Warring factions in Libya signed a countrywide ceasefire on Friday brokered by the United Nations. The ceasefire is poised to lead to more Libyan oil supply to the market at a time when demand is weak, and OPEC+ prepares to ease production cuts as of January.
The UN-led mediation by the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, representing the UN-recognized Government in Tripoli and the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) of General Khalifa Haftar, agreed to a ceasefire, which UN Acting Special Representative, Stephanie Williams, said could help secure “a better, safer, and more peaceful future for all the Libyan people.”
According to Williams, all foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya should leave the country within three months. In addition, there were “good indications that the oil installations of Ras Lanuf and Es Sider will be ready to resume production in the near future, in a very short period of time,” Williams said at a news conference, as carried by Reuters.
Haftar, whose troops, with help from affiliated groups, had blockaded Libya’s oil ports in January, announced the end of the blockade on September 18.
Since then, NOC has gradually lifted force majeure on some of the oil terminals and oilfields, and Libya’s crude oil production has increased over the past month from below 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) during the blockade to as much as 500,000 bpd last week.
Earlier this month, NOC announced that it had lifted the force majeure on the largest Libyan oilfield, Sharara, which has the capacity to produce more than 300,000 bpd. As of last week, Sharara was pumping around 100,000 bpd and has further increased output to some 150,000 bpd early this week, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
The return of Libyan oil to the market has weighed on oil prices in recent weeks, and even the OPEC+ group is closely monitoring the supply increase from the country. Libya is exempted from the production cuts and could derail the alliance’s efforts to prop up oil prices and the plans to have the ongoing cuts eased by another 2 million bpd as of January.
Source: oilprice.com
The Board of India Oil Corporation (IOC) in its upcoming meeting on October 30 will consider the proposal to borrow up to Rs 20,000 crore (an equivalent of US$270.88) during the ongoing financial year through private placement of bonds and debentures.
The borrowing would be carried out in one or more tranches, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
“The Board at its aforesaid meeting would consider the proposal for delegation of authority for borrowings including borrowings up to Rs 20,000 crore during a financial year through private placement of bonds/debentures in one or more tranches, from time to time, within the overall borrowing limit of Rs 165,000 crore approved by shareholders at the last Annual General Meeting,” it said.
Shares of the oil marketing major traded on a positive noted on Thursday. Around 12.45 p.m. they were at Rs 76.70, higher by 0.85 per cent from their close.
United States President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden locked up horns in the final presidential debate over completely different visions on the future of the country’s fossil fuels industry.
Offshoereenergytoday.com, which monitored the debate reported that the two presidential candidates found each other at odds on Thursday night on whether the United States needs to transition away from fossil fuels to address climate change.
This, apart from being the first time the candidates were not asked if they believed in climate change was the lengthiest exchange two presidential candidates have ever had on the topic – nearly 12 minutes. That is way too little by any standards but still a step forward.
During the discussion, the Democratic candidate Biden pledged to move the United States away from oil in favour of renewable energy and predicted the strategy would generate millions of jobs.
The president stated that Biden’s plan would be costly and hurt the economy, particularly in oil-producing states where the two men are competing for votes.
Biden said climate change posed “an existential threat to humanity”, that in eight to 10 years, the country would “pass the point of no return”, and that the U.S. has “a moral obligation to deal with it”.
It would not take the controversial Trump to hit back with a question whether Biden would close down the oil industry.
He also asked Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Texas – although he could have easily included Gulf of Mexico states in that as well – to remember that Biden stated that he would transition to renewable energy like solar and wind and stop giving federal subsidies to the oil industry.
It is worth mentioning that Biden previously clarified that the country’s need to transition off fossil fuels does not mean he would impose a ban on the oil industry and that he would only get rid of subsidies for fossil fuels.
During the debate, Trump reminded that he withdrew from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, aiming to keep the globe from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. A point beyond which scientists say the planet will be irreversibly damaged.
Although Trump claimed that the U.S. would have to spend trillions of dollars and sacrifice tens of millions of jobs and thousands of companies, Biden ensured those watching that rejoining the Paris accord would create millions of new good-paying jobs in the field of energy transition.
The two also clashed over the price of transitioning from fossil fuels. Trump claimed Biden’s plan would cost $100 trillion while Biden estimated the cost at about $2 trillion over four years.
Fracking was another point of contention as Trump falsely accused Biden of supporting a ban on fracking — a claim he repeatedly knocked down.
“I never said I oppose fracking”, Biden stated. Instead, Biden’s plan is to end permitting fracking and other oil and gas drilling only on federal lands in the West — not on state or private lands such as those in Pennsylvania – a known swing state that both candidates are fighting for.
It sounds almost surreal that climate change disappeared from presidential debates for two decades until the Trump-Biden debates when there was simply no avoiding it. Not in a year marked by record wildfires, devastating hurricanes, and other climate-related catastrophes such as drought and floods.
