Business
INTELS Charges Oil, Gas Operators On Safety
A new vista of safety consciousness has been opened for oil and gas industry operators and stakeholders, as Integrated Logistic Services limited (IINTELS) recently concluded a two-day safety campaign week at Oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne port.
The event which was marked with a road show on safety awareness in select routes at Onne port also had as part of the activities safety film show, exhibition of safety equipment, free medical/eye checks to the public and a quizz/hazard spotting competition. It ended with safety awards to deserving officers of the company.
Earlier, in his remarks while unveiling this year’s safety week theme: “Do it safely or not at all”, the INTELS Health and Safety Environment (HSE) manager, Simon Parker, noted that the invitation of young school children to participate in this year’s safety week was a deliberate attempt by the company to educate them young on the importance of safety in life. He enjoined the participants to make safety a way of life.
Also speaking, the General Manager INTELS, Johan Coetzer said the issue of safety in the company’s operation was based on professionalism, just as the theme: “Do it safely or not at all” suggests, saying that the company does not compromise on safety in its service delivery to the high technical and sophisticated oil and gas industry.
While conducting journalists during the programme, Head, Media and Communication, Mr Harcourt-Kalio said INTELS has an unwavering commitment to high ethical standards and operations excellence. The standards of ethics and business integrity, together with the workforce are the company’s most valuable assets,” he noted, saying “we care about how results are achieved, not just the results”.
It would be recalled that not too long ago INTELS celebrated a milestone of achieving 1,000 days, 1,000 barges and 3 million man-hours of operations without lost time incident in SGC/EGTL operations through its base at the Oil and Gas Free zone, Delta port, Warri and have won several awards from major oil and gas operators in Nigeria and abroad.
According to Harcourt-Kalio JP, INTELS logistics services is one of the highly respected champions of oil and gas logistic service provider preferred first choice by industry oprators and stakeholders with operating headquarters at oil and Gas Free Zone, Onne port and branches at Oil and Gas Free Zone, Delta port, Warri and Calabar new port.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
