3 Nigeria oil firm staffers killed fixing pipeline

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5je_0XUIAZi-aIhSap1YrbbazmcaQ?docId=a358cf2a23e8449885e28cb1a36c424a

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's state-run oil company says suspected oil thieves have killed three of its employees near Nigeria's commercial capital.

Fidel Pepple, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said in a statement Monday that gunmen shot at a team of engineers and technicians doing repairs on an oil pipeline in a town just north of Lagos this weekend. Others were hurt in the attack, he said.

Pepple said the pipeline was under repair after being vandalized.

Oil theft is common in Nigeria, an impoverished West African nation.

However, such attacks are rare around Lagos.
They typically happen in the nation's oil-rich southern delta, a maze of creeks and swamps about the size of Portugal.

Nigeria, an OPEC member, is a top exporter of crude to the U.S.

 

Nigeria Oil & Gas Trade and Investment Forum

The Nigeria Oil & Gas Trade and Investment Forum (NOGTIF) will take place in Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone, Nigeria from the 20-21 September 2012. The conference and exhibition will bring together hundreds of senior level decision and policy makers from the global oil and gas industry, focussing on trade and investment opportunities in Nigeria and the oil and gas sector, particularly the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone.

Theme: “Harnessing Investment Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Sector: The role of the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zones in the Transformation agenda”
Organizers: Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in collaboration with Orlean Invest West Africa.
Participants:National oil & gas investors and international investors from the Middle East, Asia, USA, Europe and Africa.
Why attend?
Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, managed by D.M.S. (Nigeria) Ltd, is the only Free Zone in the world dedicated solely to oil and gas – you will have the opportunity to meet with key players in the industry, and hear from leading experts including members of the Ministry of Trade and Investment.
The first ever Nigeria Oil & Gas Trade and Investment Forum will offer delegates the opportunity to:
· Learn more about the Free Trade Zone and investment opportunities
· Hear from Nigerian dignitaries including the Minister of Trade and Investment
· Network with top global executives and key decision makers
· Discover new products and suppliers from a range of exhibiting companies
Conference Programme

The two day conference will feature high level speakers from the oil and gas industry, including Nigerian dignitaries and Ministers providing keynote speeches, technical sessions and informative panel discussions with the following topics:

· NigeriaOil & Gas Free Trade Zones: Impacts, Challenges and the Way Forward
· Deregulation of the Petroleum Downstream Sector: A Transformational Instrument for Wealth and Job Creation
· The Public Private Partnership Arrangement (PPPA): The Onne Port/Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Experience
· Free Trade Zone: A Sure Destination for the Achievement of Nigeria Content Policy
· The Role of Immigration in Facilitating Trade & Investment in the Free Trade Zone
 
Exhibition

The exhibition will run alongside the two day conference, offering visitors the chance to meet with high profile oil and gas companies, as well as Governmental Ministries, Departments and Agencies to discuss opportunities for investment.

Together, the conference and exhibition will provide an effective way to learn, network and discuss investment opportunities with your colleagues from around the world.

Free Zone Tour

Delegates will also be able to enjoy a tour of the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone – the only Free Zone in the world dedicated solely to the oil and gas industry. The tour will include visits to premises such as coating companies, subsea/wellhead clients and project/service companies.

Stolt-Nielsen's New Orleans terminal affected by Hurricane Isaac

 

http://tankstoragemag.com/industry_news.php?item_id=5331

Stolt-Nielsen's Stolthaven New Orleans terminal in Braithwaite, Florida has flooded.

Hurricane Isaac caused the levee surge protection system to fail which caused the terminal to flood, with parts being under as much as 7ft of water.

No one was injured and Stolt-Nielsen says it has had no reports of any environmental issues or failure of product containment systems.

The site was shut in advance of Hurricane Isaac's landfall to reduce the amount of damage sustained by the terminal and possible resulting environmental impact.

Stolt-Nielsen says an assessment of any damage sustained will be performed once the weather conditions improve and the water levels lower. The terminal will remain shut down until it is deemed safe to resume operations.