The last debate that tackled issues of climate change was the one between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in 2000 – and climate doubters had the better of the pro-climate change-oriented Gore.
The shift comes as a result of Americans increasingly expressing concern about the planet. A poll last year by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that a growing number of Americans describe climate change as a crisis, and two-thirds said Trump is doing too little to tackle the problem.
It also found that a strong majority of Americans — about 8 in 10 — say that human activity is fuelling climate change, and roughly half believe action is urgently needed within the next decade if humanity is to avert its worst effects.
And even though the coronavirus pandemic was way above all other concerns, climate change emerged as a front-burner issue during the Democratic presidential primaries. Voters in numerous states ranked it as one of their top concerns, alongside health care and economic issues.
Then there are the mounting real-world effects. California saw record wildfires and the Atlantic saw a historic hurricane season. And that is just in the U.S. As for the rest of the world we can note fires in Siberia, ice melting across the Arctic, and so on.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Siemens Energy has published the main priorities to facilitate a successful long-term energy transition which will enable countries to thrive in the lower-carbon world. These findings were based on the discussions held during the MEA Energy Week.
The virtual conference, which was held from 19 – 21 October, brought together regional government and the private sector representatives, from across the energy and finance sectors, to share perspectives and inform opinions on how best to navigate the energy transition.
Advancing the decarbonized energy transformation and fostering an ecosystem of collaboration and co-creation between stakeholders can help meet the world’s sustainability goals, while boosting economic growth, creating new jobs and industries and improving human welfare by 2050.
“The balance of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources is shifting towards a decarbonized portfolio and around 850 million people are still living without access to electricity when according to studies, global demand for energy could even increase by around 25% by 2040. So the question is how to bridge into an affordable, reliable and sustainable power supply, while improving energy access,” said Christian Bruch, President and CEO, Siemens Energy.
The ten key elements, emerged from the virtual event, build a flexible framework for innovation, broadly suitable to enable decarbonization of the energy sector. They also act as guiding principles for governments, companies, and society to strike the balance between energy security and the transition to a lower carbon future:
1. Access to stable, affordable, and sustainable energy supply is a basic human right
“Quite simply, access to energy gives everyone the opportunity to fulfill their complete and full potential. We take for granted we are all fortunate to have access to reliable energy, to power our lives, from better healthcare and education, clean, prosperous job growth, to sustainable cooling and food security. Access to sustainable clean energy is the key that can help unlock a prosperous future for billions of people,” Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representation of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for all (SEforALL).
2. Availability of sustainable energy is the foundation for long-term economic prosperity
“Renewable energy has the potential of meeting the nation’s energy needs in a sustainable manner as well as creating jobs and improved livelihoods across the country,” H.E. Goddy Jedy-Agba, Minister of State, Power Federal Republic of Nigeria.
3. Bespoke national energy roadmaps are vital to effectively realize the energy transition
“The Energy vision for Benin is very clear. We have developed a short to long term action plan that has energy as a priority for the country through four flagship projects which focuses on: modernizing our thermal fleet to produce energy, restructuring our distribution company, generate power locally through partnerships and drive a regulatory framework that attracts investors. In two to three years, we have achieved increasing electricity generation capacity from less than 1% to 60%, this makes it evident that the plans put in place continue to produce the desired results,” H.E. Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, Minister of Energy, Benin.
4. Leverage the individual strengths and power of multilateral relationships to accelerate the pace of the energy transition
“As renewables have become cheaper and more versatile, they have found their way into more solutions. We see today electric mobility picking up globally. Energy storage, building infrastructure, they are also making other technologies more viable,” Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Masdar.
5. Utilizing highly efficient existing technology is paramount to bridge to a zero-carbon world
“The UAE is working also to diversify the energy mix through combining renewable, nuclear and clean energy sources to meet the country’s economic requirements. Though the world relies on energy from hydrocarbon sources, there has been a move to greener and more innovative energy sources. There is a conviction that diversification is key.” H.E. Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, UAE.
6. The energy system will transform into one integrated ecosystem for all new clean technologies
“Hydrogen allows low carbon energy to move from electricity to many other sectors, including sectors that are hard to decarbonize. Renewables have traditionally been constrained to one geography. We can now integrate renewable energy systems and conventional hydrocarbon systems – a circular carbon economy concept.” Ahmad Al Khowaiter, CTO, Saudi Aramco.
7. Highly flexible and reliable transmission and distribution networks will be the intelligent backbone of a de-carbonized energy system
“We are working hard to prepare grid networks to meet the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious targets of generating 30 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2025 and 60 gigawatts by 2030.” Ibrahim Al Jarbou, CEO, National Grid Saudi Arabia.
