EDItORIAL

INDUSTRYI’ll Work with Sylva, Kyari – OPEC Scribe

The Day Two Saudi Oil Plants Went Up in Flames

FG to Deliver Four FIDs and Boost Prosperity — PMB

‘Nigeria is the Ballast’ — Saudi Prince

Mele Kyari Charts a New Course for NNPC

$17 billion NLNG Train 7 Project will Create 40,000 Jobs — Wabote

P&ID: UK Court Grants Nigeria Stay of Execution, Leave to Appeal

NCDMB, NFIU Partner to Fight Capital Flight, Reduce Expatriate Quota

SEPTEMBER SHORT TAKES

We Need Foresight, Commitment, Unity at OPEC — UAE Energy Minister

World oil markets experience supplies after attack in Saudi Arabia

EVENTNNPC Upstream Golf Tournament 2019

MOTORINGUtobras set to thrill luxury bus transporters with Comil’s Invictus 1200

AVIATIONBoeing settles with some victims of Lion Air 737 MAX plane crash

PROPERTYUrban Shelter Properties: Setting the Pace in Real Estate Solutions

SPORTSAmputee Soccer - The Beginning *First Kick: September 1982

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SEPTEMBER 2019 VOL. 2 NO. 9

23Catherine Uju IfejikaChief Executive Offi cer Brittania-U Group

Star of the Industry

Surviving Sickle Cell Anemia The Journey so far

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28Is NNPC’s Promise to Fix All Refi neries by 2022 Empty?

In 2017, the immediate past minister of state, petroleum resources, Dr. Emmanuel

Ibe Kachikwu, out of strong optimism, told the world in a point blank interview on BBC’s Hard Talk anchored by Stephen Sackur, that he would resign if the nation did not achieve petroleum self-suffi ciency by 2019.

In spite of the fact that the former minister may have hinged his promise out of strong conviction he had then on their plan to achieve the target, but with barely three months to the end of 2019, the nation’s reliance on petroleum product import is still a source of concern to many.

The initial assumption that Nigeria will achieve pe-troleum self-suffi ciency by 2019 was borne out of the expectation that the Nigeri-an Oil Company, NNPC will repair the nation’s four ailing refi neries within two-years, and the 650,000 bpd capac-ity Dangote refi nery would be launched by 2019 as initially forecast by the owners of the refi nery.

While the nation was dis-appointed as the two did not happen as planned, recent-ly the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam

MB. UsmanNB. Feel free to send in your views and have your say @ 007mbu@gmail.com

in this edition is about the le-gal tussle between Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) and the Feder-al Republic of Nigeria. At last Nigerian Government has secured a ‘stay of execution’ and Leave to Appeal from the UK Commercial and Arbitral Court that delivered the initial $9.6 bn judgment debt in fa-vour of P&ID. By this develop-ment, Nigerian Government has been granted leave to appeal the judgment.

Other Industry reports, including reports from Mo-toring, Property, Sports and Aviation are packaged in this edition for your reading relax-ation.

Mele Kolo Kyari made a fresh promise that the ailing refi n-eries will be fi xed before the end of the second tenure of President Muhammadu Bu-hari’s presidency.

The fact is that many peo-ple don’t take such promises seriously anymore. But our hope is that they work the talk this time around. That informs our cover page story titled “Is NNPC’s Promise to Fix All Refi neries Empty?”

Another interesting report

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Deputy Editor

Acting Editor

Graphic Consultant

Circulation Manager

Online Editor

Photo Editor

Business Dev. Executives

Contributors

Musa Bashir Usman

Fred Ojiegbe

Benjamin Ike

Theresa Ogbonna

Danlami Nasir Isah

Saidu Abubakar

Bashir Bello Dollars

Adeniyi Onifade (South)Abdulkarim Sani (North)

Zakari Abdulkadir (S/South)

Gideon OsakaIronhand S. Chukwuemeka

Aisha SamboJulius Ogar

info@thevaluechainng.com @thevaluechainng.com thevaluechainng.com

1-2 Abu-Rayyan Street, New NDC Layout, Kaduna. Tel: 08077201571, Abuja: 07089626420, Lagos: 08036840121. email: 007mbu@gmail.com www.thevaluechainng.com

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Nigeria’s Mohammed Sa-nusi Barkindo, Secretary General of the Organi-

zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has com-mended the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for its ongoing reforms aimed at changing the fortunes of the corporation for the better.

