Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Lawyer Samuel Mahama Appointed New ECG MD
Ghana’s presidency has appointed Lawyer Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama as the new Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The ECG is responsible for power distribution in southern Ghana.
Prior to his appointment, Samuel Mahama served as ECG Board Member.
He takes over from Mr. Kwame Agyeman-Budu who has proceeded on retirement since last Thursday.
Earlier, this portal reported that Mr. Agyeman-Budu was expected to exit ECG on Tuesday May 17, 2022.
However, sources indicate that he officialy handed over his office on Thursday earlier than expected.
The Board in a circular issued by Ms Cynthia Amartey, the Director in-charge of Human Resources at ECG, on Thursday announced the appointment of Mr Jones Ofori–Addo, as acting Managing Director pending the appointment of a substantive Managing Director.
The Presidency in a letter announcing the appointment of lawyer Samuel Mahama urged the Energy Ministry to trigger necessary modalities to facilitate Samuel Mahama’s regularisation in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) and the regulations of ECG.
Mr. Samuel Mahama previously worked as a non-executive director at GIHOC Distilleries, Country representative for Gulfsouth Forest Products, Partner at Dubik & Associates, Wilkins Engineering among others.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
President Of OPEC Heavyweight UAE Dies
The President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, died on Friday, the state news agency of OPEC’s third-largest producer reported
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan suffered a stroke back in 2014, and since then, he has rarely participated in the day-to-day affairs of the UAE.
His half-brother, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, has been the de facto ruler of the UAE for several years now.
The crown prince is expected to succeed his half-brother as ruler of Abu Dhabi.
The UAE will observe a forty-day national mourning with the flag flown at half-mast starting today, the Ministry of Presidential Affairs said, adding that work will be suspended at all ministries, departments, and federal, local and private entities for three days.
Under the constitution of the UAE, vice-president and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, would act as president until the federal council of the rulers of the seven emirates meets within 30 days to elect a new president.
The UAE is a major oil producer, OPEC’s third-biggest, and is one of the most influential members of the cartel and the wider OPEC+ alliance with some ten non-OPEC producers led by Russia.
In April, the UAE pumped 3.015 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, up by 36,000 bpd from March, according to secondary sources in OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) published on Thursday. That’s the third-highest output from OPEC behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
The UAE is also an influential voice in oil markets, as participants pay attention to what the country’s Energy Minister, Suhail al-Mazrouei, says at public events.
Most recently, al-Mazrouei said this week that the extreme volatility in the oil market these days is the result of some buyers boycotting certain crudes and is not connected with OPEC+, and is outside the alliance’s control.
Source: Oilprice.com
LUKOIL Agrees To Acquire Shell’s Downstream Assets In Russia
Russian energy giant, LUKOIL, says it has agreed with subsidiaries of Shell plc to acquire a 100 per cent share in Shell Neft, which conducts retail petroleum products sales and lubricants production in Russia.
The assets of Shell Neft include 411 retail stations, primarily located in the Central and Northwestern federal districts of Russia, and a lubricant blending plant located in the Tver Region.
In a statement, the oil firm said the sale would be completed after its approval by Federal Antimonopoly Service.
“The acquisition of Shell’s high-quality businesses in Russia fits well into LUKOIL’s strategy to develop its priority sales channels, including retail, as well as the lubricants business,” Maxim Donde, LUKOIL’s Vice President for Refined Products Sales said.
“Our priority is the well-being of our employees,” Huibert Vigevano, Shell’s Downstream Director stated.
“Under this deal, more than 350 people currently employed by Shell Neft will transfer to the new owner of this business,” he concluded.
Ghana: Do Proper Background Checks Of Persons You Want To Employ-IGP To OMCsSource: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: ECG To Spend US$1.51 Billion To Improve Power Delivery
Ghana’s southern power distribution company, ECG, intends to embark on capital intensive projects aimed to improve power reliability and quality within five years, spanning 2022 to 2027.
The company wants to expand its network, undertake project to reduce losses and improve operational efficiency (including revenue mobilisation and system reliability.
According to ECG, most of the projects would be executed in Greater Accra because it has the highest demand.
The company said this in its 2022-2026 Multi Tariff Review document presented to the utilities regulator Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for consideration.
ECG explained that the total cost of its network expansion, loss reduction and improvement in operational efficiency will be US$1.51 billion.