8. Access to capital at reasonable costs will play a critical role in the energy transition
“I think we see some ambitious energy transition agendas in the Middle East and Africa. I think there are ambitious agendas which will make things happen. From our perspective as an ECA [Export Credit Agency], the agenda of the region fits in with Germany. I believe we will see more projects in the region in the coming years and hopefully we will be able to support those.” Edna Schöne, Member of the Board, Euler Hermes.
9. Collaboration of strong partners will solve the challenges in financing the energy transition
“Capital markets can reward companies that are taking green technology into consideration, and that can be done through investing in these companies, or even creating a stock exchange that rewards companies that are proactively adopting an ESG ESG [Environmental, Social, Governance] agenda, or a sustainable agenda in the way that they do business,” Badr Al-Olama, Executive Director, Aerospace at Mubadala; Head of Organizing Committee, GMIS.
10. Now is the time to act, 2020 marks the year of change in many aspects
“We have a unique opportunity to fast track the energy transition. Covid-19 has dramatically impacted economies around the world. Effort and capital is being directed towards a fast recovery. Uniting, and focusing our efforts, will enable developing and developed countries alike to advance to a prosperous and zero carbon future extremely quickly. Dietmar Siersdorfer, Managing Director, Siemens Energy Middle East and UAE.
The event was held in partnership with the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK); the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ghorfa); the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (GMIS); and Masdar, a global leader in renewable energy and sustainable urban development, and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi government’s Mubadala Investment Company.
Ghana’s electricity regulator, Energy Commission, in partnership with some local banks in the Republic of Ghana, has launched ECOWAS Refrigerators and Air Conditioners Initiative (ECOFRIDGES) in Accra, capital of Ghana.
ECOFRIDGES aims at accelerating the adoption of energy-efficiency and climate-friendliness in domestic refrigerators and room air conditioners, saving consumers money on their electricity bills, relieving demand on the power sector, and mitigating impacts on the environment.
ECOFRIDGES is a joint project by the Governments of Ghana and Senegal, the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (UNEP U4E) initiative and the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE).
In a speech read by Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, Director for Renewable and Alternative Energies at the Ministry of Energy, on behalf of the sector Minister, John Peter Amewu, he said: “Energy efficiency is a special instrument in the power supply arrangement and we need the populace to reduce the load on our infrastructure.”
He said as population grows, demand for energy increases and the government has to make investment to supply for the needs of the populace and industry.
“You know, as the economy of the country improves, as there is more money in the pockets of the people; there is the desire to invest in more electrical appliances. Everybody would like to use an air conditioner, everybody would like to have a refrigerator, but, sometimes, there is a challenge: the challenge of raising the initial capital cost to acquire these and some cases.
“There is another challenge of paying electricity bills,” Amewu asserted.
He maintained that the ECOFRIDGES project is so attractive that it would support many Ghanaians to acquire energy efficient fridges and air conditioners at zero rate of interests from partner banks across Ghana.
“Through the help of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Ghana undertook the collection of old refrigerators and replaced them with new ones. Ten thousand old fridges were replaced. This strategy saved Ghana a total of 40 percent of the annual output of Bui Power Plant, estimated to be 400 MWh,” Ghana’s Energy Minister stated.
He said it took 12 months to research, make it sustainable and financially viable for consumers to acquire energy efficient and climate friendly ACs and refrigerator appliances.
The scheme, he noted, brings financial institutions and vendors together to provide flexible payment terms for workers.
Touching on its benefits, Mr. Amewu opined that it would help the Government of Ghana, households, businesses and principally, the environment.
To operationlise it, he said a committee, chaired by the Energy Commission, has been put in place and its membership include the Ministry of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF).
Executive Director of Energy Commission- Ghana, Oscar Amonoo-Neizer observed, “The emerging phenomenon explains why globally, nations are striving to achieve energy security. Energy Commission has a mandate to help secure Ghana’s future energy needs and we have to help secure Ghana’s future energy needs and we have never abducated our mandate.”
He mentioned that the meeting was to break another ground in their quest to make the Ghanaian economy an energy efficient one.
“In this respect, we are here to launch the ECOFRIDGES-GO project, and it is intended to make energy efficient air conditioners and refrigerators affordable to all consumers.”
He said financial mechanisms have been put in place to bring relief to all groups of consumers.
The Chief Executive Officer of Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), Daniel Magallon, who joined the launch via zoom, lauded stakeholders in Ghana for adopting the use of efficient electrical appliances.
He was of the view that this technology is crucial for climate sustainability and also would boost Ghana’s socio-economic development.
The EcoFridges Go project is through the collaboration of Cooling Efficient Programme (KIGALI), Base Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), UNEP, Cal Bank, Nesstra Ghana Limited, Electroland, Hisense Ghana Ltd, SML, Letshego Ghana, Ecobank, Edrick Ltd and the Energy Commission.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s Southern electricity distribution company, ECG, has introduced the use of drones, a novelty, in the operations of the company.
