Iran Threatens To Block Key Oil Chokepoint If It Can No Longer Export Crude
Iran will block the world’s most important chokepoint for global oil trade, the Strait of Hormuz, if Tehran is barred from using it to export its oil, Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said on Monday, just as the U.S. announced that it would not be extending any waivers to Iranian oil customers.
“According to international law, the Strait of Hormuz is a marine passageway and if we are barred from using it, we will shut it down. In case of any threat, we will have not even an iota of doubt to protect and defend the Iranian waters. We will defend our prestige and embark on reciprocal acts when it comes to defending Iran’s right,” Iranian Fars news agency quoted Tangsiri as saying in an interview with Arabic-language al-Alam news channel on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted early on Monday, confirming earlier reports that the U.S. planned to end all waivers when they expire in early May:
“Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime means maximum pressure. That’s why the U.S. will not issue any exceptions to Iranian oil importers. The global oil market remains well-supplied. We’re confident it will remain stable as jurisdictions transition away from Iranian crude.”
The Department of State confirmed:
“Today we are announcing the United States will not issue any additional Significant Reduction Exceptions to existing importers of Iranian oil. The Trump Administration has taken Iran’s oil exports to historic lows, and we are dramatically accelerating our pressure campaign in a calibrated way that meets our national security objectives while maintaining well supplied global oil markets.”
Brent crude rallied 2.83 percent at 11:47 a.m. EDT on Monday on the news.
Over the past year, Iran has threatened several times to close the Strait of Hormuz for all tanker traffic if the U.S. drives Iranian oil exports to zero.
The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important chokepoint, with an oil flow of 18.5 million bpd in 2016, the EIA estimates. Some 80 percent of the crude oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz goes to Asian markets, the EIA has estimated using data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence tanker tracking service. China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Singapore are the largest destinations for oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Source:Oilprice.com
Key Nigerian Oil Export Pipeline Under Force Majeure After Fire Breaks Out
The operator of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line—one of the two key pipelines of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude grade capable of transporting 150,000 bpd to the export terminal—declared on Sunday force majeure, due to a fire suspected to have been the result of an illegal third-party breach.
“Our Operations Emergency Response team was immediately activated and following its urgent intervention and containment action, we are constrained to shut in injection as well as other related operations into the NCTL. In accordance with standard procedure, we requested the other injectors to do same,” Nigerian operator Aiteo said in a statement, as carried by Sahara Reporters.
Before the fire broke out, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line was operating smoothly, which raises suspicion that the fire was the result of an “illegitimate, third-party breach of the functionality of the pipeline,” the statement by Aiteo spokesman Ndiana Matthew said.
Investigations into the cause of the fire continue and the stakeholders will be briefed in details in due course, said the company.
Two months ago, a fire erupted in an area around the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, but then Aiteo said that the pipeline was not impacted by the fire. At that time in early March, Shell, whose Nigerian unit operates exports from the Bonny Light terminal, said that there was no force majeure declared on Nigeria’s Bonny Light exports.
Bonny Light is a popular grade among refiners globally and its production is 200,000 bpd-250,000 bpd. The Bonny Light terminal or the pipelines feeding crude to the export facility were subject to many disruptions and declarations of force majeure in 2016 and 2017, when militant activity across the Niger Delta was frequently shutting oil exports from Nigeria.
Now, any potential disruption of the Bonny Light crude oil exports in the coming days or weeks could further tighten an already tightening market with the U.S. reportedly aiming at zero Iranian oil exports and tightening the sanctions on Venezuela, plus unrest in Libya, and continued cuts by OPEC and allies.
Source: Oilprice.com
Ghana: KNUST students develop gas leakage detector that operates via SMS alert
Three Ghanaian students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in West Africa have developed a gas leakage detector that operates via SMS alert.
The technology aims at facilitating early detection of gas leakage and avert the destruction that comes with such a leakage.
A Level 100 Chemical Engineering student, Comfort Benewaa Osei Owusu, led the initiative.
Together with her friends, Safianu Inunnarm and Barikisu Nasiru, both Geological Engineering students, she set to work after losing a friend in a gas explosion.
