₦airaland Forum

Royal Dutch Shell is to start the sale of $2 billion oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta in 2014 after weak refining margins and crude oil theft in Nigeria forced the profits of Europe’s largest oil company to tumble.

The $2 billion Niger Delta assets, according to JP Morgan, is part of the $30 billion (£18bn) assets the company would sell off next year after weak refining margins and oil theft in Nigeria caused a sharp fall in profits

The UK-based Telegraph quoted oil and gas analysts from JP Morgan Cazenove as saying that the oil giant would sell up to $30 billion (£18bn) of assets next year.
They include oil assets in the Niger Delta worth $2 billion; a $7 billion stake in Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s second largest oil and gas producer; and other assets totalling $20 billion.

The $30 billion disposal plan could be unveiled as early as January 2014, and would be the largest in the Anglo-Dutch oil group’s history.

According to Fred Lucas of JP Morgan Cazenove, Shell’s guidance for capital spending implies at least $15 billion in asset sales during the next two years.

“Yet without too much thought to portfolio stress, we can isolate almost double that figure of potentially non-core assets in Shell’s global portfolio,” he added.
Retiring Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter Voser, said: “We are entering into a divestment phase like we had a few years ago.”

Voser, who steps down at the end of the year to be replaced by Ben van Beurden, said asset sales would allow Shell’s net capital investment, spending on projects adjusted for acquisitions and disposals, to fall from this year’s record $45 billion.
“We are entering into a divestment phase like we had a few years ago. The net capital spending is considerably going to come down in 2014. We know exactly what we are going to do. Ben will introduce to the market new targets,” Voser had said at his company’s headquarters in The Hague.

Shell’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Simon Henry, said Shell would be investing in projects from Brazil to China and plans to sell production assets in Nigeria, the United States, and possibly some other regions, along with interests in refineries and retail.

Voser, 55, a Swiss national and an economist by training, is retiring 31 years after first joining Shell. Since his appointment in 2009, he has overseen the completion of some of Shell’s largest projects.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/shell-to-sell-off-2bn-assets-in-niger-delta/167338/

ABUJA—The Presidency plans to spend at least N2.3 billion on local and international travels and transportation next year.

The proposal is contained in the 2014 appropriation bill submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan through the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the National Assembly last week.

A breakdown of the figure showed that the State House would require the sum of N1, 219, 612, 417 for what it called Local Travels. International travels and transportation will gulp N1, 159, 240, 600 .

For the whole year, the Presidency intends to spend N200 million for the provision of foodstuffs/catering supplies while it also plans to expend another N162,556,500 on meals and refreshments.

For honorarium and sitting allowances, the Presidency has budgeted a princely sum of N320 million for that purpose just as it has set aside the sum of N33.8 million for the office of the Vice-President to take care of his foodstuffs and catering supplies as well as meals and refreshments in the year.

Under the arrangement, N23.8 million will go for foodstuffs and catering supplies while the balance of N10 million will be spent on meals and refreshments in the office of the second in command.

In the same vein, the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is expected to spend the sum of N568,859,940 on honorarium and another N51, 403,464 on meals and refreshments within the fiscal period.

A scrutiny of the budget proposals however showed that the Presidency shied away from making any provision for the controversial Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, whose head, Arunma Oteh, has been embroiled in a ceaseless war with the National Assembly.

The lawmakers had vowed not to approve any budget for the commission until Oteh was removed but President Jonathan ignored them and their resolution.

In the same vein, the Federal Government made the same yearly provision of N150 billion for the National Assembly but did not give any breakdown of the sum.

It is not clear if the NASS would be in a hurry to pass the budget given the furore that attended the presentation of the document.

Controversy had mounted to the extent that President Jonathan had to back out of the presentation and later sent the Finance Minister to represent him.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/2014-budget-presidency-spend-n2-3bn-travels/#sthash.RKJJC0Lq.dpuf

koboko69: 15k PDP e-robot. Your expiry date is May 29 20015!

guy what r u talking abt here? 20015!

op what happens to the first day of christmas?

Rityben: Efik- Ukabadeh Isua!