This is part of ECG’s efforts to ensure efficiency in its operations.
The company, on Thursday, 22nd October, 2020, launched the 15 drones after a successful training of engineers on how the drones operate at the company’s training school in Tema in the Greater Accra Region.
The deployment of the 15 drone machines in the company’s operations has become necessary for the effective monitoring and auditing of the company’s network to curb the major challenge of vegetation interference in the network, as well as identify weak spots on the network for prompt rectification.
The Wingtra Drones, supplied and serviced by Sahara Natural Resources, can last one hour in flight and travel 8km while still in contact with the control tablet, which records information and videos for later reference.
Other ways the company would benefit from this initiative as outlined by the Managing Director, Kwame Agyeman-Budu, include routine technical inspections in the power network to identify defects, right of way inspections of overhead lines to identify vegetation encroachment, thermal inspections of the network to identify hot spots, verification of work done by bush clearing and tree cutting contractors, route mapping for construction of new lines, as well as trouble-shooting of faulty portions of the network to locate faults for isolation on overhead lines.
According to Kwame Agyeman-Budu, artificial intelligence including drones are rapidly becoming vital tools in the operations of transmission and distribution utilities because of their ability to provide access to difficult locations on power lines for purposes of carrying out inspections without shutting down the lines and creating outages.
MD of ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu (left) with Officials from Sahara Natural Resources, at the handing over ceremony explaining the technicalities of the Wingtra Drone
He further indicated that the use of the drones would drastically reduce the risk of injury to their technical staff and lower the cost of carrying out inspections by using aerial thermal cameras, as well as reduce the time frame of carrying out inspections in the power system; “activities which could take days to be done within minutes by the drones,” he said.
Mr Agyemang-Budu said his outfit is optimistic that the inclusion of the drone system in their operations would improve efficiency, reliability of power supply to customers, and modernise their operations and position the company to become a leading utility service provider.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s parliament has passed into law a bill proposing the establishment of Petroleum Hub Development Corporation.
Majority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu moved a motion for the Petroleum Hub Development Corporation Bill, 2020 to be passed into law.
The motion was seconded by the MP for Tamale South, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, and was read for the third time.
The Bill has subsequently been passed.
With the passage of the law and the implementation committee of the Petroleum Hub Project already in place, government has now been given the green light to set up the Petroleum Hub Dev’t Corporation to see to the actualization of the project.
The project, which is a private sector driven, is expected to attract an investments of about $50billion by the end of 2030.
It is one of the government’s strategic anchor initiatives that would serve as a new pillar of growth in the Ghanaian economy.
It would accelerate the growth of Ghana’s petroleum downstream sub-sector and make it a major player in the economy and, consequently, ensure development of sustainable value, wealth creation and the progress of the industry.
The petroleum hub, which will occupy a land space of about 20,000 acres, would have four refineries each with a capacity of 150,000bpd, two oil jetties, storage tanks for crude and two petrochemical plants.
It is expected to transform the economy through export tax of about $1.56 billion by 2030, increase GDP by about 70 percent and create jobs in excess of 780,000.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Power Authority (BPA), Ghana’s second largest power generation company, Fred Oware, has established an Innovation Centre for Bui Power Authority DA Junior High School in the Bono East Region in the Republic of Ghana to promote education.
The Centre, christened ‘Fred Oware Innovation Center’ has a Science Laboratory, Library as well as ICT and Robotics Laboratory.
It was built from Mr. Fred Oware’s personal resources and donated as a gift to the community as part of his commitment to unearth the potential of the youth in the Bui enclave.
The Centre will offer assistance to participants, especially the youth within the Bui enclave, to experience hands on learning in creative development and technology.
It will also afford the pupils at BPA Basic School an opportunity to undertake their ICT and Science related practicals in a more serene and advanced environment.
Students who will be enrolled into the Centre will undergo 6 months intensive hands on and classroom lectures to graduate from the Centre.
Delivering a short address at the commissioning of the Centre, Mr. Fred Oware, who was the first CEO of BPA until May 2009 in the former President Kufuor Administration, said when he was reappointed by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 he thought of doing something from his personal resources for the community.
After settling on what to do, Mr. Oware said from 2018, he started taking portion of his salary every month and set it aside for project, and I’m glad that today, lives are going to be touched through this project”.
He also thanked the staff of BPA who saw the value of the project and supported as well as the Bui Township for their cooperation, which helped to ensure speedy execution of the project.
Mr Oware admonished that succeeding BPA administration should continue to support the Centre through their Corporate Social Responsibility.
The Chief of Bui Nana Kwadwo Owuo (II), was full gratitude to Mr. Fred Oware for his generosity.
He said the Bui enclave has benefited immensely from Bui Power Authority under the leadership of Mr. Fred Oware.