“There are a lot of fire outbreaks in Ghana resulting from a gas explosion. Recently one of our friends died as a result of that and we thought there should be a formidable solution,” noted Comfort Benewaa Osei Owusu.
The gadget is equipped with a sensor which detects gas concentration and triggers a buzzer to alert neighbours.
It has a GPS and GSM with the capacity to contain, at least, three phone numbers.
These automatically send messages whenever there is gas leakage.
“The GPS and GSM model will send a message that there’s gas leakage. And you can add fire service numbers to it which is important,” the leader of the team explained.
Ghana has, since 2014, recorded, at least, nine major incidents of gas explosion nationwide.
Six of them occurred in the Greater Accra Region and one each in Takoradi in Western, Kasoa in Central and Kumasi Ashanti Regions.
Reports indicate 35% of the over 300 burns cases reported at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in 2017 were from gas explosions.
Fuel stations installing rooftop solar gains traction
Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are achieving significant electricity cost savings for fuel service stations across Namibia and South Africa.
With electricity costs up by 350% over the last decade and the regional grid under enormous pressure due to generation issues at Eskom, leading fuel retailers are grabbing the opportunity to adopt solar solutions – both to save costs and in an effort to go green.
For example, the system at Puma Energy’s Bach Street Service Station in Windhoek has generated 207,273kWh since its commissioning in October 2016. The solar output has to date covered 25 to 30% of the site’s total monthly electricity consumption, resulting in material electricity cost savings and a significantly reduced carbon footprint.
According to Tim Frankish, the managing director of SolarSaver – a solar energy group backed by Stimulus Investments and the Pembani-Remgro Infrastructure Fund – service stations are ideal candidates for solar PV solutions as they generally have canopy space that sits in full sun. “These stations also consume a lot of electricity, especially as many sites now include 24-hour retail stores as part of their service offerings,” says Frankish. “We have completed numerous solar installations for service stations and have found that we can considerably cut their monthly electricity costs.”
The company has so far completed eight solar installations for service stations in Namibia. That list includes Engen sites in Windhoek, Outapi and Oshikuku, two Puma Energy sites in Windhoek, a Shell station in Rehoboth and a Total station in Otavi. Numerous other installations are planned across the country in the coming months.
Frankish sees great potential for solar adoption across the fuel retail sector, as all of the major fuel retail groups are actively encouraging their franchisees to adopt solar solutions. The company offers customised solar solutions on a rent-to-own basis. That means franchisees can benefit from the systems without the need for any upfront capital investment. Instead, SolarSaver installs the systems free-of-charge against a variable monthly rental charge.
“The effective cost of rented solar power is significantly cheaper than the equivalent cost of grid power, so our clients get to start saving on their electricity bills from day one,” says Frankish. “Our solar rental charges then only increase in line with CPI inflation, so clients’ savings grow each year as grid electricity costs increase significantly beyond that.” The company also remains responsible for all ongoing monitoring, maintenance and insurance. “We like to think of our offering as a ‘capex-free, hassle-free’ way to take advantage of solar power,” he adds.
While initial solutions focus on daytime power generation through grid-tied solar, SolarSaver is already starting to update existing systems to include batteries as that technology becomes more cost-effective. Solar technology is rapidly evolving and decreasing in cost. Solar panel prices have decreased by 80% since 2008 and the lithium-ion batteries used in solar applications have already halved in cost over the last two years.
Source:Esi-Africa.com
Ghana: NPA to use technology in fighting petroleum fraud-Tampuli
Hassan Tampuli, CEO of NPA
The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Hassan Tampuli, says the NPA is exploring various options especially in the area of technology, to curtail the operations of petroleum fraudsters in the country.
The NPA in February this year confiscated petroleum products smuggled into the country estimated to be about Gh¢1 million.
The regulator said a total number of 28BRV, 6 canoes, 4 mobile pumps and 5 outboard motors carrying 709,250 litres of illegally smuggled petroleum products with taxes and levies value of Gh¢1, 150,186 have been confiscated.
The arrest, made in collaboration with the security agencies, is part of ongoing plans by the NPA to deal with fraudsters in the industry.
