Yenagoa – While unrest in the Niger Delta has sharply declined since a 2009 amnesty deal, crude oil theft and illegal refining of petroleum products has increased in the region in spite of the clamp down on the illicit trade by the country’s security forces, the Joint Task Force codenamed Operation Pulo Shield.

An insurance expert has appealed to insurance consumers to continue to embrace insurance covers in the wake of high rises in the prices of goods and services occasioned by the hike in the pump price of fuel saying that insurance is a life saver.

The Nigerian House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing the management of the nation’s oil subsidy payments said on Wednesday that Total Nigeria – one of the major oil marketers operating in the country – received excess subsidy claims of N2.7bn in 2011.

ORGANISED labour has advised the 7thNational Assembly to be guided by national interest when considering the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and void all contract confidentiality clauses for information on upstream, downstream, and midstream taxes, royalties, fees , bonus Payments, contractual obligations, budgets, projects and so on.

There are moves by Australia to emerge as a leader in the international gas industry, as it played host recently to investors, operators and other stakeholders in the global gas community.The conference, first of its kind to be hosted by the Australian government was organized in response to industry demand, with a focus on the markets contribution, particularly to LNG, from both a local and global perspective.