Oil & Energy

Strong Collaboration Key To Unlocking Africa’s Gas Resources- Ekpo

Published

6 hours ago

October 6, 2025

The Minister of Petroleum Resources (Gas), Dr. Ekperikpe Ekpo, has urged governments, private sector players, financiers, and international partners to collaborate in mobilizing resources, deploying technologies, and developing innovative financing models to unlock Africa’s vast gas resources.

Ekpo said this would accelerate sustainable development while also advancing the continent’s energy transition goals.

?Ekpo stated this in his address at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) workshop titled “Natural Gas for Africa’s Sustainable Development” on the sidelines of the Africa Energy Week in Cape Town, South Africa.

While noting that Africa is rich in natural resources, including large natural gas reserves, Ekpo said however, that over 600 million Africans lack electricity and nearly one billion lack access to clean cooking solutions, constituting a development emergency that constrains education, healthcare, and industrialization.

?According to him, if Africa is to achieve the aspirations of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs), it must urgently deploy natural gas as a catalyst for inclusive growth and prosperity.

?He highlighted the unique value of natural gas for Africa’s sustainable development, citing its potential to expand energy access by powering homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses; drive industrialization through fertilizer, petrochemicals, cement, and steel production; enable clean cooking, reducing reliance on biomass and improving public health outcomes; and support the energy transition by complementing renewables, providing baseload stability, and reducing emissions compared to coal and oil.

?Ekpo insisted that for Africa, natural gas is not simply a transition fuel but both a bridge and a destination fuel, essential to building resilient economies and societies.

“In Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has placed gas at the center of the economic transformation agenda through the Decade of Gas initiative, aiming to leverage over 200 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves to deliver prosperity for Nigerians, strengthen regional energy security, and contribute to global stability”, he said.

?Ekpo highlighted steps taken to harness Nigeria’s gas resources for sustainable development to include expanding gas-to-power projects, promoting clean cooking through the LPG penetration programme targeting five million homes by 2030, and rolling out Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiatives to reduce dependence on petrol and diesel.

?He noted that strategic infrastructure projects, including the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) and OB3 pipelines, and the Nigeria LNG Train 7 project, are progressing to open up domestic and regional markets and position Nigeria as a reliable global supplier of LNG.

?Ekpo further stated that the country is promoting regional integration through projects like the West African Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, and exploring new opportunities with Libya.

He said through the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and the Presidential Executive Orders on Oil and Gas Reforms, Nigeria has created transparent, investor-friendly frameworks to attract capital into the gas sector.

?”Africa’s development must be powered by Africa’s resources, driven by Africa’s priorities, and supported through Africa-led partnerships,”

?”Natural gas is central to this vision; it is the fuel that can light homes, power industries, secure livelihoods, and safeguard our future. Nigeria stands ready to share experiences, deepen cooperation, and work with all of you towards an energy-secure, industrialized, and prosperous Africa”, the minister stated.

Oil & Energy

Dangote/NUPENG Feud: Tanker Drivers Disown ‘PTD Elders Forum ‘, Seek Impostors’ Prosecution

Published

5 hours ago

October 6, 2025

The Tide

Petroleum Tanker Drivers(PTD), an affiliate union of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers(NUPENG), has disowned a group parading itself as the ‘PTD Elders Forum’ amid a feud with Dangote Refinery.

The drivers from across the Kaduna, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Warri zones, during a Press Briefing, at the Weekend, described members of the said forum as fake impostors with no recognition under PTD or NUPENG constitutions and hired to wreck havoc on the union.

They appealed to security agencies to investigate and prosecute those behind the forum.

Speaking on behalf of Kaduna Zone, Bashir Izalan, said the group was unknown to PTD, stressing that Egbon’s leadership had been transparent and responsive to members’ welfare.

He noted that drivers benefited from union-backed insurance, medical support and intervention in workplace disputes.

Representative of the Lagos Zone, Itanola Abiodun, maintained that the so-called elders were not members of the union, pointing out that every legitimate PTD member belonged to a unit and zone.

He urged the group to identify their units if they were genuine members, insisting that they were “hired hands” out to destabilise the union.

In his words, “Everybody who belongs to a union has a unit and zone where that unit is located. Then, they have the PTD branch. Those units where they claimed they come from do not exist. We in those zones do not know them.

“Their names are not known to us at all. They should mention the units they belong to for discerning minds to vouch for their authenticity.