Speaking at the Oil and Fuel Supply Chain Security Conference on how to prevent fuel fraud in London, Mr. Tampuli was optimistic the plans for further deployment of technology would help block smuggling channels, especially when existing tools have so far been helpful in addressing the issue of fuel theft.
“We intend going forward to use more technology like the use of flow meters at the depots and fuel receiving facilities,” he said, adding; “we insist that if they don’t get the flow meters at those facilities, we will procure for them and ensure that they are working.”
The conference which brought together petroleum experts and security agencies from Africa, Europe, North and South America, to find ways of collaborating to deal with smuggle, as well as cross border petroleum theft.
Mr. Tampuli, who was speaking at the event, said Ghana has enjoyed effective collaboration with neighboring countries such as Nigeria, but said a lot more needed to be done to ensure the operations of the fuel cabal are dealt with.
He added that “Ghana has taken a position to deal ruthlessly with the problem as it impacts on tax revenue. We are confident that the measures rolled out, and others to be rolled out shortly, will help minimize if not eradicate the menace.”
Mr. Tampuli said ongoing partnership with the security agencies means patrols at the both the Eastern and Western coastlines to and facilitate arrests of smugglers, would continue to go on.
“GRA Customs monitors movement at the borders and facilitates asset confiscation and disposal of products.”
He also said there is enough political would from government to combat the activities of petroleum smuggling gangs, and warned everything would be done to ensure the businesses of those working within the rules, are protected.
Iran Waivers Halt Set to Reverberate Across Globe
Six months after the U.S. rocked oil markets by letting Iranian exports continue, its decision to end sanctions waivers that allowed shipments is also set to reverberate across the globe.
The U.S. is said to announce Monday morning in Washington that it won’t renew exemptions from its sanctions to buyers of Iranian crude after they expire on May 2. It marks a change in direction from November last year, when the Donald Trump administration granted waivers to eight importers as it sought to temper fuel prices ahead of American mid-term elections.
The move threatens to squeeze supplies further in a market that’s already facing supply disruptions from Venezuela to Libya and Nigeria, and extend this year’s rally in global benchmark Brent crude above $70 a barrel. Prices are still below the four-year highs of over $86 they hit in October before the U.S. issued its waivers.
What the waivers allowed:
China — oil imports of as much as 360,000 barrels a day
India — as much as 300,000 b/d of crude purchases
South Korea — 200,000 b/d of condensate, an ultra-light oil
Japan — exempted volume unknown; shipping data shows it bought 108,000 b/d that loaded in March
Turkey — about 60,000 b/d
Taiwan — volume unknown; nation’s refiners said previously they don’t plan to buy anything even with waivers
Here are some of the potential implications of the Trump administration’s latest decision, which is aimed at piling economic pressure on Iran over the Persian Gulf state’s nuclear program by cutting off a key source of the OPEC member’s revenue.
Fate of OPEC+ Deal
The U.S. government will also announce that it got commitments from suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to offset the loss of Iranian crude, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
That could jeopardize the output deal between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which have been curbing supplies since the start of the year to avert a glut. Russia, one of the partners in the pact, has already signaled that the cuts may not need to be extended. A decision is expected when the producer group known as OPEC+ meets in June.
The pact was driven by Saudi Arabia after it was blindsided last year by the U.S. decision to grant waivers, which sparked a collapse in crude into a bear market in the fourth quarter. Now, the American pledge to eliminate oil exports from Iran may provide an incentive for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman — a Trump ally — to ease the kingdom’s policy.
Price Relief?
While crude has jumped more than 3 percent on the news that the U.S. won’t renew exemptions, the future direction of prices may be determined by how much the likes of Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are able to cushion the blow amid other supply disruptions.
Last year, prices jumped to over $86 a barrel even though Saudi Arabia was pumping at record levels. Now, it’s not just Iranian shipments that are disrupted. Separate U.S. sanctions on Venezuela have squeezed supplies from that OPEC producer too, while fellow group member Libya is roiled by violence. Just on Sunday, a key oil pipeline in Nigeria was halted after a fire.
Iran’s exports in March totaled about 1.3 million barrels a day, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Shipments were as high as 2.5 million barrels daily in April last year, before the U.S. announced plans to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Pain for Buyers
The current set of waivers expiring on May 2 allowed China, India, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Taiwan to continue importing Iranian crude without being subjected to retaliatory U.S. sanctions. With the end of the waivers, the buyers face being cut off from the American financial system if they continue purchases.