Barkindo, also a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC, expressed his confi dence after inspecting the NNPC Pavilion at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emir-ates.

A release from the offi ce of the Group General Manag-er, Public Affairs of the NNPC,

Ndu Ughamadu, states that the OPEC scribe said he was glad to see the corporation’s Man-agement pursue the dreams of its founding fathers despite the challenges of contraction in in-vestment that have affected the global energy industry.

“I am glad that you continue to march on with your projects despite the downturn in the In-dustry. We have seen the indus-try globally suffer in terms of contraction in investment which affected capacity. You have not only been able to stay on course, but you also continue with these projects which are critical for the development of the corpora-tion and the industry in Nigeria”,

he declared.Affi rming his confi dence in

the new leadership of the corpo-ration, the OPEC scribe said that the competences of the newly appointed Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Syl-va and that of the NNPC GMD, Malam Mele Kolo Kyari, were positive steps towards bringing the much-needed direction and development in the continental oil and gas industry.

“I know both Timipre Sylva as a friend and Mele Kyari as a colleague for a very long time. I have worked with both and I know that if they work together, they will make a good team that will provide the leadership that

–By Julius Ogar

Industry 09:19

I’ll Work with Sylva, Kyari – OPEC Scribe

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I am glad that you continue to march on with your projects despite the downturn in the Industry. We have seen the industry globally suffer in terms of contraction in investment which affected capacity. You have not only been able to stay on course, but you also continue with these projects which are critical for the develop-ment of the corporation and the industry in Nigeria”.

I know both Timipre Sylva as a friend and Mele Kyari as a colleague for a very long time. I have worked with both and I know that if they work together, they will make a good team that will provide the leadership that the corporation and the industry require”.

the corporation and the industry require”, Barkindo stated.

Of note is Barkindo’s delight with Kyari’s transparency and accountability drive, as en-trenched in his Transparency, Accountability Performance Excellence (TAPE) vision, which he sees as indispensable key el-ements that would boost inves-tor confidence.

“To lead such a sensitive and capital-intensive industry like oil and gas, you must have trans-

parency and accountability as one of your core principles in or-der to drive change. I am glad I know Mele Kyari for a very long time. He is a very capable and straightforward individual with high level of integrity even as a very junior officer. So, he has a track record. I remain confident that together with his team, and with the support of government, he will accomplish the task”.

Briefing the OPEC scribe ear-lier at the event, Mr. Adetunji

Adeyemi, the Chief Operating Officer Downstream, who rep-resented the GMD at the confer-ence, shed more light on strate-gic projects of the corporation and also assured OPEC of the current NNPC leadership’s com-mitment to deliver on their man-date.

The World Energy Congress is a triennial event organized by the oil cartel.

Industry 09:19

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For more information, contact the Coordinator, 0803 081 1892

Industry 09:19

In the early hours of Saturday, the 14th of September, the global oil and gas industry

was shocked with the report of attacks on two major oil facili-ties by drones in Saudi Arabia.

Al Arabiya, the Saudi Arabian local news network, had report-ed that two oil processing cen-tres in Abqaiq and Khurais were attacked, and that the Saudi Interior Ministry reported fires at the two centres, which were later extinguished.

Saudi Arabia is the 18th larg-est economy in the world by GDP (769,878 million US$) with humongous oil reserves and a leading member of the Organi-sation of Petroleum exporting Countries, OPEC. The attack cut its oil production quota by 5.7 million barrels.