I think it's 'Usoro emana Christ' not wht u type here

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has said he is bracing up for public spending “shocks” as the country prepares for the 2015 elections.


His disclosure reduces the chance of a reduction in the benchmark interest rate.
“Toward, the elections, there will be a supplementary budget,” Sanusi said in an interview on Bloomberg TV’s African Business programme at the weekend.


He added: “I don’t think I have seen an election cycle in any country in which the government has not spent money.”
The CBN governor, who is billed to finish his tenure in June 2014, is being wooed by northern leaders to join politics despite the fact that he has ruled out joining politics after his exit from the bank .


The CBN held its key interest rate at a record high of 12 percent at its last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting last week and said policy makers might raise borrowing cost to curb possible surge in government's spending in a pre-election year.


While President Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to keep the budget deficit under control, oil revenue has slumped this year and lawmakers are pushing to boost expenditure, adding to pressure on inflation.


“We are bracing ourselves for the possibility of shocks from the fiscal side, and we will have to respond on monetary side. We have always made it very clear that if we have to tighten then we will tighten,” the CBN governor added.


He raised concerns about high recurrent spending in the budget, such as salaries.
“There’s a lot of money in there that’s recurrent expenditure and overheads, and when you go down and start looking at the fine lines and the numbers, they’re quite frightening.


“And there’s a significant reduction in capital spending, which is a problem,” he added.
The apex bank had kept its benchmark rate unchanged since October 2011 to help stabilise the naira and keep inflation under control.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined 7.8 per cent in October, the lowest in more than five years, while the naira has gained 1.1 per cent against the dollar, since the beginning of September to trade at N158.65 at the interbank last Friday.


Meanwhile, prominent northern politicians, including a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Umar Na'Abba, former Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu and former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje, have attempted to convince Sanusi on why he should participate in active politics after his retirement.


The politicians made the overture yesterday in Abuja at a reception organised in honour of the new President of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) and former Minister of State for Power and Steel, Mallam Muritala Aliyu.


The leaders, in their speeches, urged Sanusi to engage in partisan politics, as they described him as one of the best of his generation.
Mu'azu explained that those who have excelled in their chosen career and have demonstrated good leadership quality and possess sound academic background should find every reason to participate in active politics.


He urged Sanusi to participate in politics, adding that the CBN governor would still achieve his dream of ascending the Kano emirate throne when the time comes.


"I am pleading that those of you who are professionally competent, educationally sound with adequate experience, including Dan Majen (Sanusi) himself should be in politics. What you are waiting for, whenever it comes, it is yours and it will be yours," he said.
The CBN governor, in his goodwill message, called on politicians and public officers to take responsibility and pay the price of making the country better for the younger generation.


Sanusi said although every Nigerian could not participate in active they should contribute to nation building.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/sanusi-braces-up-for-election-spending-shock/165153/

Chillisauce: 1. Lagos
2. Lagos
3. Lagos
4.....

Chillisauce u got my ribs cracking. Fortunately no Nigerian city is among them.

engrfcuksmtin: I said I will quit beer......alas I drank beer last December 26th 2012.
Benefits..... felt healthier, reduced pot belly, no more pile and waist pain.....

Are u serious? How did u actually survive without it? No sipping nor tasting whatsoever!

As the year is gradually winding up, I think it's high time we took stock of the year's events; how the year started, what we were able to do and the resolutions we kept.
As for me, amongst other things, I resolved to support our able, amiable and dynamic presido, GEJ in his transformation agenda no matter the level of detractors even here in NL. Can I hear someone say 'Fresh air all the way till 2019'. One love Naija.

space booked

what does credit in maths has to do with service to the nation? Mehn this sounds really funny. Allow the graduate to serve in his best of capacities shekina!
well done court.

one more thing before I forget FP things, 5th to comment....I made it finally

All because of greed. Just too bad.

RIP Madiba. You were indeed a great man

This drama isn't funny anymore. Maybe ASUU should consider other options like street protests and occupy ministries. Sitting at home won't solve anything

it was long overdue

Allah can no longer be used by a Christian newspaper in Malaysia to refer to God after a landmark court ruling on Monday, reversing a decision made four years previously that maintained the term transcended different faiths.

