Saudi Arabia could cut the official selling price for oil to Asian buyers in February after raising them substantially this month.
According to a Reuters report citing industry insiders and poll data, the Kingdom could slash the prices for all its export grades by as much as $1 per barrel and more, which would push these prices to their lowest in three to four months.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia raised its official selling prices for oil to Asia by $0.60 per barrel, which brought them $3.30 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai benchmark.
The price hike suggested expectations of strong demand, which in turn implied that Saudi Arabia is not all that worried about the Omicron variant that caused a more than $10 plunge in oil prices in late November, with Brent at one point dipping below $70 per barrel.
This month, however, prices have rebounded globally, but the spot market premium for Middles Eastern and Russian grades has fallen by more than 50 percent since the start of the month, Reuters noted in its report. The drop was a result of higher OPEC+ production this month.
The price cut for February is in part a move in anticipation of lower demand from Asian buyers as refineries on the continent prepare for maintenance season in the second quarter of the year, Reuters noted.
Saudi Arabia will announce its official selling prices for oil after the January OPEC+ meeting, to take place on the 4th of the month. Asia accounts for more than half of Saudi oil exports.
Earlier this month, the Kingdom reported crude oil exports accounted for 77.6 percent of total exports in October, up from 66.1 percent a year earlier. The value of oil exports was 123 percent higher than a year ago, thanks to substantially higher crude oil prices.
Source: Oilprice.com
A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bui Power Authority, Ghana’s second-largest state power generation company, Mr Fred Oware, has been honoured by energynewsafrica.com for contributing to the growth of the only portal dedicated to Ghana and Africa’s energy sector.
Mr Oware was honoured with an artistic portrait of him designed by Infilive Talents at Official Town, a suburb of Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region.
Presenting the portrait to him at the Jubilee House, the seat of government, Michael Creg Afful, Editor of energynewsafrica.com, remarked that Mr Fred Oware has been very supportive of the growth of energynewsafrica.com in diverse ways.
He said before the launching of the portal in 2018, he opened the doors of Bui Power Authority to the team and assisted them financially to launch the portal.
“I remember when we were about launching the portal, we knocked on the doors of the Authority and through your effort, the Authority, through its corporate social responsibility, supported us. And we recall that in the video we produced for the launching, you made us understand that whatever you will do to support the growth of the website, you will do it including referring and encouraging other industry players to visit the website for news in the energy sector.
“Today, by the grace of God and through your effort and other industry players and our team, energynewsafrica.com has reached several people in Africa and beyond. As we speak, people from 155 countries visit the website for news in the energy sector,” Mr Afful narrated.
Creg Afful, who described Mr Oware as someone who is committed to the growth of the portal, said through his effort, the Authority, a few months ago, supported energynewsafrica.com to procure a professional camera to help in the video and photographic materials.
He expressed the gratitude of energynewsafrica.com to Mr Oware for his contribution towards the growth of the portal and wished him well in his new role.
On his part, Mr Fred Oware, who expressed shock by the honour, said he least expected it because he used his office to support energynewsafrica.com for them to deepen information flow in the energy sector.
Mr Oware commended energynewsafrica.com for projecting Ghana and Africa’s energy sector by letting players become aware of what is happening in the energy sector.
He wished the team well and prayed their efforts are recognised globally.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) was honoured at this year’s Corporate Ghana Awards organized by organizers of RTP Awards.
The event, which was held at Movenpick Hotel, brought together CEOs and Managing Directors of both state and private enterprises.
The Chief Executive of NPA, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, was bestowed the Dynamic CEO of the Year while the Authority received an award for the Company of the Year for petroleum downstream regulation and best Corporate Social Responsibility of the year.
In all, 43 individuals and institutions, both public and private, received recognition for their excellent performances and impacts on the social and economic development of Ghana.
African oil-producing nations have been urged to look within the continent to raise the necessary capital to continue to finance the oil and gas industry.
This was contained in a communiqué issued by the African Petroleum Producers Organisation at the end of its 41st Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers held in Algiers, Algeria.
The call is on the back of the global push for an energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources which has negatively affected investments in new exploration activities.
In October 2020, the United Nations Secretary, Antonio Guterres, at a virtual meeting of a coalition of finance ministers and economic policymakers to ensure development banks phase out fossil fuel investments, urged development to stop backing fossil fuel projects.
