Yengoa – The Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) yesterday defended its operations at the multi billion naira E.A oil field saying it had not violated the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) entered into with its host communities in Bayelsa State.

Yenagoa – The rural settlement of Emago-Kugbo, a border settlement between Bayelsa and Rivers has been hit by oil spills leading to the destruction of community farmland and creek, their source of drinking water.

Host communities to the multi billion naira SPDC E.A oil field have threatened to shut down operations at the facilities in protest over what they described as the alleged refusal of the oil giant to comply with the provisions of the local content and community employment opportunities as contained in Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) entered into with them.

The delay in passing the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, into law is generating increasing anxiety among stakeholders. The Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Mr. David Ugolor, in an interview with journalists as captured by Clara Nwachukwu, attributed the development to the confusion caused by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in muting several versions of the bill.

TO ease complaints on kerosene scarcity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, through its subsidiary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, said it has pumped about 37 million litres of the product into the market. The national demand for kerosene is 10 million litres per day.

Indigenous oil firm, Techno Oil Limited has concluded a two-day Strategic Business Review aimed at re-positioning the company to sustain its pioneering role in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

ABUJA – The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has recommended a drastic restructuring of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in order to ensure greater transparency and credibility of certain oil sector payments and receipts in the national oil and gas behemoth.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Ernest Nwapa has stated that the concept behind the establishment of the Nigerian Content Act was to end the era of domination by multinational oil and gas companies to the detriment of local companies.

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, and China’s major welded line pipe maker, Jiangsu Yulong Steel Pipe have agreed to implement a schedule that will lead to the setting-up of a 250, 000 tons per annum longitudinal submerged arc welded pipe mill in Nigeria by September 2012.

The Gulf of Mexico will have largely recovered from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012, the administrator of the $20bn (£12bn) pay-outs fund has said.

Petrotechnics has been awarded a contract from Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo).

Natural gas will surpass coal as the second-largest global energy source behind oil by 2030, even as overall global demand for energy jumps 35% from 2005 levels, ExxonMobil said today.

LONDON – Shell disappointed investors on Thursday with below-forecast fourth-quarter profit, with concerns over its refining business overshadowing a sharp rise driven by higher oil prices.

HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil, the largest American oil company, reported a 53 percent increase in its fourth-quarter profit on Monday, helped by an improving world economy that has increased energy demand and crude prices.

Oil giant BP announced its first annual loss for nearly two decades yesterday, dragged down by a whopping US$41 billion ($54 billion) charge to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year which unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in history.