Nigeria to issue marginal oilfield licences on Tuesday – NUPRC
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said in a statement yesterday that the country will give prospecting licenses on Tuesday, June 28, 2022, to companies that were successful in their respective bids to develop marginal oilfields.
This comes after two years when the country, in pursuant to the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, sort bids for the development of these oil blocks.
According to NUPRC, most of the marginal oilfields are located in the Niger Delta regions of the country, with the south-south geopolitical zone having 78 active fields out of 159 oil fields in the country.
According to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), a marginal field is a smaller oil block that may not produce enough net income to make it worth developing at a given time and/or which has not been exploited for a long time due to factors such as the size of its reserves, lack of nearby infrastructure or profitable consumers, and some other factors.
Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, said in a statement that issuing the licences was one of the most critical steps in ensuring that peace, progress, and development were returned to restive regions of the Niger Delta.
Aside from restoring peace and promoting development in the restive Niger Delta regions, the government wants to use the sale to raise enough money to bolster its finances and increase local participation in the oil and gas sector.
Zamfara to allow individuals to carry guns against bandits
Zamfara State will start issuing gun licences to individuals who wish to defend themselves against armed bandits and kidnappers, the state authorities have said.
Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, the state’s commissioner of information said this on Sunday, giving a different dimension to arresting the spike in kidnap cases in the state, which is known to have one of the largest deposits of gold in the country.
For more than four years, armed gangs have terrorised Nigerians living in the northwest of the country. From kidnapping to maiming, the once peaceful region looks like a ghost of itself as Nigerians residing in these troubled states flock to the southern part of the country.
This action is another measure the state government believes will arrest banditry and kidnapping after previous attempts to negotiate, give amnesty to bandits, and empower the state police have failed to yield desired results.
Zamfara and Kaduna states have been most affected by the activities of bandits who daily terrorise farming communities and kidnap travellers, farmers, and peace-loving Nigerians.
Dosara said that the state governor had directed the state police commissioner to issue 500 gun licences in each of the 19 emirates in the state to those wishing to defend themselves.
“The government is ready to facilitate people, especially our farmers, to secure basic weapons for defending themselves.”
Eroton NORSDRA alert of oil spill
The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and Eroton Exploration and Production Limited have said that a well at a site managed by Eroton Exploration and Production Limited has been spilling oil into the Niger Delta for more than a week now.
Eroton Exploration and Production Limited, which is an indigenous oil firm that operates the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 18, said that the oil spillage incident started on June 15 and its findings showed that vandalism was the cause.
The company added that the wellhead platform, which is a type of oil platform that houses personnel and machinery to extract oil and natural gas from wells in the ocean bed, had been removed, making it difficult to gain access to the well.
The company reassured that it was working around the clock to address the issue and restore normalcy to the platform.
“Our team of well engineers are working with contractors and evaluating the safest procedure that will be required to bring the well under control,” the company said.
Meanwhile, Idris Musa, the Chief Executive of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, said on Sunday that Eroton had reported the spill to authorities, blaming it on a leak from a wellhead.
Read also: INEC accepts to extend voters’ registration – Reps
Brent slips amid recession concerns
London Brent crude futures slipped temporarily below $112 per barrel this morning but returned to $113 per barrel as the Group of Seven nations discussed a price cap strategy on Russian oil.
The G-7 also discussed how best to protect their economies from the possible recession most likely to weigh on their markets.
According to Trading Economics, the measures against Russia will work by placing trade restrictions on “insurance and shipping” while only allowing the transportation of Russian crude oil sold below a threshold to pass.
INEC extends voters registration exercise indefinitely
As the all-important general election draws nearer, calls by concerned Nigerians to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend voter registration have yielded fruit, with the electoral body stating an indefinite extension of the exercise.
According to AriseTV, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of INEC, stated this during the closing ceremony of the musical concert titled “# YouthVoteCountNG”, aimed at encouraging and guiding eligible voters ahead of the general election.
“I assure you that the voters’ registration exercise will not end on June 30 as earlier proposed.”
“We will continue to register all who come out to register and ensure that all that are eligible get registered,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Aisha Dukku, Chairman of the House committee on electoral matters, had said that the exercise had been extended by 60 days, putting an end to the June 30 deadline. However, with this statement, Nigerians will be sure that they won’t be disenfranchised.
The chairman also promised that the electoral body would issue Permanent Voter Cards to all registered voters by October this year.
He urged Nigerians not to sell their votes, as doing so would only result in selling their destinies to corrupt politicians.