Of the buyers, Asian nations India, South Korea, China and Japan are likely to be the hardest hit. If crude prices go higher, currencies in import-dependent nations may weaken and inflation could accelerate. The biggest importers had already put purchases from the Persian Gulf state on hold as they waited for the U.S. decision.
South Korea’s Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co. has already been buying and testing alternative cargoes from areas such as Africa and Australia. While it’s not impossible to find other options, that would raise costs and could affect the company’s profits, according to a spokesman.
Even if the Trump administration secures commitments by Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. to make up for lost volumes, South Korean buyers will be hit because the Middle East nations export only limited supplies of condensate — a form of ultra-light oil used to produce petrochemicals — according to traders who participate in the market.
Source:rigzone.com
Samsung Heavy clinches FPSO order worth nearly $970 million
South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries has received an order to build a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for an unnamed Asian client.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, April 22, 2019, Samsung Heavy said it had signed a contract to deliver the FPSO by March 2022.
The value of the contract is 1.104 trillion won or about $967 million.
The FPSO will be built at Samsung Heavy’s Geoje shipyard in South Korea.
No further details have been released about the contract.
Researcher scoops award for advancing solar efficiency
Image credit: Arizona State University
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has recognised Zachary Holman from Arizona State University for his significant contributions in advancing solar efficiency.
Holman was awarded the 2019 IEEE Stuart R. Wenham Young Professional Award, reports Compound Semiconductor.
The Young Professional Award was recently renamed in honour of the late Stuart Wenham, a photovoltaics research leader who made profound contributions to the field.
Holman commented: “My team has mapped out the technological and economic landscapes for these types of solar cells in publications that have served as guides to the community.”
Holman’s notable achievements include making new scientific developments and advancing performance to record efficiencies in solar cells based on silicon, CdTe, perovskites and III-V materials.
His most significant contributions have been to silicon-based tandem solar cells.
He has also invented a new type of four-terminal tandem solar module that uses a ‘PVMirror’ to avoid materials compatibility challenges of typical tandem solar cell structures.
Source: Esi-Africa.com
The Oil Giant Focusing Only On Africa
The state oil company of OPEC member Angola, Sonangol, plans to sell off stakes in dozens of joint ventures and cut jobs in order to focus on its core exploration and production business in Africa, Sonangol’s chairman Carlos Saturnino has said.
Repsol Sinopec eyes extra 10 million barrels from North Sea assets
Repsol Sinopec Resources UK has started working on projects across a number of its assets in the UK North Sea that should realize in the region of an additional 10 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), beginning later this year.
In an update, Repsol Sinopec said that activity is already under way to reinstate production from the Galley field.
A subsea tieback to the Tartan platform, Galley production was halted in August 2012 following a subsea pipeline failure. Repsol Sinopec has said that production is scheduled to re-start in July this year and to continue through at least to cessation of production on Tartan, contributing 1.1m boe at an initial rate of around 1,500 boepd.
Galley production also reduces Tartan’s requirement to import fuel gas, thereby contributing to a further reduction in Tartan operating costs and supporting extended operating life, the company explained.
Also in the Flotta catchment area, reactivation of the drilling package on Claymore is nearing completion and will be followed by a similar reinstatement on Piper Bravo.
On Claymore, this will facilitate a number of well workovers that should realize an additional 4.7m boe, with the potential for infill drilling to follow. The reinstatement of the Piper rig is initially targeting two sidetracks, from a shut-in well and a disused water injection well, that could realize an additional 4.2m boe in total and which are scheduled to begin producing in 3Q 2020.
Tain development plan due by 2019-end
Meanwhile, Repsol Sinopec continues to work closely with field partner RockRose Energy on the development of the Tain field which is expected to be produced over the Bleo Holm floating production vessel in 2021.
A Field Development Plan is due to be delivered by the end of 2019 with the intention of Final Investment Decision to be taken soon afterwards. This development is part of the life of field extension of the Bleo Holm area.