“It is my judgment that the most possible and probable threat to Islam, in the context of this country, is the propagation of other religions to the followers of Islam,” said chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali, announcing the change.

The panel of three judges was unanimous in their decision that the use of Allah by the Roman Catholic Herald newspaper constituted a threat to the sanctity of Islam, as defined in the federal constitution. The Herald editor the Rev. Lawrence Andrew said he was “disappointed and dismayed,” vowing to appeal.

The issue is contentious. The previous 2009 ruling was followed by a spate of attacks on churches, and critics fear the issue is once again being used to stoke religious tensions in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation. “Narrow-minded and prejudiced people are creating an atmosphere of hatred,” Mujahid Yusof Rawa, an MP for Malaysia’s opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, tells TIME.

According to the Rev. Eu Hong Seng, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, “The Bahasa Malaysia–speaking Christians have been using the word Allah before and after the independence of Malaya and the formation of Malaysia.”

Plenty of academic evidence suggests that Allah has also been used by Christians and Jews in Arabia for generations. “And what about the 10 [million] to 12 million Arab Christians today? They have been calling God ‘Allah’ in their Bibles, hymns, poems, writings, and worship for over 19 centuries,” says Fouad Accad in his book Building Bridges: Christianity and Islam, which examines commonality between the different faiths.

Allah was common parlance even before the birth of Islam in the sixth century. “Arabs used the word ‘Allah’ for the supreme being before the time of Muhammad,” writes Kenneth J. Thomas, a United Bible Societies translation consultant based in New York. “Inscriptions with ‘Allah’ have been discovered in Northern and Southern Arabia from as early as the fifth century B.C.”

With Christians in the neighboring Indonesia still allowed to use the term, many ponder what is behind the Malaysian U-turn. Mujahid believes this latest ruling is part of a “dynamic” of Malay right-wing appeasement after Prime Minister Najib Razak was returned to power with a slim majority.

“Malaysia is not prepared yet for such mature interfaith relationships, since the word Allah is still seen as very sensitive to Muslims,” he laments. “But I don’t think Muslims are that weak that they are going to convert to Christianity by hearing the word Allah said by a Christian.”

Ethnicity has been a key facet of Malaysian politics since colonial times, and increasingly so after 1971, when affirmative action for the bumiputra, or “sons of the soil” as the Malay and smaller indigenous minorities call themselves, was introduced in the wake of bloody race riots.

Ethnic Malays make up around two-thirds of Malaysia’s 28 million people. Chinese and Indians control much of the wealth and make up around 22% and 7% of the population respectively. About 9% of Malaysians are Christian.

Read more: Malaysia Court Rules Word ‘Allah’ Cannot Be Used by Non-Muslims | TIME.com http://world.time.com/2013/10/15/allah-means-god-unless-youre-a-christian-in-malaysia/#ixzz2lhMISOs6

kill them all, no mercy

Exactly

10. Kabwe, Zambia
Type of Pollution: Cadmium and lead Source of Pollution: Lead processing and mining High levels of lead were first discovered in Kabwe, Zambia in 1902, but little has been done to protect citizens since the discovery. Zambian children average between five and ten times more lead concentration in their blood than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows. Approximately $40 million from the World Bank has been allocated to aid in a clean-up project in this area.


Source: http://www.scgh.com/green-news/the-cleanest-and-the-most-polluted-cities/

9. Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Type of Pollution: Organic chemicals, heavy metals and oil Source of Pollution: Industrial and petrochemical complexes When the factories in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan were still operational, they released upwards of 12,000 tons of harmful emissions – like mercury – each year. Even though the majority of the factories have closed their doors, the pollution is still there. There is no work to speak of being done to clean up the area.

8. Chernobyl, Ukraine
Type of Pollution: Radiation Source of Pollution: Nuclear meltdown When the Chernobyl nuclear plant melted down in 1986, it sent 100 times more radiation into the air than the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The area is still contaminated and is expected to stay that way for thousands of years. The 20-mile area around Chernobyl remains uninhabitable.

