Ghana: Aker submits $4billion plan to develop oilfield
Parliament slashes GNPC’s 2019 budget by $80m
PDS gives Kokrobite power, after making them sign a bond of good behaviour
“There are as yet no signs that (Algeria’s) actual production and exports have been affected, but it’s a situation that we will watch and see how it develops,” Atkinson said.
Protesters have been calling on oil and gas workers to join them in the streets. Sonatrach CEO, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour in a statement in the company newsletter said that the employees at Sonatrach have the right to join street protests like the country’s other citizens, but their first duty should be to keep working. In the newsletter, Kaddour said he understood some staff wanted to join the historic protests and he was not restricting them from doing so. However, he appealed to employees to keep working. Source: petroleumafrica.com
Gabon’s Crude Slips Out Of Favor With Oil Giants
The strike at VAALCO Energy’s terminal, which took offline 14,000 barrels per day, is expected to last five days, according to ONEP, the union responsible for organizing the workers’ strike. ONEP has organized other strikes in Gabon’s oil sector as recently as December, over six workers who were fired from French Total.
This time around, the strike has been called over the issue of annual leave for its represented workers.
Gabon, which lies on the Atlantic Coast in Central Africa, though small, is a member of OPEC. Gabon first became a full member of the organization back in 1975, but terminated its membership in 1995. On July 1, 2016, Gabon re-joined the OPEC group of the oil exporting nations.
Gabon’s oil production stands at 203,000 bpd as of OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report—a marked decline from the days of 300,000+ bpd decades ago. Still, Gabon is Africa’s fifth largest oil producer. Oil accounts for 80 percent of all Gabonese exports, 45 percent of Gabon’s GDP, and 60 percent of its fiscal revenue in recent years, according to the World Bank. It remains a vital component of Gabon’s economy.
Gabon has substantial oil reserves, but efforts to attract foreign investments have been slow going, mired by regulatory uncertainties, stiff corporation taxes, and political instability, and it has moved its closing date twice for the current offshore licensing round, which is now set to end in September versus the original closing date of April.
A failed coup in January may have further spooked foreign oil companies that may otherwise be interested in its lucrative oil industry.
ONEP said that today’s strike may be extended beyond the promised five days if its demands go unanswered. Source: Oilprice.com
Kokrobite residents promise safety for PDS officers following assault
Ivory Coast: Electricity regulators index report gains support
Minister Radebe remarks on IRP and Eskom unbundling
Unbundling of EskomMinister Radebe reflected that President Cyril Ramaphosa previously pronounced the need to unbundle Eskom into the generation, transmission and distribution functions. He said work is unfolding in that regard. “This matter has been in the making for years, yet it didn’t get anywhere and created a lot of uncertainty regarding the future electricity supply industry structure. It is a fact that the financing of new power infrastructure has become very challenging given Eskom’s current structure.” According to Radebe, financial institutions have become increasingly averse to pumping funds into an Eskom that is based on the vertically integrated utility model. He further noted that the difficulty of financing power infrastructure projects in Africa generally, and in South Africa specifically, has some of its reasons anchored in policy uncertainty and poor regulatory environment. “I have to be very clear as well, and indicate that we are not talking about the privatisation of Eskom, but rather it’s unbundling into the functional areas of generation, transmission and distribution,” Minister Radebe stated. In the meantime, the minister called for increased energy efficiency practices in hopes of balancing electricity supply and demand. “It is a fact that a successful energy efficiency programme results in the reduction of municipal revenues and we would be doing municipalities a disservice if we did not confront this problem,” he added.
Kpando court jails electrician 7 years for posing as PDS worker
GRIDCo to spend GHS500,000 to replace damaged pylons
Energy sector business is not galamsey fight – Jinapor cautions Amewu
Oil Workers At Libya’s Largest Field Want Salary Hikes
The government decided to raise the salaries by 67 percent back in 2013, but the raise never materialized, while Sharara continues to suffer from frequent closures due to armed groups occupying it.
According to Reuters, workers at two other oil fields in Libya are also demanding a salary increase by two thirds.
Libya’s internationally recognized National Oil Corporation (NOC) supports the salary hike demands, saying that oil workers continue to work under extremely difficult circumstances, adding that it was disappointing that a salary increase has not been included in Libyan government’s budget for this year.
In early March, the Sharara oil field returned to operations after being closed for production in December, when clashes between militant groups forced NOC to institute a force majeure.
Sharara has been one of the main reasons the North African country is widely seen as a wild card in global oil price forecasts.
Since it accounts for around a third of the country’s total oil output, Sharara, like the export terminals in the Oil Crescent, has become a natural target for various groups vying for power and control over Libya’s oil wealth.As of last week, Libya’s oil production was 1.2 billion pbd according to Tripoli-based finance minister Faraj Bomtar, and a further increase is expected in the coming days.
Sharara was said to be pumping 270,000 bpd as of March 19.While rising production at Sharara could boost Libyan oil production and revenues, security issues and frequent outages at the field and at other Libyan facilities and ports make market observers and OPEC cautious about predicting supply from the country.
Source: Oilprice.com
Next Maritime Dispute-Egypt/Sudan
Just recently Egypt’s South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Co. or Ganope, offered up 10 oil and gas exploration blocks in the Red Sea for sale through a tender, with bids due to close on August 1. Sudan claims that at least some of those blocks are in its waters and urges oil and gas companies against submitting bids on them.
The Halayeb triangle, which is controlled by Egypt, has been claimed by Sudan since the 1950s. Cairo says it is Egyptian territory and it has long been a source of contention between the two neighbors.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Badreddin Abdullah expressed Sudan’s protest at the offer and called on Egypt “not to proceed in this direction that contradicts the legal status of the Halayeb triangle,” the Ministry said in a statement.
On March 20, Saad al-Deen Hussein al-Bishri, Minister of State at Khartoum’s Ministry of Oil, said that offering four of the 10 blocks and other unnamed ones “within Sudanese lands in the Halayeb area … are considered a direct intrusion into the authorities of the Sudanese Oil and Gas Ministry in granting licenses for oil and gas exploration in that area.”
A report by SUNA, Sudan’s state-news agency, cited al Bishiri as saying “It is considered an illegal operation that carries legal consequences which will be borne by the entities carrying out this operation.”
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry “warns companies operating in the field of oil and gas exploration against submitting any bids in the mentioned area”, it said in the statement. Sudan “renews the invitation extended to brotherly Egypt to use peaceful means to end this border dispute.” Source: petroleumafrica.com