Rather, he said developments must rapidly scale up support for renewable energy and back projects to help those exposed to the impact of climate change.
A report published by IHS Markit predicted a reduction in capital expenditure for oil and gas projects, noting that a combined CAPEX through 2020 and 2022 was expected to total more than US20 billion.
According to APPO’s communiqué, the Ministers identified the imminent challenges that the oil and gas industry would face in Africa as international financiers withdraw funding for the industry and oil and gas research institutions in the developed countries that have always led the technological development are closing their petroleum faculties.
“They agreed that Africa needs to re-strategize as the game is fast changing. Africa shall need to look within for the expertise, technology, finance and markets for its energy resources. The Council noted that the potential exists as Africa has a huge population of 1.3 billion people. All they need is to be mobilized and empowered to be able to buy energy,’’ the communiqué said.
The Council reaffirmed its commitment to the protection of the environment, emphasizing the need to pursue technologies that would allow for the use of fossil fuels with minimum carbon footprints.
Furthermore, the Council called on the technologically advanced and financially capable countries to lend their support to African countries as they grapple with the challenges of Energy Transition.
The Council noted the need for intra-African energy infrastructures like cross-border pipelines, products depots and terminals.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria’s power transmission company (TCN) has energized its second 330kV Akangba-Ikeja West transmission line which serves as a redundant line following the recent vandalized pipeline fire which brought down five towers of its main 330kV transmission line.
The energizing of the redundant line on that axis, according to the company, is in keeping with TCN’s N-1 reliability criteria.
In a statement issued by Mrs Ndidi Mbah, General Manager, Public Affairs of TCN, it said the company’s MD/CEO, Engr. Dr Sule Abdulaziz, flew in from Abuja to inspect the site of the incident.
The statement said the second 330kV line, which tripped during the incident, was patrolled by TCN engineers and certified okay before it was energized.
The line, the MD/CEO noted, was energized about 2:38 pm Friday and now wheels 121MW to the Akangba Transmission Substation.
This, he noted, means that areas under Ikeja Disco whose supplies were affected by the pipeline fire incident would now have a normal supply of electricity.
Given the importance of transmission line redundancy, Engr. Abdulaziz said that TCN had already directed two contractors to mobilize to the site to commence the reconstruction of the towers and 330kV line.
He reiterated the need for everyone to be part of the fight against the vandalism of the nation’s assets.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), on Friday, announced that an inferno was caused by a vandalized pipeline along Isheri Olofin, off the Igbando–LASU expressway of Lagos State.
That caused massive damage to its 330kV Ikeja-West Akangba transmission line 1, burning off a large portion of the conductor.
General Manager, Public Affairs at the TCN, Mrs Ndidi Mba said in a statement issued in Abuja that the development triggered a resistant pull on the high-tension towers along the line route causing five of them to collapse.
She explained further that the incident, which is estimated to have occurred at about 00.29 in the early hours of today, burnt a wide portion of the 330kV transmission line which wheels 145MW of bulk power to the Akangba Substation.
According to her, “The transmission towers affected are the two closest to the site of the incident and three across the Lagos Canal.
“As a result of the incident, there is a major reduction of bulk power wheeled to TCN’s 330/132/33kV Akangba Transmission Substation in Lagos, however, because the substation takes supply from two different 330kV transmission lines, with the second being the redundant line, TCN will rearrange bulk electricity transmitted on that line route to the second 330kV previously carrying 59MW.
“Presently, TCN is successfully back-feeding the substations affected by the towers collapse, while the engineers are patrolling the second 330kV transmission line that tripped due to the incident, to ensure it has no-fault before it is energized. Once it is energized, supply will be restored to all the substations affected by the incident from the second 330kV transmission line, as the load carried by the burnt 330kV line will now be transferred to the second line.
“This kind of incident is a major setback to the implementation of our grid expansion and stability under our well-articulated Electricity Grid Maintenance, Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme. This is because the re-erection of five towers and restringing of the 330kV transmission line is a major project that costs a lot of money and will take a while to complete.
“TCN is by this appealing to Nigerians to desist from activities such as oil bunkering, and other destructive tendencies, as they all have very far-reaching negative effects on the nation at large. The issue of protecting our national assets is imperative. Protecting national assets is one that must be taken very seriously so that the stability of the nation’s network and the development of the nation is not compromised.”