7. Norilsk, Russia
Type of Pollution: Air pollution such as particulates and sulfur dioxide Source of Pollution: Nickel and Metal Mining and Processing Norilsk is the location of the world’s largest heavy metal smelting plant. More than four million tons of dangerous chemicals are released into the city’s atmosphere every year. It is difficult to find even a single living tree within 30 miles of the city.

6. Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Type of Pollution: Chemicals and toxic by products, such as sarin and vx gas Source of Pollution: Chemical Weapon Manufacturing The Guinness Book of World Records named Dzerzhinsk, Russia as the most chemically polluted city in the world. Nearly 300,000 tons of chemical waste was improperly dumped here between 1930 and 1998. The city’s death rate exceeds its birth rate by 260 percent.

5. La Oroya, Peru
Type of Pollution: Sulfur dioxide, lead, copper, zinc Source of Pollution:Metal mining and processing La Oroya, Peru has the dubious distinction of being a city where 99 percent of children’s lead blood levels that are higher than the acceptable limits. According to the World Health Organization, the lead level is three times the acceptable limit. The lead is likely to stay in the soil for centuries to come.

4. Vapi, India
Type of Pollution: Chemicals and metals Source of Pollution:Industrial estates Vapi, India might be higher on this list if it weren’t for its slow growth. The city’s groundwater has been found to contain mercury levels almost 100 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended amount. Heavy metals can be found in the city’s crops and air.

3. Sukinda, India
Type of Pollution: Hexavalent Chromium Source of Pollution:Chromite Mines Hexavalent Chromium is a carcinogenic type of steel used for leather tanning. In Sukinda, India, studies show that the drinking water includes more than double the international standard of Hexavalent Chromium. An Indian health group estimates that nearly 85 percent of deaths in mining areas are due to diseases that stem from chromium exposure.

2. Tianying, China
Type of Pollution: Lead and heavy metals Source of Pollution:Mining and Processing Tianying accounts for more than 50 percent of China’s total lead production. Because there are not many standards that regulate lead production in China, a lot of lead ends up in the city’s soil and water. Ultimately, the lead ends up in the bloodstream of children. Lead has been shown to decrease IQ in children.

1. Linfen, China
Type of Pollution: Coal Source of Pollution:Industrial and Automotive Emissions Linfen, China is not only the most-polluted city in China, but also the world. It includes many coal mines. Although legal coal mines create a lot of pollution, it is the city’s illegal coal mines that do the most damage, since they do not follow anti-pollution regulations. The city’s air is constantly soiled with burning coal.

The Blacksmith Institute in collaboration with Green Cross Switzerland recently evaluated the most dangerous pollution problems we face today. As a result, they put together this top ten list of the most deadliest factors we face:

1. Groundwater Contamination
2. Industrial Mining Activities 3. Metals Smelters and Processing 4. Radioactive Waste and Uranium Mines 5. Untreated Sewage 6. Urban Air Quality 7. Used Lead Acid Battery Recycling 8. Contaminated Surface Water 9. Indoor Air Pollution 10. Artisanal Gold Mining

It is truly troubling to realize that many people have built their homes nearby these major pollutants. The World Health Organizationhas released numerous reports stating that life expectancy is still below the age of 40 in many countries. Yet there are 16 countries where the citizens can expect to live past 80 years old. Although contributing factors include war and civil strife, one of the biggest factors is disease. Many countries still lack proper sanitation and trash removal, leaving its hungry citizens to dig through polluted waste to find food. The contrast between developing nations and developed nations is far reaching, even though developed countries like the United States are major polluters. Overall there are many factors that contribute to the cleanliness and health of a city. Here is the top 10 most polluted cities in the world:

It's not been very easy as jobs vacancies keep coming and i keep applying. In fact, if there is anything like 'over-application' i would say i have cos i have lost count. But there are high hopes anyway.

Today marks a month after the NYSC 2012 batch C POP. What have u been able to achieve since ur discharge? Did u get that dream job? Were u invited for that apt test? Did u scale through?......... Lets share our experiences

Plz when do we start to collect our money back?