Nicolas Foucart, Chief Operating Officer said: “We are focusing on a number of smaller, incremental production-adding opportunities like these across our portfolio, that can play an important role in helping us to build a sustainable future for the business and that also support the objective of Maximizing Economic Recovery (MER) from the UKCS.
“After some challenging times, we’ve taken huge strides in recent years to control costs and to increase production efficiency, safely. We still have more work to do to, but we are now ready to grow our business, and effective delivery of these projects this year should position us well to capitalize on future such opportunities. We are also working with number of third-parties to progress opportunities to utilize spare capacity in our infrastructure to deliver further MER-compliant projects in the near future.”
Decom work
At the other end of the asset life cycle, Repsol Sinopec continues to progress with decommissioning work on a number of assets that have ceased production.
Repsol Sinopec said that the Ensco 100 rig had been engaged to undertake a program of plugging and abandonment of the five wells that were developed from the bridge-linked Fulmar Advanced Drilling platform, starting in June.
In addition, a HWOU (Hydraulic Work Over Unit) will be mobilized this summer to perform plug & abandonment (P&A) activities on five wells from the Montrose platform.
Parts of Ghana in darkness due to unstable power supply from GRIDCo – PDS
The Power Distribution Services (PDS) has absolved itself from blame for power outages currently being experienced in most parts of the country.
The company said the outage is due to challenges at Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo).
In a statement, PDS said operational areas in the Southern Zone of the country were affected by the outage.
PDS said the problem was due to “unstable power supply from GRIDCo.”
“The intermittent outages being experienced this afternoon, Saturday 20th April, 2019 throught out PDS operational areas (Southern Zone of Ghana) is due to unstable power supply from GRIDCo”, the statement said.
Meanwhile, PDS has assured that power supply will be restored as soon as the situation is normalized.
“Customers should please note that immediately GRIDCo rectifies the situation, power supply will be restored to the affected areas.”
In the past months, there have been series of challenges that have resulted in power cuts in several areas across the country.
Electricity supply has been inconsistent in most parts of the country in recent times due to different challenges including recent rainstorms.
Kumasi: Three arrested for illegally selling PDS meters
The three suspected thieves
The Prosecution and Revenue Protection Units of the Power Distribution Services (PDS) in the Ashanti Region have arrested three persons including a middle-aged woman for engaging in the illegal sale of meters in Kumasi.
The suspects; Aisha Abubakar, 39, Tampoli Bako, 37, and Paul Asolo, 29 are in custody while the fourth suspect, Osman Abubakar is currently on the run.
Ashanti Regional Public Relations Manager for PDS, Erasmus Kyere Baidoo, who confirmed the arrest explained that officials of the prosecution unit followed up on a tip-off that one person was selling meters.
They then feigned interest to buy the meters from Tampoli Bako and the team arrested him when he turned up at a location in the Kumasi metropolis.
Upon interrogation, the suspect led the team to his supplier, Paul Asolo who also took the team to the residence of Aisha Abubakar.
The officials retrieved a total of 13 meters with ECG embossment after they conducted a search at the residence of Aisha Abubakar where she sold for Ghc 250 each.
Mr. Kyere Baidoo expressed worry over the increasing cases of illegal sale of meters in the region despite continuous sensitization of the public to desist from engaging in such activities.
“This has been going on for a very long time in this region and perhaps elsewhere too. We have started some exercise, capturing some of these meters, but the irony of it is that, as soon as we capture a particular area, the next time we come round, those areas have been flooded with meters. It is an unending exercise. And everywhere this thing is ongoing”, he said
He indicated that the installations of such illegal meters are not captured in the company’s database and it is difficult to bill users of those meters at the end of the month.
The situation he added affects the company in terms of commercial loses.
According to him, the PDS is currently battling with 15% in commercial loss to such activities.
He cautioned persons behind the distribution of such meters to stop.
He called on the police and the judiciary to arrest and give hefty sentences to the perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to others.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
A sustainable approach in curbing electricity theft
By Paa Kwasi Anamuah Sakyi
Even as the world seeks to provide adequate electricity generation capacity to provide economic opportunities for its growing population, electricity theft remains one major issue the global economy is grappling with.