Distributed renewable energy generation is growing steadily in the Republic of Ghana, data from Ghana’s technical electricity regulator, Energy Commission, has revealed.
From a paltry 495kWp in 2013 distributed, energy sources have grown to 30, 920 kWp in 2020.
Distributed generation is the term used when electricity is generated from sources, often renewable energy sources, near the point of use instead of centralized generation sources from power plants.
Presenting a document titled: ‘Making Distributed Energy Resources and Renewable Energy Investments Attractive: Context Of Ghana’s Regulations’, at a webinar hosted by USAID, Fredrick Ken Appiah, Head of Renewable Energy at the Energy Commission, attributed the steady growth in distributed energy to a stable socio-political-economic environment, high cost of electricity for commercial and industries, innovative business and financial model as well as the power crisis the country experienced between 2012 and 2016.
Ghana has set a target to achieve 10 per cent renewable energy penetration in the energy mix by 2030, 200MW of Renewable Energy Distributed Generation by 2030 and universal electricity access by 2025.
Discussing how to advance distributed energy resources in Ghana, Mr Appiah suggested the development of a compensation mechanism such as capacity (demand) charge for distributed generation systems that depend on distribution network for support, adoption of net metering, the introduction of a National Threshold Capacity, Change Distribution Utility’s Business Model and Financial/Technical Impact Assessment.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Appiah said nobody can stop the adoption of distributed generation power.
“We just need to be innovative and adapt to change based on our needs, not international pressure,” he noted.
He added that there is a need to support industries to reduce their cost of production by using cheap distributed energy resources.
He further stressed that Ghana takes a second look at the tariff structure.
Mr Kobina Nyanteh, from the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), enumerated some of the challenges that the RE sector faces.
He mentioned insufficient experience, absence of net metering, lack of support for projects, high commercial interest rates, limited tenor loans, high inflation and currency depreciation.
To address the challenges, Mr Kobina Nyanteh proposed increasing generation capacity through utility-scale projects, mini-grids standalone app applications for street lighting, traffic control, aviation signals, telecommunications and light electronic device.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
A fire broke out at the Baytown refinery operated by Exxon in Texas, USA on Thursday, injuring four people.
Law enforcement has called the fire a major industrial incident, the Wall Street Journal reported.
No fatalities were reported at the 561,000-bpd complex.
“ExxonMobil’s emergency response teams continue to work to extinguish the fire that occurred in a hydro desulfurization unit at our Baytown Refinery this morning around 1 a.m. Central Time,” the supermajor said in a statement emailed to the WSJ.
“We are saddened to inform that four people were injured and are receiving medical treatment. All other personnel have been accounted for.”
“Our first priority is people in the community and in our facilities. Air monitoring continues along the fence line. Available information shows no adverse impact at this time,” the company’s Baytown division said in a statement, as quoted by the WSJ.
NBC quoted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office as saying that deputies were responding to the incident and that residents were advised to avoid the area of the refinery.
However, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, there was for now no need to evacuate the area or issue a shelter-in-place order.
A manager at the Baytown refinery, Rohan Davies, said, as quoted by NBC, that all four injured people were transported from the site to hospital and all were in stable condition.
While the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the fire appeared to be the result of an explosion, Davies said that “At this time, we’re still collecting all that information,” adding: “We will conduct a full and thorough investigation.”
A CBS affiliate station reported that the fire had erupted in the part of the refinery that produces gasoline but the rest of the complex was operating. According to the WSJ report, the fire had broken out at the petrochemical part of the complex, which produces plastics.
Source: Oilprice.com
Some 19 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in the Republic of Ghana have been suspended pending revocation of their operational licence by 31st December 2021, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has revealed.
The petroleum downstream regulator has vowed to crack the whip to ensure that only OMCs which have the capacity and meet the required seven service stations are the ones operating in the country.
Ghana has about 229 registered Oil Marketing Companies with over 2900 fuel retail outlets across the country.
This figure is seen by some industry watchers as huge considering the country’s population and land size.
Speaking to a section of the Ghanaian media last Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer of NPA, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said his outfit would not tolerate OMCs that are holding licences but are not doing anything.
Touching briefly on the letters issued to the 19 OMCs, Dr Abdul-Hamid said he asked them to demonstrate the capacity to hold their licence by 31 December 2021.
