Oil & Energy
Increased Oil and Gas: Stakeholders Urge Expansion Of PINL Scope
Following the sustained record of increased oil and gas production in recent times, stakeholders from pipeline and crude oil host communities have urged the Federal Government to expand the security contract of Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL).
The stakeholders who gave the urge while speaking at the September Engagement, held in PortHarcourt, last Thursday, attributed the increased output in oil and gas production to the positive impact of PINL on oil and gas host communities
President-General, Orashi People’s Congress, Emeni Ibe, expressed happiness with PINL saying “Our people which includes Abua/Odual, Ahoada East and West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni have asked me to convey their gratitude for regularly holding this stakeholders meeting”.
“Our area is criss-crossed with several oil pipelines and in the campaign against vandalism, we have agreed to partner with the PINL.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to provide more funds to the company. We are pleased with their trainings and their scholarship for our youths. This is what we are expecting and if these things are done, pipeline vandalism will be a thing of the past.
“PINL is changing the narratives in our area so I join others to pass a vote of confidence on PINL”, Ibe said.
Also speaking, an indigene of Soku, community, Ajenkebiokpomaa Orlu, said his people want the federal government to include the community in the scope of job covered by PINL.
“We have been hearing about PINL in Rivers State and other neighboring communities but it’s like a surprise to us because Soku as a major player in the ooo and gas sector, we are not part of their operations. We are supposed to be part of it as major oil bearing community with the largest gas plant in West Africa and other oil facilities.
“I’m here to tell Federal Government, NNPCL and PINL to include Soku community in their scope of job and mostly for the Federal Government to expand PINL’s scope of work in the area to include Soku oilfield.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the engagement, the General Manager, Community Relations and Stakeholders Engagement, Dr. Akpos Mezeh, explained that Soku Tombia, Rumuji, Ogba, Abha, Gbarain are all host to gas lines “and we have engaged workers from those communities to help go secure the lines”.
He expressed hopes that the Federal Government would expedite action in expanding PINL’s contract to cover those areas.
Mezeh stated; “Soku is a major oil and gas host community and by virtue of the fact that our current contract on TNP does not cover Soku, we’ve been able to cover them based on the limited resources we have and so far we’ve been doing wonderfully well there courtesy of the support we get from the community and there has been no incident of vandalism in Soku.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to expedite action on the formalising the expansion that we are already doing to cover the areas outside our primary mandate.
“We have Soku, Tombia, Rumuji, Ogba, Abha, Gbarain which host gas lines and we have engaged workers from those communities to help go secure the lines and so we hope that the Federal Government would expedite action in expanding our contract to cover those areas.
“We have expanded our operations into gas and we are into the sixth month and the results is clear and from the report of NUPRC, gas production has increased.
“We’ve done a lot to ensure that gas facilities are given adequate protection. We have engaged more workers from the communities where gas lines are criss-crossing and although that’s not our primary area of responsibility but we are doing that as a duty call to ensure that we support the Federal Government and that’s why we are calling on the Federal Government to formalise the work that we are already doing”.
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The Petroleum Products Retail Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Rivers State Branch, has elected a 12 – member executive to steer the affairs of the association for the next four years.
The executive, elected during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association, at it’s secretariat in Port Harcourt, and sworn in immediately after the election, was mandated to, among other things, tackle the adulteration of petroleum products as well as address irregularities in meter readings across the state.
The newly elected executive include, Pastor Ezekiel I. Eletuo as Chairman, Kanu Addeson C. as Vice Chairman , Dr. Ejike Jonathan Nnbuihe as Secretary, Fidelis A.Inaku as Treasurer and Lady C. N. Ekejiuba as Financial Secretary.
Others are Anaenye Anthony as Publicity Secretary, Arc. Kingsley O. Anyino as Organising Secretary, Nze Peter Ezenwa as Chief Whip, and Sunny Williams as Auditor.
Other members of the executive included Chidiebere Ronel Akwara as Welfare Officer, Ibe Chimaobi C. as Legal Adviser, and Emetoh Chizoba as Assistant Secretary.
Inaugurating the new leadership, PETROAN Zonal Chairman, High Chief Sunny G. Nkpe, charged the team to build on the achievements of the outgoing executive.
He urged them to collaborate with stakeholders in the petroleum sector to ensure industry stability and address issues of multiple taxation.
Nkpe who emphasized the need for transparency, accountability, and an open-door policy in administering the union, insisted these principles remained crucial in advancing the association’s objectives and improving members’ welfare.
The zonal chairman also commended the outgoing executive for their accomplishments during their tenure and for conducting a smooth transition process.
He further described their efforts as instrumental in strengthening the union’s standing in the state.
In his acceptance speech, the new Chairman, Pastor Ezekiel I. Eletuo, thanked members for their confidence and pledged to improve on the foundations laid by the previous administration.
He promised his leadership would be guided by transparency, accountability, fairness, unity, and integrity.
Eletuo called on all members to support the new executive in its efforts to elevate the association.
Also speaking, the immediate past Chairman, of the association, Sir Chilam Francis Dimkpa, expressed appreciation to members for their support during his administration and stressed the need for them to extend the same cooperation to the new leadership.
Dimkpa highlighted key achievements of his tenure to include capacity building for members, increased union visibility through media advocacy, and the establishment of stronger ties with stakeholders, corporate organisations, and individuals.
He also acknowledged the support of the state government, the Police, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Stakeholders present at the event also delivered their goodwill messages.
Highlights of the event included administration of oath of office to the new executive and the presentation of certificates of return by the zonal chairman. .
By: Amadi Akujobi
The Federal Government has intensified efforts towards reposition Nigeria’s hospitality and tourism industry for global competitiveness, aimed at strengthening regulation, professionalism and workforce standards across the sector.