VLCC Owners Paying Clients to Ship Oil

 

http://www.marinelink.com/news/clients-owners-paying347416.aspx

Owners of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) by agreeing to current low rates are effectively paying shippers for the priviledge.
Hire costs for the largest oil tankers are so low and the oversupply of the vessels is so acute that shipowners are paying to carry crude for clients, BTPremium was informed by Braemar Seascope.

Owners of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) that haul two million barrels are losing US$5,700 daily on a return voyage on the industry's benchmark route to Japan from the Middle East, the London-based shipbroker said in a report e-mailed last week. That rate fails to account for possible speed cuts aimed at reducing cutting use of fuel, owners' biggest expense, known in the industry as slow-steaming.

Returns for VLCCs that ship about 20 per cent of seaborne crude are at record lows on the two most profitable routes for the ships, to Asia and the US from the Middle East, as too many tankers compete for business, Frontline Ltd, the largest operator of the vessels, said last week.

Source: BTPremium

Singapore-owned oil tanker hijacked in Nigeria

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_singapore/view/1224175/1/.html

LAGOS - Pirates have hijacked a Singapore-owned oil tanker in Nigerian waters, the third attack in just over two weeks in the Gulf of Guinea, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said Wednesday.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it is working with the owners and managers of the tanker to ascertain the facts and confirm the status of the vessel and crew.

The IMB said the tanker was seized within the port of Lagos, but Nigerian authorities insisted the attack happened farther offshore.

The vessel, which had 23 crew on board, was laden with fuel, IMB's Kuala Lumpur-based piracy reporting centre said, adding that the pirates were sailing the ship into the open sea.

It did not say how the pirates hijacked the tanker on Tuesday evening.

"We have informed the Nigerian authorities who are taking action," Noel Choong, head of the IMB's Malaysia-based piracy reporting centre, told AFP.

The crew members had locked themselves in a safe room, said Choong, who added: "We are concerned about their safety and the spate of hijackings."

Nigeria's navy spokesman, Commodore Kabir Aliyu, identified the tanker as the Abu Dhabi Star.

"The vessel was hijacked last night off the coast of Nigeria. We are trying to get the details of the seizure but everything is being done to ensure the safety of the crew," he told AFP.

A tracking device placed the tanker 31.4 nautical miles (60 kilometres, 35 miles) away from the Lagos port at roughly 1100GMT on Wednesday and the navy had launched an operation to reclaim the vessel, Aliyu said, declining to give further details.

The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) denied that the vessel had been hijacked within the Lagos port complex.

"There has been no hijacking of vessels in the Lagos ports. In fact, it cannot happen and it has never happened. If there was any seizure it would be on the high sea," NPA spokesman Michael Ajayi told AFP.

Ships have previously been attacked while moored near the port as they wait to dock.

Pirates hijacked and looted two oil tankers off nearby Togo last month. The two ships and all crew members were later freed.

The IMB's Choong said the same criminal syndicate could be behind the latest attack since the modus operandi was the same.

"They would seize the ship for about five days -- ransack the crew's cabin and syphon the oil to another pirate vessel," he said.

The IMB has repeatedly warned ships plying the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa to be vigilant and called on authorities to step up patrols, saying last year the region was emerging as a new piracy "hot spot".

The area has seen 37 attacks, including several hijackings, kidnappings and killings, so far this year. Pirates usually target cargo, loading it onto other ships to sell on the black market.

Cyrus Mody of IMB, who closely tracks the region, said pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea have long gone under-reported and that the area had likely seen more violence than recent figures suggest.

As a result, some companies working in the region may not have been fully prepared for the risks involved.

Nigeria and nearby Benin launched joint patrols last year in a bid to combat the problem.

- AFP/al/ck/ir

Gas prices ABC news

Ghana to Feed Energy to Benin

 

http://www.petroleumafrica.com/en/newsarticle.php?NewsID=14169

In Ghana the government has initiated a project that will reconfigure its energy sector with the goal of supplying at least one of its neighbors with energy. The country’s president, John Dramani Mahama, announced the project on August 30 saying it would enable the country to supply liquefied gas and substantial electricity to Benin.

Mahama said his country would collaborate with its neighbors to share the proportional advantages that would enable them to specialize for adequate production for both domestic and external consumption.

Mahama made the announcement during a visit from Benin’s minister of interior and home security, Benoit Comlan Degla.