He mentioned the distribution of free dustbin for every household, institution of scholarship scheme for brilliant but needy students and livelihood empowerment programme to equip the youth in skills training as examples of such benefits.
According to the chief, these and many more things have helped in transforming the lives of the people of Bui.
Meanwhile, BPA has commissioned resettlement secretariat at Bui and Jama in the Savannah Region.
The secretariat, which will be manned by personnel of BPA, will serve as a first point of call by the two communities anytime they have grievances that needs to be addressed by the Authority.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
“COVID has shown the world that you cannot just take the planet for free but that you have to take care of it as well.”
This is according to Pratik Gauri, the president of the 5th Element Group, a global impact management consultancy, who was part of a masterclass on “5IR, Energy, and Humanity” by Africa Energy Forum on the first day of the Digital Energy Festival for Africa.
“I see 5IR as working at the intersection of technology and purpose,” said Gauri.
“There have been two worlds in 4IR that have been pretty much operating in silos.
“The first world has been centred around profits and progress (mostly private sector). The second world has been centred around purpose and inclusivity (philanthropy or not-for-profit).
“I believe that magic can be produced if we can work at the intersection of both these worlds and this is what I call the 5th Industrial Revolution.”
Bending the focus
According to Gauri, the 4th Industrial Revolution has “definitely given us lots and lots of benefits, but if we can bend the focus of all frontier technologies that have been produced by the 4th Industrial Revolution towards humanity, that is what the 5th Industrial Revolution is all about.”
During his presentation, he explained man’s transition from the 1st Industrial Revolution to today.
“As soon as a new form of energy is created we transcend from one industrial revolution to the next. The 1st Industrial Revolution was focused on steam energy, then we transcended to electricity, oil and gas, which formed the 2IR. The 3rd Industrial Revolution focused on personal computers, digital and nuclear energy.
“Then we moved to the 4th Industrial Revolution which is happening right now. This is more about artificial intelligence, 3D printing, blockchain and all sorts of frontier technologies.
“And now there is a new form of energy which has been created which is all about humanity, which I call the human capital. And that is why we need to transcend from 4IR to 5IR and work at the intersection of profits and purpose.
“The reason we need to transcend to 5IR is all the four IRs have definitely given us a lot of technology and invention but it has caused a lot of harm as well.”
He mentioned as examples of this harm the lack of gender equality, “more than a billion people still don’t have access to electricity”, lack of access to water and education and excess CO2 emissions.
“For all these reasons we need to bend the focus of technology towards humanity to create the 5th Industrial Revolution.”
According to Gauri, 5IR will also assist in achieving several of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals.
Long range wireless transmission
EnergyNet MD Simon Gosling of Africa Energy Forum, joint organiser of the Digital Energy Festival, talked about the role and impact of electricity in economic development and growth and said that he saw the move from 4IR to 5IR more as an evolution than a revolution, “using the benefits of the 4IR.”
“In the Forum this year we’re going to have some amazing new technologies. We have a case study on long range wireless transmission. Imagine that. Imagine the impact that long range wireless transmission is going to have on the continent. Electrification for the entire continent can be achieved in ten years if this technology is adopted.
“This is a project that is currently being developed in New Zealand.”
The discussion was led by Tony Tiyou, the founder and CEO of Renewables in Africa (RIA).
Source: Clarion Events Africa
International energy companies and local services companies spend a lot of time serving people, solving problems, and saving lives with the energy and service they provide. The African Energy Chamber’s members create jobs, expand economic opportunity for many local communities across Africa and support a prosperous future for all Africans.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, they never stopped working for our continent, and continue to inspire us by getting up every day and working harder because they believe in the power of free market as a force for good in our communities, and in our fight against poverty. At the African Energy Chamber, we get up every day to help them do it. We must fight for the ability of our energy industry to hire, invest, grow, and succeed in Africa.
As 2020 comes to an end, Africans are living in a remarkable moment of uncertainty due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Millions have lost their jobs, and hopes of an economic recovery remains non-existent for a majority of African families. As if that is not enough, bureaucrats at the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) have decided to push through job-killing and investment-killing regulations that are already increasing unemployment, and will ultimately kill any hopes of seeing future investment in Central Africa.
The aspirations of governments and local companies across the CEMAC region to build a vibrant and jobs-creating energy sector have indeed been dramatically affected by the foreign exchange regulations imposed by the BEAC. Such regulations are putting extremely deterring barriers of entry for investors in Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, CAR, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, and a bitter halt to any kind of local content development for companies and entrepreneurs in these countries.
While the end goal of the BEAC to fight corruption is noble and must be supported, in essence its regulations prevent the free flow of capital and the repatriation of profits, and deny local companies the ability to compete on equal terms with their foreign counterparts.
Because of the region’s reliance on imports of equipment and material for oil & gas operations, the ability of local companies to establish strong business relationships with foreign partners is central to their competitiveness and ability to secure contracts.