This was made known last week when the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR) conferred fellowships, inducted professionals and inaugurated the governing boards of the Hospitality and Tourism Sector Skills Council of Nigeria (HTSSCN) in Abuja.
The high-profile event, held at Merit House, Maitama, drew senior government officials, regulators, tourism operators, cultural institutions, hospitality investors and development partners in what stakeholders described as a major institutional shift .
Government also formally inducted registered practitioners into various professional categories while also inaugurating the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of the HTSSCN, an employer-led platform designed to align workforce competencies with industry expectations.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, said the initiative represented a strategic intervention to strengthen accountability, standards and institutional coordination within Nigeria’s tourism and hospitality ecosystem.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s vast cultural assets, tourism destinations and creative talents can only translate into sustainable economic value through professionalism, regulation and globally accepted operational standards.
She noted that tourism and hospitality industry remains one of the fastest-growing sectors globally, contributing significantly to employment generation, foreign exchange earnings and cultural diplomacy.
Musawa explained that NIHOTOUR Establishment Act has expanded the institute’s mandate beyond training, positioning it as a regulatory and certification authority for hospitality, tourism and travel practitioners in the country.
“No sector can attain sustainable growth without structure, standards, institutional coordination and skilled professionals,” she said, stressing the need for stronger collaboration between government agencies, operators, training institutions and private sector stakeholders.
In his keynote address, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIHOTOUR, Abisoye Fagade, described the event as a historic turning point in the formalisation of Nigeria’s tourism and hospitality industry.
Fagade said the induction of practitioners, conferment of fellowships and inauguration of the HTSSCN governing boards marked the beginning of a new era of institutional governance, professional recognition and sector-wide coordination.
“Regulation and standardisation are no longer optional; they are economic necessities if Nigeria truly intends to compete globally,” he stated.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos
The Middle Eastern crisis has prompted a reprioritization among international oil companies. Previously unattractive drilling destinations are suddenly looking quite attractive—even Alaska.
The oldest oil and gas producing part of the United States has for years been out of the spotlight as the industry moves to cheaper and faster-growing locations. The only news of any substance about Alaska recently was the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow project, led by ConocoPhillips, which was set to boost the state’s oil output by 160,000 barrels daily, and Australian Santos’ Pikka project, set to start commercial production this year. That was years ago. Now, Big Oil is eager to drill in Alaska.
Earlier this month, a lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska attracted record bids, worth a total $163 million. Among the bidders were Exxon, Shell, and Repsol, with the latter already partnering with Santos on the Pikka development. And this may be just the beginning.
Related: Saudi Aramco Looks to Raise $10 Billion from Real Estate Asset Deal
The Bureau of Land Management offered 625 tracts across about 5.5 million acres for bid in the sale, revived at the end of last year by the Trump administration. No lease sales were held in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska under President Biden. Yet under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, there will be a total of five lease sales in Alaska over the next ten years.
“With the imminent start-up of the Pikka project on the North Slope, the reversal in the decline of oil production in the great state of Alaska is going to help put more oil in the Pacific area at an important moment,” Repsol’s head of upstream operations, Francisco Gea, said as quoted by the Financial Times. Gea called Alaska “a fantastic opportunity”. The Pikka project, which has a price tag of $4.5 billion, will produce up to 80,000 barrels daily.
It is indeed a fantastic opportunity, at the very least because it is nowhere near the Middle East and as such is a highly secure energy exploration destination. Canada is in a similar position, by the way: the head of the International Energy Agency earlier this month told an industry event Canada had a golden opportunity to step in as a secure energy supplier in a world that’s currently 14 million barrels daily short on supply because of the Middle Eastern crisis.
Security, then, is what has prompted Big Oil to return to the North—even Shell, which left in 2015 after writing off as much as $7 billion on an unsuccessful drilling campaign hampered, among other things, by strong environmentalist opposition. According to the Financial Times, the supermajor’s decision to partake in the latest Alaska lease sale was surprising for analysts.
However, according to chief executive Wael Sawan, the lease sale concerns a different part of the state. “It is a very, very, very different part of Alaska that we have gone to,” he told the Financial Times. “This is an onshore exploration opportunity in a very well-established basin that has been producing for some time… So this is not offshore Alaska where we have had the challenges in the past.”
Crude oil is not the only thing drawing the energy industry to Alaska in these times of oil and gas trouble. Gas is also a magnet—in this case, in the form of the Alaska LNG project. Interest in the Alaska LNG export project has spiked since the war in the Middle East choked 20% of global LNG supply and sent Asian buyers scrambling for expensive spot cargoes.
Glenfarne Group, the majority owner and developer of the facility, aims to sign binding offtake agreements with buyers soon and advance final investment decisions to later in 2026 and early 2027, company executives told media earlier this year on the sidelines of an energy conference in Tokyo.
“There’s a real interest, particularly with everything happening in the Middle East right now. Everyone would like to get those (preliminary deals) turned into long-term agreements,” Adam Prestidge, president of Glenfarne Alaska LNG, told Reuters in March.
Alaska LNG is designed to deliver North Slope natural gas to Alaskans and export LNG to U.S. allies across the Pacific. An 800-mile pipeline is planned to transport the gas from the production centers in the North Slope to south-central Alaska for exports. In addition, multiple gas interconnection points will ensure meeting in-state gas demand.
The latest Alaska developments show clearly how the Middle East war has put energy security back in the spotlight, making previously challenging locations desirable again. With an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil supply wiped out of markets since the war began, according to Aramco’s Amin Nasser, alternative supply sources have become urgently needed, and not just for the short term. Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens soon—which at the moment seems unlikely—energy security will in all probability remain a top priority both for energy producers and for consumers.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com