Sierra Leone’s Energy Minister Ogunlade Davidson said today that commerciality of the Venus B-1 find had not yet been established.

Davidson told Reuters: “We have not yet established that the oil they have found out is in commercial quantities….In about a year’s time we should be in a far better position.”

Last September, an Anadarko-lead consortium said it had hit 45 net feet of pay with the Venus B-1 probe, the first well drilled off Sierra Leone.

Yenagoa – Nigeria Agip Oil Company, (NAOC) has expressed concern over the activities of oil thieves who specialized in vandalizing and tapping pipelines as its production nosedive from 55,000 to 38,000 barrel per day in Bayelsa.

With the passing of the Nigerian Content Act on the 22nd of April 2010 the primary persons concerned in the Niger Delta may not be in the full picture of what good luck, fortune and divine favour has been bestowed upon them.

Tendeka has successfully completed the first installation of an optical reservoir monitoring system in an offshore platform well for a major operator in West Africa.

Murphy Oil brought a third production well online on the Azurite oil field. Production levels will be gradually increased during the next two weeks in order to reach a planned stable rate. A second injection well is currently being drilled, with a further three producers and one injector to be drilled and completed in 2010. The Azurite field is located on the Mer Profonde Sud Block, offshore Republic of the Congo.

BG dives in off Tanzania: UK player BG Group has been given the go-ahead to farm in to blocks 1, 3 and 4 off southern Tanzania.

Shell to complete project in Niger Delta:Shell to complete project in Niger Delta

NNPC undermined – 5 GMDs in 3 years : THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has witnessed the appointment and replacement of 5 Group Managing Directors (GMDs) to superintend its affairs in less than 3 years, undermining the corporation’s policy focus and direction and by extension that of the country’s oil and gas industry.

Sweet crude gathered that the latest change at the NNPC which saw the replacement of Mallam Shehu Ladan as GMD barely one month after his appointment with Mr. Austen Oniwon may have sealed any hope of commitment to spending on the part of the international oil companies.

by Oscarline ONWUEMENYI The parlous state of the Nigerian power sector received a shot in the arm with the recent issuance of a $100 million grant by the World Bank to guarantee private investment within the sector, under the Commercial Reorientation of the Electricity Sector Toolkit (CREST) initiative of the bank. According to the World […]

by Victor AHIUMA-YOUNG WORKERS in the nation’s petroleum industry, in a bid to address the proliferation of contract and service employment in sector which they perceived as unfair labour practices and potentials for industrial unrest, have presented a position paper on how it should be addressed to avoid a disruption of the industrial peace. At […]