However, CEMAC’s forex rules mean its local services companies are now unable to quickly and efficiently pay their foreign suppliers. Concretely, it would take a local services company from CEMAC several months to honour its contractual engagements with an operator, compared to only a few days or weeks for any other competitor not constrained by the same forex regulations.
As a result, companies in Central Africa are condemned to inexorably lose the contracts they have worked so hard to secure from foreign operators and contractors. In a region where oil & gas represents 80% of revenues, the consequences for economic growth and jobs creation could be catastrophic. To make things even worse, BEAC’s Instruction No. 002/GR/2020 of September 2020 on currency transfers outside of the CEMAC region has set up additional taxes of 0.75% on all transfers made outside of CEMAC starting January 1st 2021, on top of existing fees and taxes.
On behalf of the fight against corruption, the African Energy Chamber can only observe a gradual killing of investment in Central Africa, made through the punishment of local entrepreneurs. A big difference needs to urgently be made between fighting corruption and punishing hard working entrepreneurs, and it needs to be done before it is too late. The BEAC cannot love and support jobs while it hates or punishes those who create jobs.
Combined, the CEMAC members produce about 700,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). They also produce increasing quantities of natural gas, and the region houses up to 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG export capacity, shared between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. But as it tries to recover from the Covid-19 crisis and the historic crash in oil prices, we can only expect operators to be forced to contract international companies at the detriment of local ones. In Equatorial Guinea, where the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons has pushed for increasing local content compliance, all such efforts are now jeopardized by the BEAC’s monetary policies. Similarly, the latest local content regulations within the new Hydrocarbons Code of Congo (2016) and Gabon (2019) and the new Petroleum Code of Cameroon (2019) are now all made pointless unless the region’s monetary authority takes a drastic policy turn.
The African Energy Chamber, its partners and members urgently call on the BEAC to act in the CEMAC Zone’s own interest, in the interest of its workers and its companies. The need to have a monetary policy that takes into account the concerns and voice of the region’s biggest revenue-generating industry is dire.
At a time when Africa gets ready to roll out the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), CEMAC and its business communities risk being further left behind.
If CEMAC energy markets are to recover from the historic crises of 2020 and improve the standard of living of their population through economic growth and jobs creation, the investment climate and business environment must be supported by market-driven policies and the right financial regulations.
Excessive regulation has become a threat to individual freedom and prosperity, and must be curbed as local companies stand to suffer the most. In an era where capital investment in the energy sector is drying out, especially for African oil and gas projects, CEMAC’s heavy-handed approach is not helpful and is counter-productive.
A policy turn is required to properly fight energy poverty, and a relaxation of foreign exchange regulations must be accompanied with lower taxation on local companies, better fiscal terms for exploration companies, particularly corporate taxes, and the promotion of greater prosperity, individual freedom and investment.
Source: African Energy Chamber
Oilfield services major Baker Hughes has booked $170 million loss in the third quarter of 2020, against $57 million profit same time last year.
The bottom line took a hit due to revenue drop, asset impairments, restructuring and separation related charges.
This was also the company’s third straight loss. Revenue for the quarter was approximately $5 billion, down 14 per cent from Q3 2019.
This was due to lower volume across the Oilfield Services and Digital Solutions segments. Sequentially, revenue was up some 7 per cent.
Operating loss for the third quarter of 2020 was $49 million. Operating loss decreased $3 million sequentially and increased $346 million year-over-year. Total segment operating income was $349 million for Q3 2020, down 34 per cent year-over-year.
Adjusted operating income for the third quarter was up 124 per cent sequentially. However, adjusted operating income was down 45 per cent year-over-year driven by lower margins in the Oilfield Services, and Digital Solutions segments, partially offset by volume in Turbo Machinery & Process Solutions, and margin expansion in Oilfield Equipment.
Baker Hughes recognised adjustments totaling $283 million before tax, mainly related to asset impairments, restructuring and separation related charges.
Depreciation and amortization for the third quarter of 2020 was $315 million.
Corporate costs were $115 million in the third quarter of 2020, down 2% sequentially and up 5% year-over-year.
Orders for the quarter were $5.1 billion, up 4 per cent sequentially and down 34 per cent year-over-year.
Year-over-year, the decline in orders was a result of lower order intake across all segments. Year-over-year equipment orders were down 40 per cent and service orders were down 28 per cent.
Lorenzo Simonelli, BH chairman and CEO, said: “Despite the uncertain macro environment, we are executing on the framework we laid out earlier this year. We are on track to hit our goals of right-sizing the business, generating free cash flow, and achieving $700 million in annualized cost savings by year end.
“As we move forward, we are intensely focused on improving the margin and return profile of Baker Hughes despite the near-term macro volatility, while at the same time executing on our long-term strategy to evolve our portfolio along with the energy landscape. Baker Hughes remains committed to leading the energy transition and becoming a key enabler to decarbonizing oil and gas and other industries.”