“Out of the total planned investment cost of US$959.85 million, the amount incorporated in this tariff proposal is USD839.09 million. This excludes the cost for electricity access projects(USD33.5m) and 10% contingency (87.26m). Electricity access projects could be funded by the government and would, therefore, not qualify to be factored in the tariff proposal,” ECG said.
“Out of the total planned investment cost of US$959.85 million, the amount incorporated in this tariff proposal is USD839.09 million. This excludes the cost for electricity access projects(USD33.5m) and 10% contingency (87.26m). Electricity access projects could be funded by the government and would, therefore, not qualify to be factored in the tariff proposal,” ECG said.
Ghana: PURC Fines ECG GHS51K For Damaging Properties Of Five Customers In SecondiSource: https://energynewsafrica.com
Russia Sanctions European Gazprom Units In Retaliation
As the European Union hits a wall with its Russian oil embargo and backtracks on some sanctions, Russia has imposed its own sanctions on EuRoPol Gaz S.A., which owns the Polish portion of the Yamal-Europe natural gas pipeline.
The 2,000+ kilometer Yamal-Europe pipeline runs from Torzhok in Russia to Frankfurt, Germany, with the Polish section accounting for over 680 kilometers and housing five compressor stations.
In an official sanctions resolution published on Wednesday, the Russian government has now blocked any transactions with Polish EuRoPol Gaz or Gaz System, the Polish gas transmission system operator, in retaliation for Polish sanctions on Gazprom, Interfax reports.
Russia has also imposed sanctions on units of Gazprom Germania, Reuters reported.
The retaliatory move comes as Poland announces it will not renew its 10 bcm Yamal natural gas contract with Gazprom, which expires at the end of this year.
It also comes as Poland’s PGNiG Upstream Norway AS announces plans to produce an extra 0.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Norway operations in 2022 to make up for Yamal contract shortfalls after Russia cut off gas to Poland over refusal to pay in rubles.
This natural gas will be delivered through the Baltic Pipe, which is scheduled to come online in October this year.
Europe is growing increasingly uneasy over natural gas supplies, with Ukraine on Wednesday halting the flow of Russian gas through its transmission system, citing disruption from Russia’s occupying forces.
Russia’s new sanctions, which include a total of 30 entities, have increased momentum as the European Union stalls over plans for a Russian oil ban.
A vote on the embargo requires unanimous support, which is so far not forthcoming, with Hungary, in particular, maintaining staunch opposition. Hungary is now holding out for a hand-out in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars, which is said will be necessary to realize a full ban on Russian oil without economic devastation.
UK Plans Eight New Nuclear Reactors To Boost ProductionSource: Oilprice.com
Nigeria: Buhari Directs Petroleum Resources Minister To Resign
Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the country’s Minister for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva to resign before or by Monday, May 16, 2022.
Chief Timipre is among a number of Ministers in Buhari’s administration who have expressed interest in contesting for political office as Governors or Presidential candidates ahead of the West African nation’s elections in 2023.
The President’s directive was issued through the country’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council meeting.
The directive was in line with Section 84(12) of Nigerian Electoral Act 2022, which states that no political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at Congress.
As at the time of filing this report, Niger Delta Affairs Minister , Obong Godswill; Mr Emeka Nwajiuba, Minister of State for Education; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu have resigned.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister Joins APC Flag-bearer Race
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, H.E Chief Timipre Sylva, has declared his intention to contest for the flag-bearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Some Nigerians particularly those from the northern part of the country, picked a nomination form for the Minister to contest for the flag-bearer of APC ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.
Responding to the call on Twitter, he said: “I am most grateful, honoured and humbled by the patriotism and commitment to our dearly beloved country, Nigeria, shown by the Nigerians from all walks of life who, today, took the trouble of obtaining the APC Presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for me.”
Chief Timipre noted in a post that he would consult widely before making a final decision.
On Tuesday, Chief Timipre Sylvia wrote: “In fulfillment of my promise to consult widely before returning to supporters with a definite answer to their calls for me to succeed my boss, I presented my nomination and expression of interest forms to the leader of the Ijaw Nation, Pa E. K. Clark for his blessings.”
