Featured Articles

SPDC Nigeria : Esau’s hand and Jacob’s voice

December 07, 2018 | Field Case Studies

By Sunny Awhefeada |  – The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) manifests ambivalence in its dealings with the people of the Niger Delta region where it has explored and exploited crude oil for six decades beginning in 1956 when it struck fortune in Oloibiri. Shell (as SPDC) is generally and sometimes fondly called among the people of the Niger Delta region has become a significant index in the consciousness of the people. Shell registered its presence in many communities where it found oil and turned their …

Nigeria heads out to sea in search of safer future for oil development

October 30, 2018 | Field Case Studies

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo | – When it comes to the future of its oil industry, Nigeria is looking miles out to sea. By early next year, the largest  offshore production vessel ever delivered to Nigeria will start pumping crude from a deposit deep beneath the seabed, boosting the West African country’s oil output by about 10%. The project, viewed as the most ambitious in Nigeria’s history, could help to push production to a record by 2022. The project will help to boost the share of the nation’s …

The Oil & Gas Industry and Climate Change

September 12, 2018 | Latest Featured Articles

By Steve Okoekpen | – In contemporary discuss, no issue has divided global opinion quite like climate change. Many including the US President Donald Trump dismiss notions of “global warming” and the idea that human-driven activity can impact weather on a global scale. Experts and climate change campaigners, including the former US Vice President Al Gore and Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action, have raised concerns with the current US administration’s roll back of climate change rules put in place by its predecessor.  President …

Nigeria’s NNPC, Oil Industry Operators Seek Diversification of Nigeria’s Economy

August 23, 2018 | Field Case Studies

By Stanley Opara | – Nigeria’s oil sector is fast losing its relevance given the market realities of today, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) recently warned. With this, the country might be taking an uncalculated risk, as actions by the Federal Government have not shown its readiness to depend less on oil. STANLEY OPARA looks at the status quo and the pressing need to see beyond oil. Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and average Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil price reveals a strong …

Is Nigeria’s Oil Industry On The Road To Recovery?

August 08, 2018 | Field Case Studies

By Global Risk Insights | – Over the past few years, Nigeria, Africa’s top oil exporter, has been beset by a multitude of problems, notably decreased crude production and exports, oil theft and pipeline attacks, stalled economic reforms and recovery, and the threat of oil price volatility. While the Nigerian oil industry has been cautiously optimistic about overcoming these upheavals in 2018, the nation has and will continue to face several acute challenges. In May 2018, the Nigerian petroleum industry underwent production complications as outages …

Are US oil prices set for a test of $76?

June 27, 2018 | Field Case Studies

By Michael Hewson | – For someone who has claimed to be unhappy about rising oil prices the Trump administration sure has a funny way of showing it, or taking steps to achieve it. Having implemented a raft of tax cuts at the beginning of the year to put more money in consumers’ pockets the White House administration’s action since then have served to erode the benefit of that fiscal boost, over the few weeks. In the wake of pulling the US out of the …

As Trump Goes Nuclear On Iranian Oil, Europe Must Match His Brinkmanship

June 27, 2018 | Roundtable Discussion

By Esfandyar Batmanghelidj -|- In the view of veteran observers of the oil industry, Trump has “gone nuclear.” Speaking during a background briefing on Tuesday, a senior state department official announced that the Trump administration wants to completely eliminate imports of Iranian oil by its current customers. The official told journalists that, during a tour of countries that has already begun with a visit to Japan, U.S. officials will be “requesting that their oil imports go to zero, without question.” Until recently, there had been an expectation …

Algeria’s Sonatrach Turns to Technology as It Aims to Grow Production

April 27, 2018 | Technology Reviews

By Abdelghani Henni | – Algeria national energy firm Sonatrach is working to introduce new technologies to offset declining production decline and optimize output, as the company lags in deploying the latest technologies in its fields. Speaking at the opening ceremony of Sonatrach’s Scientific and Technical Days (JST11) event, which took place April 16-19 in Oran, Algeria, Sonatrach CEO Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour said the company is looking to use technology to improve efficiency and boost production. Algeria must “find solutions for raising its reserves, including …