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
The Managing Director of Ghana’s Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), Edwin A. Provencal says his outfit is on course in its quest to revamping the company’s pipeline infrastructure which had been offline for several years.
According to him, rehabilitation works on the Buipe-Bolga pipeline had been completed and brought online while works on Akosombo pipelines had progressed steadily.
BOST has three pipeline systems.
The first is an 18-inch multi-product pipeline used to transfer refined products (gasoline and gasoil) from ocean vessels into the Accra Plains Depot located in the South-Eastern part of Ghana.
The two other pipelines, being the 6-inch 93km Tema-Akosombo Pipeline (TAPP) System and the 8-inch 268km Buipe and Bolgatanga Pipeline (B2P3) System, are used for primary transportation to move products to BOST inland depots.
Speaking in an interview with Accra- based Asaase Radio and monitored by energynewsafrica.com, Edwin Provencal said he was hopeful that, by November this year, the pipeline would be on stream.
He noted that 60 percent of the company’s marine assets, which were in deplorable state, had also been revived.
He asserted that when the current management took office, BOST’s debt portfolio was over US$624 million.
As of now, he explained that they have been able to pay about 97 percent of the amount, while the remaining three percent had been paid through ESLA Bond.
“Can you imagine what this nation could have used $624 million for,” he rhetorised.
According to him, the company’s financial health status was so bad that he and his team had to be strategic in dealing with most of the wrongs.
He said BOST owed most banks as well as the Ghana Revenue Authority since 2014, stressing that, that action made banks to treat the company as a plague.
Sadly, Provencal said the company failed to audit its accounts since 2015 and this put pressure on his management to ensure it was done to make it financially, operationally and managerially feasible.
He said as of now, audit report of the 2015, 2016, and 2018 is almost done, while that of 2019 is almost completed.
This, he opined, now puts BOST in a better position to do more businesses with all financial institutions and investors because of its prospects now.
Operationally, he noted that the company was not at full capacity, since most of their assets were not functional at all or were working partially.
Out of the 51storage tanks it has,15 were offline.
The BOST MD further itemised many other assets of the company left to wallow lazily at the expense of ordinary Ghanaians in Bolga since 2016 and many others across the nation.
On the brighter side of the company, he mentioned that soon, they would be receiving products from Takoradi, which would dramatically improve the import cover from the current figure of two to about four weeks.
“Can you believe that since 2008, we bought some pipelines and they’ve been stuck in the US? By December, it will have arrived in Ghana. We have some debts on it and we have paid them,” he explained.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
The United States and Poland closed a nuclear power deal potentially worth $18 billion as the Central European country seeks to reduce its reliance on coal and Russian natural gas.
While the deal is not yet final, there is a pretty good chance that Warsaw will pick the U.S. over its main competitors on the international nuclear energy scene, namely China and Russia.
“We are hopeful that the ultimate decisions that are made by Poland over a period of time will result in them choosing U.S. technology,” Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told reporters as quoted by Reuters.
Poland wants to build six nuclear reactors to supplement its gas imports. Currently, it imports a lot of gas from Russia, but given the less than friendly bilateral relations, it wants to cut these off, and soon, by 2022, Reuters notes. Instead, it would import pipeline gas by Norway and liquefied natural gas from, among others, the United States.
Yet Poland also relies heavily on coal-fired power plants, and this goes counter to the EU’s ambitions for a net-zero economy in 2050. The only way to reduce or even eliminate its coal use is to replace that cheap energy with another comparable generational capacity.
The agreement closed this week stipulates that over the next 18 months, the parties will develop a program for the construction of the reactors and how they will be financed. Per plans, the first reactors should come online in 2033. The whole program could end up costing Warsaw some $40 billion, of which at least $18 billion would go towards acquiring U.S. nuclear technology, according to a U.S. government official.
Poland’s government to build between 6 and 9 GW of nuclear capacity by 2040, but it will also invest in renewable energy, planning between 8 and 11 GW in offshore wind power capacity.
Source: oilprice.com
Labour & Gov’t have adopted these Resolutions of the Adhoc Technical Committee chaired by the Honorable Minister of State, Labour
One of the key germane issues that affect Electric Power Consumers directly has to do with the resolution to deploy a batch of 1million Meters of the 6millino Meters President Buhari announced on the eve of the implementation of the contentious Service Reflective Tariff by the Electricity Distribution Companies in September 2020.
Quoting the Adhoc Committee report, “Acceleration of the National Mass Metering Program(NMMP): For the Distribution of the first one million meters, the Ministry of Power is to liaise with CBN, NERC and NEMSA to start work by 12th October, 2020 to accelerate the rollout of Meters with a target of December 2020. The Meeting agreed that it will work towards bridging the Metering Gap. The Federal Government committed to provide 6million meters; NERC is expected to compel the Discos to metering needs of the Customers”
Next point is: “Local Procurement for Meters for NMMP: Organized Labour to work with Government to improve and ramp up local production capacity”
As noble as these intentions might appear, it clearly also spells doom for close observers and analysts of the power sector.
