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FG To Save Up To N1 Trillion On Subsidy Removal

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The Minister of State, Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva on Thursday said the Federal Government will make over N1 trillion annually from fuel subsidy removal.

The Federal Government has been under fire ever since the pump price of petroleum got increased due to subsidy removal.

With the subsidy removal the Government would safe up to N1 trillion yearly and channel the money to fund other critical components of the economy.

He said: “I believe that this discussion around subsidy has been a vexed issue that has captured the imagination of this country for a long time now. Successive administrations have attempted to deregulate.

But sometimes, some administrations lacked the political will and at other times, the time was not good for it. And why did I say the time was not good for it? Does that imply the time is good for it now?

The problem around deregulation is that people must understand first, that the product we are talking about is a derivative of crude oil. It is refined from crude oil.

Therefore, it has a direct relationship with the price of crude oil. If the price of crude oil goes up, then you expect that it would reflect in the price of the derivative.

“So, the best time to achieve this we looked at was the time when crude oil prices are low so that Nigerians will get the benefit of those low prices. In March, when we announced the deregulation, the prices were low and that advantage was transferred to the consumer. So, we brought down the price of petrol.

The unfortunate thing is that when we brought down the price of petrol, nobody reacted in the market place. The prices were the same. Nobody reduced their prices because price of petrol had reduced. Even bus fares, taxi fares were the same. It did not go down when we reduced the pump price of petrol.

We thought that those people in the market; the transport drivers and transport owners would reduce their price. But nobody reduced their prices. But anytime there is even a kobo increase in the pump price of product, you see that people will increase their prices triple fold and four fold.

“At this moment, let Nigerians not be fooled; there are people who are ready to take advantage of every situation to create anarchy and chaos. And it is this people that are at work now.

Is anybody saying that this policy direction is a wrong policy direction? That is the discussion we should be having. If it is a wrong policy direction, why has every successive government attempted to do the sane thing?

“Because it is something that is unsustainable. Subsidy is unsustainable. Let us look at it: Subsidy means that you buy the product at a certain price and then you reduce the price and sell it at a loss to the people.

It is something that is good to do. It is something that our president would like to do so much because of his love for the common man. But is it something that can be sustained in perpetuity? You get the product and sell it less at the pump. And that is not the only subsidy.

You also subsidise the effects that is used to import the product. So at the end, the subsidy is going on two ways. It is like burning your candle from both ends.

How long can that candle last? So in the wisdom of the President and all of us, we felt that it was time because this subsidy is something that cannot be sustained in perpetuity. It is time for Nigerians to face reality and do the right thing.

“What is deregulation going to do? It is going to free up a lot more money. At least from the very beginning it will save us up to a trillion and more every year.

Already, we have taken up the budgetary provision for subsidy which is about N500 billion in the budget. Also, we have taken off the excess forex price, that special rate, that was given to NNPC which also came at a cost. So, all the money that we used to defend the Naira at that time to subsidise the dollar will now be freed up for development.

And, I believe that going forward, we will begin to see a lot more developments, a lot more money available to the government that will be put into critical infrastructure instead of being burnt in our cars”.

Sylva added that the subsidy regime was very fraudulent as only a few benefited from it at the expense of the public.

“Let us look at subsidy critically. Who are the beneficiaries of subsidy? When a few years ago you had this subsidy scam all over the place, all the monies that were taken by all  the subsidy thieves and so on, how many poor people were among those people?

Subsidy only provides opportunity for rich and unscrupulous Nigerians to steal and enrich themselves at our expense, at your expense. So, ladies and gentlemen, deregulation is actually a policy direction that is good for the common Nigerian.”

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Energy

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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Energy

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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