The annual study ‘Emerging Markets Smart Grid: Outlook 2017’ by the Northeast Group LLC, found that in developing economies, a staggering $64.7 billion dollars are lost each year to non-technical losses ― mostly due to electricity theft. Whilst the study associated the huge electricity theft to developing economies like South Africa, India, China and Brazil; the truth is that even the most developed countries are susceptible. The study concludes that the rest of the world records a loss of $31.3 billion as a result of power theft on annual basis, making electricity the third most stolen commodity following credit card information and cars.
Evidence from other studies shows that electricity theft is an increasing problem worldwide, and Ghana is not immune either. An exercise conducted by the Electricity Company of Ghana (now Power Distribution Company) mid last year revealed that 11,890 out of 250,616 electricity meters inspected had been tampered with. Per regional distribution, the thievery is prevalent in the Ashanti Region, followed by Accra West and the Central Region.
While we seek to find a more sustainable approach to deal with the canker in Ghana, it is important to also find the actors in this business of stealing power, and the factors underlying their actions.
Actors and Motives
Consumers, and staff of power utilities cum their accredited agents are identified as the major actors in electricity theft. And the stealing is not only confined to the residential sector and involving home-owners and renters, but with businesses and individuals who operates energy intensive businesses like steel, paper, and chemicals. Churches, hospitals, police barracks, schools, and even some state agencies, are among the list of consumers who steal electric power.
The stealing of electricity is found to be closely related to governance indicators, with higher levels of theft in countries without effective accountability, competent power sector staff, political stability, good infrastructure, efficient government structure, low corruption levels, and accountability of power sector staff.
Studies reveal that electricity theft is influenced by economic and political reasons, including poverty and unemployment. Others have placed the blame on higher electricity tariffs, corruption borne out of sheer greed on the part of customers who want to maximize profit or meet their insatiable desires, illiteracy, poor quality of services offered to customers and fueling resentments, psychology of consumers who are susceptible to stealing, and weak enforcement of laws governing electricity theft.
Methods of Stealing
Different methods are used in stealing power in different jurisdictions, and these methods includes meter tampering, by-passing the meter, non-payment of bills, connection directly from the main power line, physical destruction of meter, swapping the input and output connections and neutral wire grounding, interfering with meter counter movement to change consumption reading, fake billing, tampering of central data-base, and using illegal pre-paid voucher.
Connecting directly to the grid, by-passing the meter, reversing meter counter to change consumption readings, halting the movement of meter counter; remains the commonest methods in stealing power in Pakistan. In Jamaica, by-passing the meter, and illegal connection are the main techniques used in stealing. The most prevalent recorded case of stealing electricity in Ghana involve meter by-passing and meter tampering.
Quantifying Electricity Theft
It is difficult to quantify the electricity revenue lost to illegal connections, unbilled consumption, and non-payment of power consumed. However, in some jurisdictions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, losses incurred through stealing outstretch 50 percent. It literally means that half of the revenue is lost to theft. Every year in India alone, more than a quarter of electricity supplied is lost to theft, with value estimated in the billions of dollars. According to utilities in Nigeria, they lose more than 40 percent of their electricity supplied to theft.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) reports loosing close to a quarter of its revenues from power supplied due to power stealing. A recent monitoring by ECG in Accra revealed that the total amount of revenues the company lost through the nefarious activities came close to GH¢46 million. The Accra West Region of the power distributor managed to retrieve GH¢5,288,148 from 2,550 customers who illegally utilized electricity between January and December 2018. The amount is said to be 28percent increment over similar recoveries made in 2017 and representing a total of GH¢5,033,799 kilowatt hour of electricity unit.
In the Ashanti Region, ECG retrieved over GH¢21.5 million from individuals and companies which had illegally connected electricity to their premises in 2018. The amount collected covered 17.75 million kilowatt hour of power stolen.
Effects of electricity thefts
Power theft has adverse impact on power utilities operations, as it deprives them of raising the needed revenue that could be used to maintain the network to guarantee regular and increased supply of power. The revenue loss may also compromise the compliance with standard observations, regulatory targets and business efficiency. The ripple effect of the revenue loss to the utilities is that, legitimate consumers will pay more for electricity in the form of higher tariffs, and government may be compelled to subsidize in some cases. The revenue loss also affects the prompt payments to power producers and transmitters.