For one, this is not the first time the Federal Government would promise heaven and earth to ensure Meters are deployed for Electricity Consumers.
Prof. Chinedu Nebo, a former minister of power, at a town hall meeting in January 2015 announced an approved funding for one million prepaid meters to be distributed to consumers through the 11 Distribution companies (Discos) to curtail the ravaging effects of estimated billing.
“The president (Goodluck Jonathan) is going to launch it very shortly and has provided the funding to give over one million meters to Nigerians to reduce the gap and then allow the Discos to face a time when they will make sure that all Nigerians are eventually metered,” Nebo had said.( https://dailytrust.com/wither-fgs-1m-electricity-meters-project)
Apart from that pronouncement, nothing was ever heard of this initiative again, which also incidentally coincided with a time when increase in tariff was also on the front burner.
We have once again come full cycle to the point where the Federal Government, in trying to placate Nigerians and encourage Consumers that they meant well, has chosen the pain point-Metering, to promise Nigerians of another one million meters.
The Adhoc Committee, while at best is advisory, has also set an open ended December 2020 as target date, whether December 1st,, or December 31st 2020, it is not stated.
Taking December 31st 2020 as target has only given the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry exactly 10weeks for ONE MILLION Meters to be deployed.
Other questions that has been left open ended includes the source of these Meters, names of Companies, whether local or foreign, that will be engaged, IF these Meters are readily available in Nigeria or will be imported, the source of finance for the acquisition (the VAT or World Bank Loan) and installation of the Meters, or even the Framework for which this NMMP would be deployed to Nigerian homes.
It is interesting that since President Buhari made the announcement in late August 2020, nothing concrete has been set up until the October 11th Recommendation by the adhoc committee on tariff review.
Far and beyond the issue of tariff, it has been stated severally that there are more important issues to be tackled before tariff can make any meaning to the power sector.
For Nigeria, and the Power Sector, to make progress,
i. Every Nigerians MUST HAVE equal access to quality electricity
ii. Every Nigerian must have means of measuring their consumption
iii. Every Consumer would then prove responsible to pay for what they consume. With Meters, Nigerians would be able to determine how much electricity they want to consume, especially when they do not have an option of utility service providers
iv. It is when the above issues is tackled that Consumer apathy can be resolved.
To reiterate, all private investors will continue to take advantage of all possible loopholes in the regulation and administration. This is where the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission has failed in stamping their authority, and their power.
With the Regulators having several opportunities to address the agitation of Consumers, and failing at this, the intervention of the Federal Government should be highly appreciated, but it should be done in such a way not to totally emasculate the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Adetayo Adegbemle is a public opinion commentator/analyst, researcher, and the convener of PowerUpNigeria, an Electric Power Consumer Right Advocacy Group (Twitter:@PowerUpNg, Email: [email protected])
The Centre will offer assistance to participants, especially the youth within the Bui enclave, to experience hands on learning in creative development and technology.
It will also afford the pupils at BPA Basic School an opportunity to undertake their ICT and Science related practicals in a more serene and advanced environment.
Students who will be enrolled into the Centre will undergo 6 months intensive hands on and classroom lectures to graduate from the Centre.
Delivering a short address at the commissioning of the Centre, Mr. Fred Oware, who was the first CEO of BPA until May 2009 in the former President Kufuor Administration, said when he was reappointed by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 he thought of doing something from his personal resources for the community.
After settling on what to do, Mr. Oware said from 2018, he started taking portion of his salary every month and set it aside for project, and I’m glad that today, lives are going to be touched through this project”.
He also thanked the staff of BPA who saw the value of the project and supported as well as the Bui Township for their cooperation, which helped to ensure speedy execution of the project.
Mr Oware admonished that succeeding BPA administration should continue to support the Centre through their Corporate Social Responsibility.
The Chief of Bui Nana Kwadwo Owuo (II), was full gratitude to Mr. Fred Oware for his generosity.
He said the Bui enclave has benefited immensely from Bui Power Authority under the leadership of Mr. Fred Oware.
He mentioned the distribution of free dustbin for every household, institution of scholarship scheme for brilliant but needy students and livelihood empowerment programme to equip the youth in skills training as examples of such benefits.
According to the chief, these and many more things have helped in transforming the lives of the people of Bui.
Meanwhile, BPA has commissioned resettlement secretariat at Bui and Jama in the Savannah Region.
The secretariat, which will be manned by personnel of BPA, will serve as a first point of call by the two communities anytime they have grievances that needs to be addressed by the Authority.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
