Energy

IOCs fueling insecurity in Niger Delta — Gov. Dickson

Published

5 years ago

March 22, 2019

grassroots

BY: Ikenna Oluka

Bayelsa State Governor, Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson, on Wednesday night launched the Rise For Bayelsa Campaign, an initiative to attract global attention to the ravaging effects of oil spills, pollution and environmental degradation in the state.

At the event held at the Dr. Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre in Yenagoa, he was however unsparing of the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the state.

He accused them of constituting the biggest threat to the security and stability of the state and the Niger Delta region under the guise of awarding crude oil pipeline surveillance contracts.

His Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor as accusing the oil multinationals of funding terrorism, criminality and breakdown of law and order in the state.

His words: “They are not only polluting our land, creeks, waterways and communities. They are also taking their terrorist and criminal activities to yet another frightening level.

“All these cases of killings during elections, people terrorising Southern Ijaw, killing people and even affecting our democratic practices funded by Agip in the likeness of crude oil pipeline surveillance contractors and forming a parallel government in this state compromise all the layers of security in our country.

“They have been killing, maiming and terrorising people in Nembe Bassambiri. A certain Kodjo is working as an Agip contractor funded by the company. In Southern Ijaw, there is a certain David Lyon and his people whose activities are being funded by Agip.

”Agip is not interested in the stability and safety of our communities. This is how far they have escalated their terrorist activities. So when we talk of environmental terrorism perpetrated, funded and encouraged by IOCs, you come to Bayelsa and you see a classic case.

“The launch of the Rise for Bayelsa Campaign would herald the beginning of a long crusade by my government as a fulfilment of the commitment made during the last World Environmental Day to shift attention from education and infrastructure deficit to the scourge of environmental terrorism.”

Dickson said the short documentary aired during the launch was a true reflection of the hardship the people of Bayelsa and the entire Niger Delta have been experiencing for over 60 years at the hands of a federal government that does not care about the wellbeing, welfare and survival of the people of the region beyond the oil.

He chastised the federal government for its failure to enforce environmental and safety standards as well as regulations on the oil companies operating in the region.

He called on all, especially the ICT-compliant youths of the state, to use the internet to portray the Bayelsa story so as to conscientise the Nigerian authorities and the world at large toward eliciting support and understanding.

“This has gone from that to terrorism against our poor, oppressed people who are left alone at the mercy of organised cartels and international oil companies. If you look at their practices and activities in this country, in this state and in the Niger Delta, they are carrying on as criminal gangs with their collaborators. Some local, some foreign,” he said while urging Bayelsans at home and in the Diaspora to support the campaign.

In a welcome address, the Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Ebipatei Apaingolo, said the activities of IOCs have had colossal negative effects on the environment and the commonwealth of the people of Bayelsa, who are mainly farmers and fishermen.

Apaingolo, who explained that it is largely a corollary of incessant oil spills and gas flaring without any form of environmental remediation or payment of adequate compensation to affected communities, stressed that despite the outcome of the Kyoto Protocol In 1997, it is unfortunate that oil companies still flare gas in Bayelsa and the Niger Delta region.

“Studies have shown that about 13 million barrels of crude oil have been spilled in the Niger Delta since the 1950s. For example, the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment recorded over 3,000 spills from Agip facilities between 2012 and 2018.”

According to him, oil spills have contaminated rivers and streams, the air, plants while farm produce in the Niger Delta are no longer consumable as elements of carcinogenic hydrocarbon are found in tuber crops.

He said the UN Environmental Programme noted that continued exposure to contaminated water, air and soil have put life expectancy rate in the Niger Delta at approximately 10 per cent below the national figure.

•Photo by Michael Owi shows, L-R: Bayelsa State Head, Media & Events, Abuja, Mr. Ono Akpe, Nollywood star, Mr. Francis Duru, Commissioner for Trade & Investment, Bayelsa State, Mrs. Funkazi Koroye-Crooks, her Environment counterpart, Mr. Ebipatei Apaingolo, film actor & producer, Miss Tamara Eteimo, music star, Timi Dakolo, and Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Affairs, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, shortly after a press conference, at Government House, Yenagoa, ahead of an awareness campaign programme on oil pollution in the Niger Delta, tagged ‘Rise for Bayelsa.’

He added that in response to the environmental injustice, the Rise for Bayelsa Campaign was launched to attract international attention to the malicious and damaging operations of oil companies in the state.

Apaingolo said the fundamental demands of the campaign include the oil multinationals cleaning up the environment contaminated by oil spills, payment of adequate compensation to all affected communities, investing in the host communities, and providing lasting solution to the perennial problems of oil spills.

Energy

AVEVA Appoints Joanna Mainguy as New Sustainability Accelerator Director

Published

2 months ago

March 13, 2024

grassroots

Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director at AVEVA

Joanna Mainguy will steer strategies for sustainability innovation across AVEVA’s portfolio and partner ecosystem, furthering ESG targets for 2025 and beyond

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Joanna Mainguy as Sustainability Accelerator Director.

Joanna’s appointment testifies to AVEVA’s dedication to strengthening the company’s sustainability impact in line with advancing global climate commitments.

