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Archbishop of York, Ex-Ghana President make Bayelsa Commission of Inquiry on Environmental Degradation

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BY: Ikenna Oluka

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, on Wednesday, inaugurated the Bayelsa State Commission of Inquiry on Environmental Degradation.

The 10-member commission is chaired by the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu.

Former President of Ghana, Dr. John Kufour, Baroness Valerie Amos, Prof. Engobo Emeseh and Dr. Anna Zalik are members while Dr. Kathryn Nwajiaku-Dahou is secretary to the commission.

Other members are Prof. Roland Hodler and Prof. Michael Watts while the state former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Kemasuode Wodu, will serve as Legal Counsel.

Governor Dickson said the commission, which is comprised of Nigerian and foreign scholars and experts in various fields, had a nine-point terms of reference, which include to investigate the environmental, health, socio-economic, cultural and human damage caused by operations of both local and multinational oil companies.

He also charged the commission to analyse the legislations governing the operations of multinational oil companies in Bayelsa State and in Nigeria as well as establish a set of recommendations that would lead to the development of a new legal framework that ensures accountability.

A press release by his Special Adviser on Public Affairs, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor as saying that Bayelsa had suffered vast environmental and human damage despite her contribution to the socio-economic growth of the country.

Governor Dickson noted that the state accounts for 40 per cent of Nigeria’s oil wealth and hosts the operations of all the major multinational oil companies.

According to him, oil companies operating in the state have for decades acted with impunity and with little regard for the environment and people, causing multiple oil spills leading to environmental degradation and loss of lives.

He said that the primary aim of setting up the commission was to prevail on oil companies to adopt best practices in the conduct of their operations in Bayelsa as they would in Norway, Scotland or the United States.

On the dangers posed by oil spills, the governor cited the 2011 United Nations Environment Programme report, which indicated that life expectancy in the Niger Delta was about 10 years lower than that of the national average.

He also recalled that a United Nations survey showed that crude oil spill over the years had resulted in the death of about 16,000 infants within their first month in the Niget Delta.

He noted that the region had recorded not less than 40 million litres of oil spill annually as compared with 4 million litres annually in the United States.

The commission, which is to hold public and private hearings, is expected to submit its report and findings within nine months.

Responding, the chairman, Dr. John Sentamu, said the commission would spare no effort in shedding light on the impact of oill spillage in the Niger Delta.

Dr. Sentamu, who described the effects of oil pollution as shocking, urged the international community to join forces in the protection of the environment, which he noted is a common heritage of mankind.

He assured that the commission would ensure that international standards were observed in the exploration and exploitation of crude oil activities.  

The Commissioner for the Environment, Hon. Ebipatei Apaingolo, in his remarks, expressed regret that people of the Niger Delta now consume crops with traces of carcinogenic hydrocarbons.

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AVEVA Appoints Joanna Mainguy as New Sustainability Accelerator Director

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Joanna AVEVA
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. 

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

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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.

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Energy

NNPC Celebrates 14,000bpd Production from Akpo West Field

By SANDRA ANI

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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).

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