In fulfillment of my promise to consult widely before returning to supporters with a definite answer to their calls for me to succeed my Boss, I presented my Nomination and Expression of Interest forms to the leader of the Ijaw Nation, Pa E. K. Clark for his blessings. pic.twitter.com/gLY1UTpAK9
— H.E. Chief Timipre Sylva (@HETimipreSylva) May 11, 2022
Source: https://energynewsafrica.comI am most grateful, honoured and humbled by the patriotism and commitment to our dearly beloved country, Nigeria shown by the Nigerians from all walks of life who today took the trouble of obtaining the APC Presidential nomination and expression of interest forms for me. pic.twitter.com/9ugyg07LCA
— H.E. Chief Timipre Sylva (@HETimipreSylva) May 9, 2022
Ghana: PURC Holds Stakeholders Consultation Meeting For 2022-2027 Tariff
Ghana’s utility regulator, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), is holding stakeholders’ consultative meetings for the Multi Tariff Review (2022-2027) in Accra.
Present are think tanks, academia and media.
The utility companies are presenting their proposals.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com Ghana: Why ECG, NEDCo Proposed 148%, 113% Increase In Distribution Service Charges
Power utility companies in the Republic of Ghana have proposed a huge jump in their distribution service charge for consideration by the country’s utility regulator Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which is responsible for power distribution in southern Ghana, has proposed 148 per cent for its Distribution Service Charge 1 and 28 per cent for Distribution Service Charge 2, while Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) is responsible for Bono and Northern Ghana has proposed 113.4 per cent for Distribution Service Charge for the year 2022.
ECG also proposed an average increase of 7.6 per cent in Distribution Service Charge (DSC) over the next four years.
Both utility service providers argued that the inadequate approved tariffs mainly the Distribution Service Charge have made it difficult for them to survive the numerous challenges including unstable macro-economic variables such as inflation and exchange rates; increase in the world market prices of distribution inputs; increased cost of operations due to rapid customer growth, high cost of power procurement etc.
“The investment plan from 2022 to 2026 and the ongoing projects have been factored in this proposal.
“This is based on the selection of committed and feasible projects to be implemented within the tariff period.
“The total cost of all three categories of investment is USD1.51 billion.
“Out of the total planned investment cost of USD959.85 million, the amount incorporated in this tariff proposal is USD839.09 million. This excludes the cost of electricity access projects (USD33.5m) and 10% contingency (87.26m),” ECG explained.
While ECG is justifying its proposed increase in Distribution Service Charges based on planned projects for network expansion, loss reduction, improvement in operational efficiency (including revenue mobilization) and system reliability for the next five years costing US1.51 billion, NEDCo, on the other hand, said its operations are very sparse with a long distribution network with a very limited number of Special Load Tariff (SLP) customers (0.01%).
According to NEDCo, the quality of customers within its jurisdiction does not provide NEDCo with the needed revenue to cover at least its fixed and direct variable costs.
It added the procurement of Capital Expenditure items for distribution network expansion, consumer connections, meters and information technology infrastructure is mostly denominated in forex.
The power distributor said the variable cost per unit in 2022 is expected to be GHp49.14 and the fixed cost per unit for the same period is also projected to be GHp18.03, totalling GHp67.17.
“To enable NEDCo recover, at least, its cost of service and fixed cost, NEDCo proposes GHp67.1650/kWh for Distribution Service Charge for the year 2022, representing 113.0% of the prevailing distribution service charge,” it said.
NEDCo planned projects for the next five years, spanning 2022 to 2027, will cost about US$183.33 million.
To be able to surmount the challenges facing NEDCo, it said various projects have been planned for future implementation when money becomes available.
Among some of the projects is the Tamale Metropolitan Area Split Smart Pre-Payment Meters project (costing US$26.131m), Procurement of Distribution Materials (costing US$1.438m), Construction of Lamashegu Primary Substation (costing US$9m), 100km conductor upgrade (US$1.287m), Streetlights Metering Project (US$25m) and the Kexim Project (US$112.6m).
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: NEDCo Proposes Scrapping Of Lifeline Tariff
The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) in the Republic of Ghana has proposed to the country’s utility regulator, PURC, to either scrap the lifeline tariff or reduce it from 50kwh to 30kwh.
Lifeline customers are households that use, on average, between zero and 50 kWh of electricity per month.
According to NEDCo, lifeline customers constitute about 46 per cent of the company’s total customer population of 1,136,050.