“They cannot even say the units or zone they belong to. They are not speaking for us. They are impostors, hired to wreak havoc in our union”.

From Port Harcourt Zone, Chukwudi Okafor, dismissed allegations that PTD leadership mismanaged check-off dues and loading fees, clarifying that the funds, contributed by truck owners, are used for drivers’ health insurance and welfare.

He said members were satisfied with how resources are managed, urging the government to support PTD.

Dennis Akore of Warri Zone alleged that the controversy was linked to former PTD members who lost out in the July, last year’s delegates’ conference, claiming that the group was attempting to regain control of the union after being voted out by drivers.

Earlier, NUPENG President, Comrade Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Comrade Afolabi Olawale, had also warned against the activities of the “PTD Elders Forum,” describing them as infiltrators working to sow disaffection within the union.

Oil & Energy

GEIL To Unveil $400m Indigenous Crude Oil Terminal in Rivers

Published

5 hours ago

October 6, 2025

The Tide

All is now set for the unveiling of the indigenous $400m Otakikpo Onshore Crude Oil Terminal in Rivers State, billed for Wednesday, October 8, and to be performed by the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The facility, developed by Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), operators of the Otakikpo field in OML 11, located in Ikuru-Town, in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, is the first wholly indigenous onshore terminal built in Nigeria as the last of such facility, the Forcados Terminal, was commissioned back in 1971.

The unveiling would attract top government officials, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and other major stakeholders across the nation’s oil and gas sector.

With the much struggling with declining production, pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and rising operational costs in recent years, the Otakikpo Onshore Terminal further underscores the Federal Government’s renewed efforts to restore investor confidence in the nation’s oil sector.

The Executive Director, Legal and Corporate Services, GEIL, Olusegun Ilori, in a Statement, last Thursday, said the terminal aligns with President Tinubu’s drive to boost crude oil production and address Nigeria’s long-standing evacuation challenges.

“This project is a strategic infrastructure that supports the administration’s commitment to raising output while reducing costs,” Ilori said.

On his part, the Chairman and Chief Executive, GEIL, Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, described the terminal as a “game-changing national infrastructure.”

Adegbulugbe said “What we have achieved here is not just a storage solution, but a pathway for about 40 stranded oil fields to finally contribute to the economy”.

It would be noted that industry operators, over the years, have consistently highlighted evacuation bottlenecks as a major impediment to meeting the Federal Government’s production target of 3m bpd.

The Otakikpo terminal is expected to serve as a lifeline to more than 40 stranded oil fields by providing a reliable evacuation outlet, potentially unlocking millions of barrels of crude previously trapped underground.

With an initial storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, expandable to three million barrels, and a loading capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, the facility is also projected to reduce production costs for indigenous producers significantly.

By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu

Oil & Energy

Nigeria’s Oil Boom Meets Its Refining Headache

Published

5 hours ago

October 6, 2025

The Tide

Nigeria is pumping more crude and drilling harder than it has in years, thanks to reforms under President Bola Tinubu that are finally coaxing cash back into the upstream. Daily output has climbed to between 1.7 and 1.83 million barrels, while active rigs surged from 31 in January to 50 by mid-year, Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri told delegates at Africa Energy Week.

The turnaround is pinned on the “Project One Million Barrels” initiative and the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Act, which the government insists has created a predictable playing field for investors. Lokpobiri pointed to over $5.5 billion in fresh investment decisions tied to asset divestments by IOCs—moves he said are adding some 200,000 bpd to national production. Nigeria, he declared, is “open for business.”

But problems persist downstream. The country’s crown jewel refinery—Aliko Dangote’s $20 billion, 650,000-bpd plant in Lagos—is mired in strikes, sabotage claims, and financial headaches. Earlier this week, Nigeria’s top oil union launched a nationwide walkout after 800 refinery workers were sacked for alleged “acts of sabotage.”

Dangote insists he’s rooting out bad actors; unions say he’s firing organizers. The strike has already shuttered offices at NNPC and key regulators, raising fears it could spill over into production if not resolved.

Even before the labor brawl, the refinery was under pressure. Dangote has admitted to reselling crude cargoes and halting local fuel sales as currency distortions made operations unprofitable.

Buying crude in dollars and selling fuel in a weakening naira is a recipe for red ink, and calls for government-backed import bans have underscored just how fragile the model is.

Nigeria’s oil reforms may be luring rigs back to the delta, but if its refining dream continues to falter, the paradox remains: a top global crude exporter still at risk of shortages at home.

By Julianne Geiger