He said the Authority would revoke the licence if they failed to demonstrate the capacity to hold the licence.
Since 2018, NPA has revoked the licence of nine Bulk Distribution Companies (BDC), one OMC licence, one bunkering company licence, one lube blending company licence and one tank cleaning licence.
The Management of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) Plc in the Republic of Nigeria has assured its customers across the network of its unrelenting commitment to ensuring hitch-free services during the Christmas holidays.
While wishing all its customers and Nigerians a merry Christmas and a happy New Year in advance on behalf of the company, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Engr. John Ayodele explained that the company has mapped out effective strategies to ensure that all their customers enjoy uninterrupted services during the celebrations and beyond as much as is within the control of IBEDC.
He stated that measures have been put in place to ensure network stability and smooth operations during the Christmas holidays.
“Our technical crew will work throughout to rectify electrical faults so that customers can enjoy the holidays,” he said.
Engr. Ayodele, who urged all Nigerians to demonstrate the virtue of love which symbolizes Christmas, also appealed to consumers to ensure prompt payment of their electricity bills and adequate vending to avoid disconnection or disruption of service during the holidays.
He urged customers to take advantage of the Hassle-free payment platforms- Fetswallet, Mcash, transact, Watu, Payarena, Jumia and ibedc.com to pay their electricity bills promptly and vend to enjoy uninterrupted power supply.“Our offices are also open during the holiday from 9 am-3 pm to attend to customers for enquiries, complaints, bill payments and vending. Customers can reach us via our Customer care line 07001239999 or email us at [email protected],” he added
While wishing all Nigerians a memorable celebration, Engr. Ayodele admonished them to be safety conscious.
“I plead with us to observe and adhere to all the COVID-19 safety protocols of hand washing, use of face masks and physical distancing as recommended by Nigerian Centre Disease Control (NCDC).”
He advised that it is also important that other safety precautions such as proper supervision of children to prevent electrical accidents, not cooking or trading under a high-tension wire and not engaging quacks to fix faults are strictly observed.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in Tema Region in the Republic of Ghana has assured customers of uninterrupted power supply during this yuletide.
This was expressed by the General Manager, Ing. Emmanuel Akinie during a brief discussion with some journalists in his office.
He explained that his outfit has suspended all planned maintenance exercises because of the Christmas festivities.
Despite the assurance, he said other issues as faults could trigger outages but said, “We must restore supply to customers once we get to know about them.
“We urge customers to please let us know as soon as they have an outage because the region’s technical faults teams will be readily available for faults interventions despite the holidays.”
The Tema General Manager also emphasised that power outages may be a result of instances where some unscrupulous people vandalise transformers and steal fuses.
He said in such situations, “Our feeders or transmission lines will be supplying power all right but because of the damages, the customer-end will be without power supply.”
On this, he called on their customers and the general public to be on the lookout and stop anyone whom they find working on an ECG installation but is unable to produce an authorised ID card to support their activities.
The Tema Region ECG has had issues relating to transformer vandalism and fuse theft which has become so rampant that, in October 2021 alone, the Tema South District lost 192 fuses.
On the transformers, Ing. Akinie said that “the loss of transformers cause inconvenience to both customers and the company. Customers do not get supplies as they should and the company has to spend resources earmarked for other activities to procure and replace transformers.”
Ing. Emmanuel Akinie, on behalf of Management and staff of the Region, wished all their customers of ECG Merry Christmas.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Angolan Minister for Petroleum Resources, H.E. Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, has been appointed as President of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO).
He was unanimously elected by the Council of Ministers during the 41st Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers held in Algeria recently.
The Council also elected H.E. Samoa Seidou Adam, Minister for Water and Mines of Benin, as Vice President for the year 2022.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers approved Mr Celestin Enanto, Executive Board Member for Benin, and Mr Jean Jacques Koum, Executive Board Member for Cameroon, respectively as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board for the year 2022.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
A member of the Public Relations and External Affairs Department of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Deborah Bonney, has graduated from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) with a Masters Degree in International Relations and Diplomacy.
Mrs Bonney, who has worked with the PURC for the past ten years and is also an Accredited Member of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana, was awarded the ‘Lord Mawuko-Yevugah Distinguished Leadership Award in International Relations and Public Diplomacy’ for distinguishing herself as a Public Relations Professional with high innovative leadership skills at GIMPA’s 21st graduation ceremony that happened at the weekend.