As Sustainability Accelerator Director, Joanna Mainguy will focus exclusively on sustainability solutions and strategies to accelerate innovation that will help AVEVA’s customers to achieve their net-zero targets.

She will look at how AVEVA leverages current market and customer analysis to inform its in-house development team, advise on new customer collaborations and on how AVEVA should grow its partnership network and M&A pipeline to reflect its sustainability priorities.

Joanna will lead the implementation of a sustainability solutions plan tailored to meet the most pressing needs of AVEVA’s industrial customers on low-carbon transition, circularity and resilience, via an integrated product, marketing and sales approach. She will work closely with AVEVA’s portfolio, business area and R&D leads to continue to develop new sustainability capabilities and drive collaboration on go-to-market initiatives that support industry with contributing to an accelerated energy transition and shift to a circular economy.

Joanna was formerly Industry Director, EMEA, for Energy & Sustainability at Microsoft, where she led strategic engagements with major energy providers and supported the energy transition with digital solutions. She has worked across the entire energy value chain and has more than 15 years of experience in process industries and the energy sector, including work for major system integrators, software and energy companies.

Lisa Wee, Global Head of Sustainability, AVEVA, said: “We are excited to welcome Joanna to AVEVA. She will bolster our mission to enable faster uptake of existing sustainability solutions across the industrial landscape, while in parallel we continue to invest in product capabilities and partnerships that will push out the frontiers of sustainability innovation for industry. At AVEVA we look to lead by example on sustainability and we achieved a 93% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions last year. We aspire to help our customers better leverage digital solutions to realize their own ambitious sustainability targets early, and Joanna brings a wealth of experience to help support this.”

Commenting on her appointment, Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director, AVEVA, said: “I am delighted to join AVEVA at such a pivotal time in its sustainability innovation and growth trajectory. I look forward to working with AVEVA teams and customers to continue to grow the sustainability benefits that can be achieved with AVEVA software. I am also keen to work closely with our partners to drive further positive change at scale, since we know addressing the climate crisis will continue to require expanded collaboration”.

AVEVA actively embeds sustainability into its core product strategy with specific capabilities in its software portfolio.

AVEVA’s software enables organizations to connect and contextualize key sustainability data with artificial intelligence and human insight, enhancing their agility, resilience and sustainability in order to help drive responsible use of the world’s resources.

AVEVA’s 2023 Sustainability Progress Report reveals significant progress across all three pillars of the company’s sustainability framework, encompassing product strategy, operations and culture.

Energy

Climate Change: NNPC Ltd/Total Energies JV Achieves Zero Gas Flare

Published

3 months ago

February 15, 2024

grassroots

In pursuit of meeting the targets of 20% (unconditional) and 47% (conditional) greenhouse gas emission reduction as contained in the Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Accord signed by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, the NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture has achieved zero routine gas flare in all its assets.

According to a statement signed by Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd., this feat was announced on Thursday during an inspection tour of OML 100 in South-eastern Niger Delta, off Port Harcourt, by a joint NNPC Ltd and TotalEnergies Team to ascertain the success of the OML Flare Reduction Project launched in December 2023.

The NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture, which is the concession holder of four leases, had hitherto achieved zero routine flaring across OML 99 (2006), OML 102 (2014), and OML 58 (2016), leaving OML 100 as the only lease with routine flaring going on.

The significance of this achievement is that the last routine flare volume of about 12MMscf/d (twelve million standard cubic feet per day) of gas has now been eliminated giving rise to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 341KtCO₂e/yr.

The achievement is an outcome of a programme introduced by the NNPC Ltd to galvanize action towards achieving the zero routine flare by 2030 across its portfolio of assets.

It is also a testament to NNPC Ltd’s prioritization of sustainability anchored on the ‘first R’ of its 5R Strategy (Reduce, Replace, Renew, Re-plant, Repurpose), as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint.

Work is ongoing across all other assets within NNPC Ltd’s Upstream Directorate to ensure that all assets achieve zero routine flaring by 2030 or earlier.

Energy

NNPC Celebrates 14,000bpd Production from Akpo West Field

By SANDRA ANI

Published

3 months ago

February 7, 2024

grassroots

In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to optimise production from the nation’s oil and gas assets, the Company has announced the successful commencement of oil production from the Akpo West Field.

The milestone, which is the result of meticulous planning, strategic collaboration, and unwavering dedication from all stakeholders involved in the project, will add 14,000 barrels per day condensate to the nation’s production. This will be followed up by the production of about 4million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.

The development of Akpo West which is on Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2 (formerly OML 130) leverages the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility via a subsea tie-back to keep costs low and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

The milestone was enabled by the strategic leadership of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mr. Mele Kyari, and the Upstream Directorate of the NNPC Ltd whose support played no small role in propelling the operators to actualise the short- and mid-term hydrocarbon production goal of the President Tinubu administration.

Located 135 kilometres offshore, Akpo West is one of the discoveries on PML 2 with proximity to the Akpo main which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.

PML 2 is operated by TotalEnergies with a 24% interest, in partnership with CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), Prime 130 (16%), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd as the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).