The unsafe and illegal connections of the electricity and meter tampering also leads to injuries and fatalities. Aside posing danger to the persons who indulge in the illegal connection, it also exposes the rest of the community to danger.
Illegal electric connections lead to unplanned outages as the network overloads and trips because it may be carrying more users than the designed number, resulting in production downtime, weak economic growth and job creation, appliance damages, and whole lot of inconveniences to legitimate and paying customers as well. Moreover, those who connect illegally tends to be wasteful in their use of the power because they are not paying for it.
Advanced technologies to deal with power theft
Measures so far taken by Ghana to deal with power theft have included; appealing to the public to report any act of electricity theft, education of the public about the consequences of electricity theft, embarking on monitoring and inspection exercises with Police involvement on some occasions, prosecution of offenders, embarking on customer incentive campaigns, the installation of pre-paid meters, and to some extent the introduction of smart meters.
These initiatives have largely failed to deliver a more sustainable solution, as most have been quite reactionary than forward-looking. The pre-paid metering system have largely ensured the collection of revenue. But the smart meters have proven to take bite out of theft cases, and this is where the cure is found to exist.
Smart meters (without large computers and complex expensive algorithms) automatically send their readings to the power distribution entity, with the need for a technician to take readings eliminated. Beyond removing the human intervention, utilities have the advantage of examining new approaches to identify theft cases using real-time data through smart metering and advanced grid sensors, to appreciate clearer the losses on their systems.
This can be achieved through analytics; which encompasses transaction systems (like billing and customer service), data-warehousing system (for information on consumption and payment etc.), and a reporting system. By reviewing past data of a customer, utilities can calculate the approximate consumption and structure an acceptance limits of daily consumption in the future. From the inference that power consume by customers are repeated given a time frame, theft can be established when the real-time data is noted to irregularly exceeds the anticipated and acceptance limits for a particular period. Aside the data on a particular customer, the analytical model integrates consumption pattern of a community, weather patterns and many other parameters to enhance the degree of accuracy.
Electricity will continue to remain one of the key determinants of socio-economic transformation of any nation, playing a vital role within the residential, commercial, transportation, and industrial sectors of the economy. Hence beyond technology that monitor and detect strange activities from remote locations, combating electricity theft require determination on the part the policy makers and utilities to curb electricity theft in Ghana.
The author is the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES). He has over 22 years of experience in the technical and management areas of oil and gas management, banking and finance, and mechanical engineering; working in both the gold mining and oil sector. He is currently working as an oil trader, consultant, and policy analyst in the global energy sector. He serves as a resource to many global energy research firms, including Argus Media.
Maduro Channels Oil Sales Revenues To Russia
The Nicolas Maduro government is directing revenues from crude oil sales to Russia’s Rosneft as a way around U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports citing documents and unnamed sources.
The Venezuelan government, according to its investigation, invoices oil sales to the Russian giant, which pays for these sales at a discount to the market price. After this, Reuters says, Rosneft sells the oil on and collects the full price. Among the companies asked to take part in this payments scheme was Reliance Industries, India’s largest refiner and PDVSA’s biggest paying client, Reuters noted.
Rosneft is one of the few foreign partners of PDVSA that have operations in the troubled country and it is also one of its largest creditors, with amounts lent since 2006 reaching US$16 billion. The loans are on a cash-for-oil basis, like a lot of PDVSA’s loan agreements with Chinese state energy players.
The payments scheme comes as Washington seeks to tighten the noose around Venezuela as it wants to topple Maduro and replace him with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president of the country in January and has since then been recognized as the legal leader of Venezuela by most Western countries.
Russia and China, however, have stayed away from the recognition drive, with Russia directly calling the U.S. sanctions against PDVSA illegal and saying it will continue to support the elected Venezuelan government.
China, for its part, has been more guarded in its statement, although earlier this month a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Minister slammed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for accusing Beijing of taking an active part in the economic collapse of Venezuela.
“The words and deeds are despicable. But lies are lies, even if you say it a thousand times, they are still lies. Mr Pompeo, you can stop,” Lu Kang said.
Source: Oilprice.com