Oil & Energy
NMDPRA To Resume Safety Audit Of Petrol Outlets, Tankers Operations – Official
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says it will recommence technical safety audit of petrol retail outlets, tankers, refining facilities and depots operations nationwide to halt rising accidents’ cases.
The NMDPRA said at least one death was recorded every four days in the course of products transportation, with 412 fatalities in 244 accidents between 2018 and the first quarter of 2023.
Executive Director of Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC), Dr Mustapha Lamorde, in meeting with petroleum products transportation stakeholders in Abuja recently assured the operators of a halt to the deaths.
The engagement had in attendance executives of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).
Lamorde said petroleum products retail outlets took the lion’s share of accidents and fatalities during the period with 39 per cent.
Lamorde, who was represented by Mrs Maijiddah Abdulkadir, North Central Regional Coordinator, NMDPRA, said the engagement was to call for a sound management of safety in the transportation of petroleum products operations in the downstream sector.
He said the proper approach to achieve this was to ensure that HSE was managed from a business perspective and not for compliance purposes only.
He noted that safety-related matters should be integrated into the management decision-making process.
The HSEC boss added that the NMDPRA would continue to attune operators to the need to fully comply with relevant safety laws and regulations as stipulated in the Petroleum Industry Act.
“The HSE technical audit will evaluate the adequacy of the HSE requirements, competency and training of staff engaged by the operators.
“This will no longer be business as usual, it is now safety first. The NMDPRA would ensure that the aspiration of the Federal Government in passing the PIA is achieved.
“The law has provided in clear terms that in the case of negligence by any operator, such operator would be sanctioned accordingly”, he said.
According to him, the aim of the engagement is not necessarily to sanction the operators but to ensure that operations are run in a safe manner to protect people, assets and the environment.
The exetcutive Director said health and safety needed to be a front burner to attract the growth of the business, reduction of insurance premiums and protection of the public.
“For us to achieve the following, we must reawaken the safety consciousness in our operations,” he added.
In a presentation, NMDPRA’s Head of HSE, North Central Region, Mr Ugochukwu Okpara, listed the concerns and risks during operational activities like discharging or dispensing to include, not allowing the trucks to settle before beginning of discharge.
In addition, the Executive Director said this would forestall the dangers or risks posed by unwholesome practices and noncompliance to statutory provisions with respect to safety in the transportation of petroleum products.
“The NMDPRA has planned to recommence the HSE technical audits; of which the outcome will be used in liaison with other directorates, in the issuance of various licenses.
Indigenous company, Belema Oil, Seplat and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) were the worst offenders in the oil and gas sector in gas flaring in February, 2023.
The three companies flared 100 per cent of their gas output, according to gas utilisation data released by the NNPC.
They were followed by Agip Energy and Natural Resources, which flared 95.93 per cent of its total gas output, and First Exploration and Production Limited, which flared 95 per cent of its total gas output.
The gas utilisation data showed that oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria produced 149.263 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas in February, a 6.72 per cent drop, compared with 160.013 billion SCF produced in January.
A breakdown of the total gas output for February 2023 showed that associated gas stood at 107.702 billion SCF, while non-associated gas output stood at 41.561 billion SCF.
According to the NNPC, 93.52 per cent of the gas produced was utilised, while 6.48 per cent was flared.
Specifically, 139.589 billion SCF of gas was utilised in February 2023, dropping by 7.25 per cent when compared with 150.493 billion SCF of gas utilised in the previous month, while 9.674 billion SCF of gas was flared, up by 1.62 per cent, from 9.520 billion SCF flared in January 2023.
The NNPC stated that 9.084 billion SCF of gas was used as fuel gas; 45.977 billion SCF was allocated to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG; while 5.247 billion SCF was allocated to the Escravos Gas to Liquid, EGTL, plant.
In addition, 2.353 billion SCF of gas was used for Natural Gas Liquids/Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG; domestic gas sales by the Nigerian Gas Company and others gulped 23.222 billion SCF, while 53.705 billion SCF was used by gas re-injection and gas lift make-up.
In the Joint Venture segment, Mobil Nigeria recorded the highest gas output, with 25.668 billion SCF, followed by Shell with 24.203 billion SCF; TotalEnergies produced 23.481 billion SCF of gas; while Chevron recorded gas output of 20.683 billion SCF.
However, despite producing the highest quantity of gas in the month under review, Mobil flared 6.26 per cent of its total gas output; Shell flared 4.19 per cent of its total output; Total Energies flared 2.37 per cent of its total output, while Chevron flared 9.03 per cent of its gas output.
In the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) segment, Star Deepwater – Agbami Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) produced 12.744 billion SCF of gas, out of which 1.06 per cent was flared; while TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria’s Akpo FPSO produced 11.975 billion SCF of gas and flared 1.22 per cent of the total.
