kenya, sections of Rift Valley and Coast plunged into the daytime outage.
A Presidential task force constituted by The Gambian to investigate the cause of what the authorities describe as a painful nationwide gasoline shortage in October 2021 has uncovered massive rot at the country’s strategic fuel company, GAM Petroleum fuel depot.
The task force, which had representatives from State Intelligence Service (SIS); the Permanent Secretaries of Trade and Ministry of Petroleum (MOPE); Director-General of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA); Managing Directors of The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA), Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC), The Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and chaired by Trade & Employment Minister, Seedy Keita, established that four out of the five gasoline tanks at the GAM Petroleum depot in Mandinary were empty.
A statement issued by the task force and sighted by energynewsafrica.com noted that the fifth tank contained only 50,000 litres, consisting of a mixture of gas oil and water.
“The stock of petrol as of 1st November 2021 was 910 metric tonnes and that of JET fuel was 4,209 metric tonnes,” it said.
The task force went further to reveal that stocks entrusted to the national depot by International Traders (Addax, Trafigura and PSTV) and local Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) were equally missing.
The total volume of products missing was 10,753 metric tonnes of petrol and 20,245 metric tonnes of gas oil with a cumulative value of approximately USD20, 968,100.
The task force found that the missing stocks were issued without any legitimate authorization and the value of the unaccounted stock at pump price (including duties and taxes) was USD31, 265,972. The projected tax and duties throughput attached to these stock values is approximately USD10,297,872, which needed to be ascertained if paid or not.
The investigations revealed that the management of GAM Petroleum illegally allowed some OMCs to take fuel without proper authorization.
Moreover, the task force also discovered weak oversight of the depot operations and poor compliance with the regulatory framework of the Petroleum Products Act of 2016.
Equally, the Board of GAM Petroleum (GP) was weak and lax in checking management’s blatant excesses.
In a crass disregard for supervisory instructions, the management of GAM Petroleum provided fraudulent, dodgy and misleading information and was equally not forthcoming with reliable facts during the review by the Presidential task force.
Consequently, the task force recommends that PURA’s Management strengthen its regulatory oversight functions over GP and ensure that the National Strategic Reserve mechanism as stipulated in Section 25 of the Petroleum Products Act, 2016, be fully enforced.
In addition to PURA, the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Weights and Measures Department of the Trade Ministry should deploy staff at the depot until the situation is adequately normalized.
The restructuring of GAM Petroleum should include the constitution of a new Board of Directors, immediate appointment of interim management, rustication of the current management with subsequent legal processing for wrongdoings, formation of an Audit Committee, implementation of appropriate modern software for stock management and prosecution of all persons and entities, directly and indirectly, responsible for the stock theft and national gasoline shortage. Lost stock must be legally recovered.
Crucially, The Presidential task force recommends that the current practice of elevating the Second Layer of Management to oversee the operations of Gam Petroleum and the Depot be immediately halted as it is inconsistent with standards of best practice and a recipe for unabated malpractice and or corporate fraud.
Further, the National Audit Office (NAO) should review the audit reports by PKF to ascertain the position of GP at the time of the takeover from Euro Africa Group. This NAO exercise should be followed by a forensic audit of GAM Petroleum by an independent firm to determine the full extent of the losses including any taxes that may be due to the State.
Accordingly, H.E. President Adama Barrow strongly assured Gambians and partners of his government’s unwavering commitment to rooting out corruption and ensuring that fair and transparent business practices are upheld with equal opportunities for all in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, NPA, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has led a delegation to visit Kenya Pipeline Company.
The visit was for the NPA team to familiarise themselves with the operations of Kenya Pipeline Company.
In a post on KPC Facebook and sighted by energynewsafrica.com, it said Stella Nyayiemi, Gas Officer at Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, addressed the team during the familiarization tour of KPC installations in Mombasa by the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana.
Security personnel in Ashanti Region are on a manhunt for a fuel tanker driver and tricycle riders whose illegal activity caused an explosion at Kaase, a suburb of Kumasi, last Friday.
Energynewsafrica.com reported last Friday that a fuel tanker caught fire and exploded at Kaase in the Ashanti Region in the Republic of Ghana.
A statement by the police in the Ashanti Region said preliminary investigation established that the driver of the DAF tanker with registration number AS 2531-19 was discharging fuel to some tricycle riders and in the process caught fire.
The fire caused the tanker to explode, burning about 40 wooden structures.
The statement said no fatalities were recorded.
According to the police, the truck driver and riders escaped from the scene and have run into hiding.
The police said they are doing everything possible to effect their arrest.
“We would like to urge everyone to desist from engaging in activities that have the potential to put the lives of the general public at risk,” the police advised.
Some of the largest U.S. companies, including the biggest oil lobby, called on the Biden Administration and Congress this week to tread carefully with potential new sanctions against Russia that could hit American firms and their competitiveness.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said “I have made it clear to — early on to President Putin that if he were to move into Ukraine, that there’d be severe consequences, including significant economic sanctions, as well as I’d feel obliged to beef up our presence — NATO’s presence in — on the eastern front: Poland, Romania, et cetera.”
President Biden was talking to reporters on one of the hottest geopolitical topics these days—the threat of Russia invading Ukraine.
The standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine continues amid the Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine. Amid the continued threat of possible Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Biden Administration is seeking to reassure Europe about its natural gas supply at a time of record-high gas and power prices amid low gas inventories and lower-than-normal supply from Russia.
Still, trade groups and the American Petroleum Institute (API) told Reuters this week that the Administration should carefully pick its fights in a possible new round of sanctions to limit the impact on U.S. companies.
The Administration and Congress need to “get the details right in case they must follow through on the threat of sanctions,” Jake Colvin, president of The National Foreign Trade Council, told Reuters.
API, via a spokesperson, also told Reuters that “Sanctions should be as targeted as possible in order to limit potential harm to the competitiveness of U.S. companies,” an API spokesperson said.”
In a previous round of sanctions against Russia, U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil had to pull out of a project in the Arctic in Russia.
Following the U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia over the annexation of Crimea back in 2014, Exxon shelved its plans to take part in the exploration and exploitation of Russia’s Arctic shelf. Exxon was estimated to have lost more than $1 billion from the sanctions.
Source: Oilprice.com
West Africa-focused Tullow Oil expects its 2021 free cashflow to come in higher than previously forecast at $250 million and expects this year’s cash flow to come in at $100 million at an oil price of $75 a barrel, it said on Wednesday.
Tullow, with a market capitalisation of around $1 billion as of Tuesday, is focusing on reducing its $2.1 billion debt pile and has hedged 50%-75% of its output of around 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day between $51 and $78 a barrel to 2024.
The hedging cost is between $1.6 and $2 per barrel, it said.
Benchmark crude oil futures are trading near $90 a barrel, with much of last year’s third quarter above $80. Tullow had said in November it saw its 2021 free cashflow at $100 million.
“(2021) free cash flow is expected to be c.$250 million, ahead of guidance, driven by continued focus on costs, supportive oil prices in the latter parts of 2021 and favourable working capital movements,” Tullow said in a trading statement.
Lower free cashflow in 2022 would include a $75 million payment from divesting its Uganda assets, but also higher decommissioning spending and investments of $350 million, most of which is going to its flagship fields offshore Ghana.
It is due to report full-year results on March 9.
Tullow is seeking new investors for its yet to be developed projects in Guyana and Kenya, having submitted a revamped $3.4 billion development plan for some of its onshore Kenyan oilfields last month, it said.
There is no guidance yet on the timing or size of partial divestments from those projects, Chief Executive Rahul Dhir said.
Source: Reuters
