The Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (Mobil) against the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

Mobil had approached the court to challenge the competence of NMDPRA to regulate certain aspects of its operations like butane lifting which it maintained were integrated to its Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) and thus within the exclusive regulatory purview of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).… Read the rest

The Federal Government, yesterday, said implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 was yielding positive results in the area of addressing the infrastructure decay that had long plagued the gas sector.

Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, revealed this at the Second Domestic Gas and Gas Infrastructure Summit, with the theme, “Building a Sustainable, Resilient Gas and Renewable Energy Sector in Nigeria and Beyond,” organized by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).… Read the rest

The Senate has tasked its ad- hoc committee to investigate all contracts awarded for rehabilitation of all state owned refineries from 2010 to 2023.

This followed the adoption of a motion on “Urgent need to investigate various turnaround maintenance projects of Nigerian refineries, to uncover waste and forestall further waste of scarce public resources, by Sen. Karimi Sunday ( APC- Kogi) at plenary on Tuesday.… Read the rest

The Federal Government has tasked oil and gas experts to proffer permanent solutions to challenges ranging from low productivity, oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and gas flaring in the local oil industry.

Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), made the call on Monday in Abuja, at the opening of the third Biennial International Conference on Hydrocarbon Science and Technology (ICHST 2023).… Read the rest

The Federal Government of Nigeria has won the legal case against Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited in a London court on Monday.

The judgment was delivered after five years of legal frameworks which have finally been to the advantage of Nigeria, as the court quashed the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID.

In a ruling delivered by e-mail, Robin Knowles, the Justice of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the ground that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.… Read the rest

THE Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, yesterday, said that industry deregulation has actually seen a 33.58 per cent reduction in fuel consumption of Nigerians. Ahmed who stated this at the ongoing Oil Trading and Logistics, OTL, Africa Week, 2023, in Lagos, explained: “Our data reveal that after the announcement of deregulation, an average volume of 44.3 million litres per day was evacuated for distribution nationwide which implies a 33.58 per cent reduction from the 66.7 million litres per day before the deregulation.… Read the rest

The price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol increased year-on-year, YoY, by 226.75 per cent to N626.21 per litre in September 2023, from N191.65 per litre, recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.

However, in its latest report – Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) Price Watch for September 2023 – obtained by Energy Vanguard, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, indicated that Taraba State topped the price chart at N665.70 per litre, overshooting the post-subsidy adjusted price of N600.35 per litre for that region by 9.8 per cent.… Read the rest

THE Federal Government,  yesterday, admitted that Nigeria was ill-prepared to take advantage of the significant increase in the demand for natural gas by European countries following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war last year.

Following the outbreak of the war and imposition of sanctions, Russia cut gas supply to European countries leading to a huge energy crisis and increased demand for alternative sources of gas.… Read the rest

Five months after the Bola Tinubu administration removed subsidies on petrol, major crises bedevilling the petroleum sector continue with ripple effects on the livelihood of Nigerians.

President Tinubu had, in his inaugural address on 29 May, announced the removal of the subsidy, to lift a major financial burden off the back of the government.

The Nigerian government had for decades subsidized and fixed retail prices of petroleum products.… Read the rest