The lifeline customers, according to NEDCo, consume power at Ghp32.6060/kWh which is far below the total of the current approved DSC rate of GHp31.5307/kwh, TSC GHp7.9846/kwh and BGT tariff of GHp33.7957/kwh, which is GHp73.311/kwh.
This means that NEDCO is making losses of GHp 40.705/kwh for power sold to lifeline customers.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Gov’t Owes Us Gh¢1.06 Billion-NEDCo
The Government of Ghana’s indebtedness of Gh¢1,069,406,304.04 to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) is crippling the operations of the company, energynewsafrica.com can report.
Out of the figure, GH¢75,083,739.43 represents subsidies that the Government of Ghana has not been able to pay.
NEDCo has a customer population of about 1,136,050 as of the end of 2021.
This comprises 84.96 per cent of residential customers, 15.03 per cent of non-residential and 0.01 per cent of Special Load Tariff (SLT) customers.
Additionally, about 46 per cent of the total customer population (516,547) are lifeline customers who consume power at GHp32.6060/kwh which is far below the total of the current approved DSC rate of GHp31.5307/kwh, TSC GHp7.9846/kWh and BGT tariff of GHp33.7957/kwh, which is GHp73.311/kwh.
NEDCo supplies electricity to the government through state institutions including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that are connected.
While prepaid meters are being installed for customers in the private sector, those in the government sector are still on credit meters, resulting in the accumulation of the huge debt.
Sadly, the government has not been paying the MDA debts as expected.
“As of December 2021, the Government of Ghana owed NEDCo about GH¢ GH¢1,069,406,304.04 with subsidies and street lighting in bills. These debts have made it difficult for NEDCo to meet its debt obligations to suppliers of electricity,” NEDCo said in its 2022-2026 Tariff proposals submitted to Public Utilities Regulatory Commission for consideration.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: ECG Recovers Gh¢178.44 Million From Power Theft
Ghana’s southern power distribution company, ECG, discovered that about 12,416 people in the West African nation had connected power illegally and were consuming it between 2019 and 2021.
The total power consumed by the aforementioned people accounted for 157.16 Gigawatts hour of electricity.
This represents an amount of Gh¢178.44 million (equivalent of US$23,018,760) being recovered by ECG.
Out of the total number of people who were identified to be consuming power illegally, 1,047 were referred to the ECG’s legal department for prosecution to serve as a deterrent to others.
Besides the power theft, ECG said it had to deal with the theft of copper from distribution transformers, utility poles, transformer oil from energised transformers, underground cables, overhead conductors, etc.
ECG revealed these in a tariff proposal submitted to Ghana’s utility regulator, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).
“These criminal acts have several adverse consequences including the obvious economic impact, service disruptions and possible danger to ECG personnel, the public and persons involved in the theft,” ECG said.
The ECG mentioned some measures introduced to mitigate the impacts of theft on the company’s operations as working with scrap dealers and law enforcement officials, fencing, warnings signs, adequate lighting of installations, patrolling and intrusion detection for deterrence, expansion of the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to remotely monitor the loads and consumption of high consuming Non-Special Load Tariff (NSLT) for early detection of theft.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: ECG Declares Gh¢625.34 Million As Bad Debt
Ghana’s southern power distribution company, ECG, has declared Gh¢625.34 million (equivalent of US$80,668,860) as bad and doubtful debts over three years spanning 2019 to 2021.
In 2019, ECG made provision for Gh¢58.51million as bad and doubtful debt in line with the company’s policy.
The figure shot up to Gh¢276.50 million and Gh¢290.33 million in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
These figures were contained in ECG’s 2022-2026 tariff proposals submitted to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for consideration.
“This is based on the company’s policy on provision for bad and doubtful debts,” ECG said.
“Majority of these bad debt emanates from demolished structures due to road constructions, relocation of slums, removal of temporary structures, illegal transfer and removal of meters by unscrupulous customers (mostly SHEP areas),” it explained.
Touching on the measures being adopted to minimise the bad and doubtful debts, ECG said it regularly engages Districts and Municipal Assemblies to ensure that information on demolishing exercises, road constructions, etc. are communicated to ECG in good time to avoid this problem.
It, however, noted that despite bad and doubtful debts being part of the company’s policy, the board, for the past 10 years, has not approved them even though the necessary provisions were made in the budgets.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com