Seismic acquisition technology and solutions provider, STRYDE, has been awarded a contract worth over $1 million for the supply of 10,000 seismic receiver nodes and its “Nimble” node receiver system for an onshore oil and gas project in Nigeria.
STRYDE’s seismic sensor technology will be utilised on an upcoming 3D seismic survey conducted by Nigerian geoscience solutions provider, ATO Geophysical Limited, as part of an onshore oil and gas exploration project in Nigeria.
The seismic survey is due to begin in Q2 2023 and will be the first commercial deployment of STRYDE’s Nimble System in the country as it continues its international expansion within the energy sector.
STRYDE, who are the creators of the world’s smallest and lightest seismic node, will enable ATO to deliver high-density seismic data for the exploration of new reservoir locations in the grasslands and marshlands of Nigeria, for a local oil and gas operator.
Until recently, the country has typically relied on bulky, expensive, and complex cabled geophone receiver systems to acquire seismic data, which traditionally incurs significantly high CAPEX and OPEX costs, more exposure to HSE risk, higher technical downtime, and inefficiencies in the seismic acquisition programme.
With the introduction of cable-less receiver technology like STRYDE’s miniature sensor, geophysical providers and operators can now acquire high-quality data much more efficiently and with less cost, risk, and environmental footprint.
The supply of its node management solution will enable further efficiencies on the survey to be unlocked by allowing ATO to rotate up to 2,160 nodes per day, enabled by the system’s unique capability to simultaneously charge and harvest data from 360 nodes in under four hours.
This system is also equipped with STRYDE’s state-of-the-art software for efficient seismic survey field operations, data harvesting, and quality assurance, allowing ATO to produce processing-ready seismic data fast than ever before.
Head of Business Development, MENA, at STRYDE, Sam Moharir, commented on the transition to nodal technology: “ATO Geophysical Limited needed to have access to cost-effective technology that could also overcome challenges associated with the terrain they were due to operate in’’.
“With cabled systems traditionally being more physically challenging to deploy in remote, large, and complex terrain, STRYDE Nodes™ offer a more efficient and practical solution for improving seismic survey efficiencies through the elimination of restrictive and heavy cabled geophones”.
The Managing Director of ATO Geophysical Limited, Thomas Ajewole, said: “As a leading seismic data acquisition expert in Nigeria, we look forward to partnering on our first project with STRYDE and capitalizing on the benefits of its technology by providing our customers with a more efficient and cost-effective solution to onshore seismic data acquisition.
“As we continue to support the exploration of new oil and gas projects in the region, STRYDE Nodes present an exciting opportunity to acquire high-resolution seismic data required to image the subsurface and pinpoint new reservoir development opportunities for our customers”.
STRYDE’s CEO, Mike Popham, said: “STRYDE is excited to be enabling our first seismic surveys in Nigeria with ATO. This builds upon our successful history of seismic projects across Africa, including Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Kenya.
“We’re proud to see our nodes increasingly being utilized around the world for a range of industrial applications, replacing expensive, cumbersome, and impractical alternative systems with our dynamic technology”.
In addition to providing seismic solutions in the oil and gas market, STRYDE also supports new energy industries including Geothermal, CCUS, Hydrogen, and Mining, providing an affordable solution to a typically expensive phase of any exploration project.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) says it has cleared the outstanding $3.8 billion joint venture cash-call debts owed to International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country.
NNPCL’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, Adokiye Tombomieye, disclosed this as he lamented that inadequate JV cash call funds was stunting the growth of the oil and gas industry.
Tombomieye made the disclosure while speaking during a panel session on upstream opportunities at the fourth edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) 2023, organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Represented by the Chief Upstream Investment Officer, NNPCL, Mr Bala Wunti, he disclosed that the country’s oil production has maintained significant increase following measures to tackle crude oil theft.
Tombomieye warned that the NNPCL would no longer deal with portfolio companies, and urged investors to avoid acting as middlemen.
He disclosed that the company had leveraged its financial autonomy derived from the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to work out and execute a payment plan for the cash call debt while balancing its energy security obligations to the nation.
“This, by no small means, re-energised the JVs to recalibrate their focus towards sustaining production and increasing their spending to procure the necessary services required to do so”, the NNPCL Chief said.
Also speaking on the panel, the Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Mr Mike Sangster, announced that the final investment decision on the company’s upcoming Ubeta gas project would be taken in the first quarter of 2024.
Sangster, represented by the Executive Director, JV Assets, TotalEnergies, Mr. Obi Imemba, said Ubeta was its last discovered but undeveloped well in the Oil Mining Lease, OML, 58.