Mrs Bonney received the award alongside Frank Annoh Dompreh, MP for Nsawam Adoargyiri and the Majority Chief Whip of the governing NPP, and Eunice Tony of eTV Ghana.
She was the course representative for the 2019-2021 class.
The award was in recognition of her excellent skills in International Relations and Leadership exhibited within the public space with high innovative leadership skills as a Public Relations Professional.
Commenting on the award, Mrs Deborah Bonney dedicated the award to her family and the entire class for supporting her in every way.
Eunice Tonyi (Left) and Mrs Deborah Bonney (Right)
The Republic of Benin, Niger Republic and Togo have failed to pay for electricity supplied to them by Nigeria in the second quarter of 2021, a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has revealed.
The NERC, in its Second Quarter Report 2021, stated that the power firms of the three nations and some other special customers were issued a total bill of N770m by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company and the Market Operator of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
It, however, noted that nothing was paid by the neighbouring countries and other special customers for the power supplied to them from Nigeria during the period.
The neighbouring countries’ power firms include Societe Nigerienne electricity – NIGELEC, in the Niger Republic; Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique–SBEE, in the Benin Republic; and Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo– CEET, in the Togo Republic.
“During the quarter under review, NBET and MO issued a total of N0.77 billion in respect of energy sold by NBET and services rendered by MO to the special (Ajaokuta Steel Co. Ltd and other bilateral customers) and international customers (Societe Nigerienne electricity–NIGELEC, Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique–SBEE and Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo– CEET).
“No payment was made by these customers during the quarter under review. It is hoped that as the economy of these customers improves post-COVID-19 lockdown so that they will resume the settlement of their bills in full,’’ the Report said as carried by Punch.
Regarding the performance of distribution companies in Nigeria concerning the payment of electricity sold to them by the NBET, the power sector regulator stated that the firms did not pay up all their bills.
“During the second quarter of 2021, a total invoice of N259.7bn was issued to the eleven Discos for energy received from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and for service charge by MO, out of which a sum of N130.11bn was settled, representing remittance performance of 50.11 per cent.
“This represents a 1.78 percentage point decrease from the final settlement rate recorded in the first quarter of 2021.”
The NERC stated that apart from Eko Disco, none of the other Discos met their expected minimum remittance thresholds to NBET in the quarter under review.
It stated that overall, the total Disco remittance to NBET was 76 per cent of the expected total for the quarter, as the average aggregate remittance performances to MO and NBET decreased by 1.78 percentage points from 51.88 per cent in the first quarter 2021 to 50.1 per cent in the second quarter.
“Discos remittance performance level ranged from 10.51 per cent (Yola) to 63.69 per cent (Eko) for NBET and 28.76 per cent (Yola) to 99.88 per cent (Eko) for MO,” the NERC stated.
It added, “Ikeja recorded zero remittance to MO in May and June 2021 as they wait to resolve Service Level Agreement dispute.”
On commercial performance, the report stated that the total billing to and collection from electricity consumers by all the 11 Discos stood at N268.97 billion and N185.29 billion respectively during the quarter under review, implying a collection efficiency of 68.89 per cent.
It said the level of collection efficiency indicated that as much as N3.11 out of every N10 worth of energy sold during the second quarter of 2021 remained uncollected from consumers.
“Thus, only a marginal improvement in the collection efficiency is noticeable over the 68.55 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2021,” the NERC stated.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Appiah said nobody can stop the adoption of distributed generation power.
“We just need to be innovative and adapt to change based on our needs, not international pressure,” he noted.
He added that there is a need to support industries to reduce their cost of production by using cheap distributed energy resources.
He further stressed that Ghana takes a second look at the tariff structure.
Mr Kobina Nyanteh, from the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), enumerated some of the challenges that the RE sector faces.
He mentioned insufficient experience, absence of net metering, lack of support for projects, high commercial interest rates, limited tenor loans, high inflation and currency depreciation.
To address the challenges, Mr Kobina Nyanteh proposed increasing generation capacity through utility-scale projects, mini-grids standalone app applications for street lighting, traffic control, aviation signals, telecommunications and light electronic device.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com 
