....Total appoints bank to manage $750m asset sale

.....Oil industry job loss hits 3,500

By Adeola Yusuf


Mass sack is currently looming in Nigeria’s oil industry as more international oil companies consider pulling out from Nigeria’s oil bloc stakes.

The move, which came a few days after President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the bill that amends the Deep Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) Act, New Telegraph gathered exclusively yesterday, is to worsen the over 3,500 job loss suffered by Nigeria’s oil industry between 2016 and 2019.

French super major, Total, which pioneered the fresh exit plan from Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118, this newspaper gathered, has appointed an investment bank, Rothschild, to manage its $750 million asset sale in Nigeria.

Total is not the only international oil company that has stakes in OML 118.

The stake owners include Royal Dutch Shell – the operator – Exxon Mobil and Eni.

While Royal Dutch Shell owns 55 per cent stake in OML 118, Exxon Mobil has 20 per cent, Eni and Total both own 12 per cent in the oil bloc.

There has been exchange of correspondences between the IOCs offices in Nigeria and their headquarters situated in their mother countries over this move, this newspaper can report authoritatively.

“While a lot of these correspondences centred on implications of the new law guiding Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) to “our bottom lines, our officers here in Nigeria have been tasked to take resolutions on the new bill as an emergency,” a top management staff of one of the oil majors told this newspaper.

Stating that there would be need for re-adjustment in revenue forecast and projections made on investments in Nigeria before the bill, he maintained that there would be “realignment in spending and possible right-sizing to reflect the new reality.”

There has been mass sack of over 3,500 workers in Nigeria’s oil industry between 2016 and 2019, data compiled by this newspaper showed.

While the country’s economic recession was responsible for the sack of about 3,000 in 2016, the United States super oil major, Chevron, sacked 500 staff working on various projects of the company in Nigeria in 2019.

The two major unions in the oil and gas sector, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), then threatened to go on strike, saying over 3,000 of their members were affected during the 2016 mass sack.

Total Group is already looking for buyers for one of its major oil blocs in Nigeria.

The oil company wants to sell off its 12.5 per cent stake and has already contracted an investment bank to manage the sale process of the deepwater oilfield.

Total’s 12.5 per cent stake in the deepwater oilfield, Oil Mining Lease 118, is estimated to be worth $750 million. Part of the oil bloc includes Bonga field, which began production in 2005.

According to report, the Bonga field has produced around 225,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day at its peak.

With the $10 billion development of the Bonga Southwest field, production output is expected to grow.

The decision to sell its stake in the OML 118, which is located some 120 kilometres (75 miles) off Niger Delta, is coming amidst Total’s expansion in Africa.

The company is also reportedly planning to sell $5 billion of assets around the world by 2020; the sale of its stake in OML 118 is part of the assets’ sale.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), it would be recalled, invited interested bidders for the development of the Bonga South West Aparo (BSWA) oil field in February 2019.

It was reported that the project’s initial phase includes a new Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, more than 20 deep-water wells and related subsea infrastructure.

The field lies across Oil Mining Leases 118, 132 and 140, about 15km southwest of the existing Bonga Main FPSO.

But Shell disclosed days after that the directive by the Nigerian government to foreign oil companies to pay $20 billion in taxes owed would delay the final investment decision on its Bonga Southwest deepwater oilfield.

https://www.newtelegraphng.com/2019/11/oil-bloc-mass-sack-looms-as-more-iocs-mull-exit/

Too bad.

This is why I said Nigeria must be restructured
This obsession with oil makes us vulnerable
How can a nation of 200m people rely on oil from Niger delta for Christsake
Nigeria’s successive leadership from Nnamdi Azikwe to Buhari have been disasterous

Senseless policy somersult by the Buhari govt.Another negative for Nigeria.Recession loading.Meanwhile away with oil.

Watch as people hail bubu. Sometimes I wonder if this administration want the progress of Nigeria. Policy implementation in other countries are gradual but ours hmmm .....

Job loss has become so rampant, it's no longer scary..

Saao:
Watch as people hail bubu. Sometimes I wonder if this administration want the progress of Nigeria. Policy implementation in other countries are gradual but ours hmmm .....

What do you know about the Oil n Gas Industry in Nigeria?

This present administration has failed woefully in the management of our nation's economy. Nigeria's economy is nose-diving towards depression.

Artificial intelligence taking over...

Government bad policies...

Private sector laying off due to bad economy...

Government not concern about the plight of workers...

Workers being sacked into the already saturated labour market...

Nigeria where are you finally heading?...

I weep!!!

Nice work

K

Total ain't going anywhere..... News outlets churning out deceitful news to create panic in the country

Create an enabling environment for investors.

40k page visit + 20k advertising bonus promo ends tomorrow please dnt be late...signup via this link to receive your bonus.
check my signature oo

X

Why won't mass sacking loom in a country ruled by a certificate less cattle rearer whom his zombie minions say he can rule from London...


Nigeria is doomed

princeking2:
Create an enabling environment for investors.

I'm sure you are not talking about Nigeria under Buhari

Well there you have it. Please remember not to blame Jonathan/PDP when the effect of this Draconian rule hits our economy.

Another company is moving out while they are moving to other African countries.

Buhari wants to cripple the oil and gas sector so that everybody will go into farming.

So I can deduce from the above that Flavor is in love with Tacha.....OK bye

It seems New telegraph is now an extension of Confused.com crew! Last time, it was over faceless unknown 300 firm reported that relocated out of the country. and over 3 trillion to be lost by textile business due to bother closure now, it's oil coy! No wonder those thieves at the helms of affairs were shortchanging us! Confused reporting plus confused newspaper

Which way Nigeria? They all need to pay their owed taxes however

it is well

Fvck them

Never will their be a vacuum. Once they vanish, indigenous companies will fill in the blank spaces. Enough of this foreign companies milking us dry.

The new telegraph knows nothing.

I work in the oil industry and can tell you that there were job losses across all oil producing and services companies across all oil producing countries of the world between 2015 and 2017.

To claim the Nigerian recession was the cause is highly irresponsible.

Oil companies are divesting away from onshore assets especially as they often produce less and as well, they are fraught with various community related problems.

For the offshore assets, oil companies do sometimes sell stakes for sundry reasons, such as to raise funds for other ventures or simply because the dollar doesn't make sense to them.

Note:

Addax sold to Sinopec in 2009.

What could the reason have been ?

Recession?

rothschild strong bank runned by the rothschild family

We thank the Great Allah for Tinubu for giving us the best president in the person of Buhari. IPOB will not like this Great achievement of the president by chasing away corrupt Investors out of the country. Lets embrace local production and refining of our crude

May Allah Bless Tinubu(SWT)