Energy

NLNG laments over $355 million loss due to ‘illegal’ blockade by NIMASA

Published

5 years ago

April 5, 2019

grassroots

• Court case continues

BY: Justice Godfry

Nigeria’s flagship company, the Nigeria LNG Limited, has suffered revenue losses of over $355 million due to illegal blockade by the NIMASA, which persisted in spite of court orders, News Express can report this morning.

This is even as the legal battle between the two organisations is far from being over – going by the Certified True Copy of the March 29, 2019 judgement of the Federal High Court Lagos sighted on Thursday by News Express.

The 45-page judgement delivered by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba says unequivocally: “The case is hereby ordered to be sent back to the Administrative Judge of the Lagos Division of the Lower Court to be assigned to a Judge thereof for expeditious determination on the merit.”

The foundation of the case dates back to May 3, 2013 when at about 4:20 p.m., a tug boat blockaded at the instance of NIMASA acting through Global West Vessel Specialists Limited, LNG Adamawa, an NLNG chartered vessel.

The blockade was a self-help effort to extract levies purportedly owed NIMASA by NLNG. According to NIMASA, these include shipping levies based on gross freight on exports and imports.

NLNG has consistently argued that the NLNG Act exempts it from payment of the Sea Protection Levy, the 3% freight levies on cargo exports shipped by NLNG, and the 2% Cabotage Levy.

NIMASA eventually lifted the blockade on May 5, 2013 after a meeting between the management of NLNG and NIMASA, in which it was resolved for lasting solutions to be sought under the rule of law.

On June 21, 2013, and in flagrant disregard of a subsisting court order barring it from further blockade of the Bonny Channel, NIMASA effected another illegal blockade of the Bonny Channel, preventing NLNG vessels and vessels belonging to its buyers from accessing or leaving the NLNG terminal.

After a three-week illegal blockade, during which NLNG was compelled to start making the disputed payments “under protest”, NIMASA ended the illegal blockade.

“Owing to the illegal blockade which persisted in spite of court orders, NLNG lost revenues of over $355 million,” a top source at NLNG said.

The dispute finally moved to court in June 2013 when NLNG filed a case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking judicial clarity and interpretation on the legality or otherwise of the various levies imposed on NLNG by NIMASA.

In October 2017, the court delivered judgment in favour of NLNG against NIMASA, over applicability of the NIMASA levies. According to the court, NLNG was not liable to make the said payments to NIMASA, and all such payments already made by NLNG to NIMASA “under protest” should be refunded to NLNG forthwith. The court further held that NIMASA was wrong in blockading the Bonny Channel for the purpose of enforcing the payments against NLNG and went further to restrain NIMASA from taking or continuing any steps to block, restrain, seize, detain or restrict NLNG (or its shareholders or subsidiary vessels or chartered vessels).

The said judgment of the Federal High Court was however reversed last week Friday, March 29, 2019, following an appeal filed against the same by NIMASA, with the Court of Appeal directing that the case between the two parties be remitted to the Federal High Court for a re-hearing.

“This decision,” according to a source, “gives the parties right to either go back to the Federal High Court for a re-hearing or appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.”

Continuing, the source said: “Where the case is to be heard afresh, the position of the parties would revert to what it was as at the time the case was filed, in which case no payments of the levies in dispute would be made by NLNG to NIMASA pending the re-hearing and determination of the suit. Where on the other hand the right of appeal to the Supreme Court is exercised, the status quo as of the date of the Court of Appeal judgment will be maintained, which is to the same effect.”

An NLNG official who spoke with News Express on Thursday said that the company is determined to remain a good corporate citizen in spite of its travails in the hands of NIMASA and “will continue to live up to its name and vision of ‘being a global company…helping to build a better Nigeria’.”

“In addition,” according to the source, “NLNG remains a good and responsible corporate citizen, committed to conducting its business in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and abides with all applicable laws including those that confer exemptions on and grant fiscal/other incentives to businesses, as a way of sustaining its operations and growing the economy. By doing so, NLNG has recorded several feats in helping to build a better Nigeria:

“NLNG has monetised over 6.37 Trillion Cubic Feet of Associated Gas to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs), thus helping to reduce gas flaring by upstream companies from over 60% to well under 20%.

“From the monetisation of gas hitherto being flared, NLNG has generated over $100 billion revenue since inception; paid over $36 billion to Shareholders as dividends, of which 49% of that total has gone to the Federal Government by virtue of its shareholding stake.

“$28 billion paid to Joint Ventures (JVs) feedgas suppliers. 55% to 60% of that amount has gone to the Federal Government courtesy of its stake in the JVs.

“NLNG is by far the highest individual payer of Companies Income Tax in Nigeria. In 2018, the company’s corporate income tax paid to the Federal Government amounted to about $864 million, over 40% of what was paid in 2017.

“World Class Operations at NLNG, ranked number 1 in Plant Reliability in 2018 with the achievement of 98.4% Plant Reliability, projecting Nigeria’s image positively.

“Ranked fourth LNG Company worldwide by market share.

“NLNG is arguably number 1 in CSR in Nigeria. It has spent over N25 billion on community projects over the years; spent over N2 billion on building world-class engineering laboratories in six Nigerian Universities through the University Support Programme; spending N120 billion on the construction of Bonny-Bodo Road in Rivers State. Furthermore, the company signed an MOU with the Bonny Island community to provide N3 billion each year for 25 years for the overall development of the Kingdom.

“NLNG’s planned expansion with the construction of Train 7 will increase plant production by 35%, attracting huge Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) – $2 billion in upstream investment; some $5 billion in construction; creating over 10,000 jobs during construction etc. The 35% increase is expected to significantly impact on revenue, dividends, taxes profiles and CSR contribution in Nigeria.”

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).