According to reports, Ye-men’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the bomb-ing. The Houthis have fought against the Yemeni govern-ment supported by Saudi Ara-bia for many years. However, a Houthi spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Yahya Sare’e, reportedly said the group’s forces “carried out a massive offensive operation of 10 drones targeting Abqaiq and Khurais refineries.

Reacting to the attack, Unit-ed States President Donald Trump had threatened that the US is “locked and loaded” and ready to respond to attacks on petroleum processing facilities in Saudi Arabia, claiming the evi-

dence pointed to Iranian involve-ment.

The attacks disrupted more than half of Saudi’s oil output and affected global supplies. It also cut oil output by 5.7 mil-lion barrels daily, more than five per cent of global crude supply. Oil prices rose by almost $12 a barrel to $71.95 within 24 hours following the attack.

On his Twitter account, Trump insinuated “reason to be-lieve that we know the culprit” behind the series of attacks on the Abqaiq facility, which is the world’s largest petroleum pro-cessing plant. “…depending on verification, but are waiting to

hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack and under what terms we would proceed”, he twitted further.

The US government has pro-duced satellite photos show-ing what officials said were at least 19 points of impact at the two Saudi energy facil-ities, including damage at the heart of the kingdom’s crucial oil processing plant at Abqaiq. Officials told US media the pho-tos showed impacts consistent with the attacks coming from the direction of Iran or Iraq, rather than from Yemen to the south. Iraq denied that its terri-

The Day Two Saudi Oil Plants Went Up in Flames

–By Julius Ogar

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tory was used for an attack on the kingdom. US officials said a strike from there would be a vio-lation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

US officials said addition-al devices, which didn’t reach their targets, were recovered northwest of the facilities and were being jointly analysed by Saudi and American intelli-gence. The officials did not rule out the possibility of the weap-ons being fired from Yemen in a round-about path to the target.

In reaction to Trump’s com-ment, a senior commander from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that the Islamic repub-lic was ready for “full-fledged” war. “Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a dis-tance of up to 2,000km around Iran are within the range of our missiles,” the head of the Rev-

olutionary Guards Corps’ Aero-space Force, Amirali Hajizadeh, was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency, Tasmin.

Also reacting to the incident, Saudi Crown Prince, Moham-med bin Salman, said the king-dom was “willing and able” to respond to this “terrorist ag-gression.”

Despite claims by the Houthi rebels, Saudi officials believe Iran is responsible because the intensity of the attack is beyond the capability of the Houthi. Ac-cordingly, they want to gather evidence before going public with the claims, according to Gulf diplomats and regional of-ficials.

Reports indicate that Saudi Arabia’s oilfields and pipelines have been targeted by Houthi rebels in the past but never on such a scale and causing such dis-

ruption. The Iran-backed Houthi militia in neighbouring Yemen has also launched missile at-tacks on Saudi airports before. The success of this drone strike is a serious escalation, and one that the authorities in Riyadh are not taking lightly. Industry watchers warn that global sup-plies of oil are likely to suffer a “major jolt” following the attack.

Amin Nasser, Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Arabian oil com-pany, Aramco, had initially said work was underway to restore production and that it would take weeks to return to full pro-duction capacity at the dam-aged facilities. However, closer examination has revealed the damage was more than antic-ipated and would take months to restore production capacity to normal.#

President Donald Trump of USA Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman

Reacting to the attack, United States President Donald Trump had threatened that the US is “locked and loaded” and ready to respond to attacks on pe-troleum processing facilities in Saudi Arabia, claiming the evidence pointed to Iranian involvement.

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Saudi Oil Attacks: Why Nigeria Should Be Alert

The recent attack on Saudi oil facilities is cause for con-cern to the global energy indus-try. While other oil producing countries take advantage of the increase in crude price occa-sioned by the attacks, industry analysts have called for collec-tive and concerted efforts to prevent such attacks which can have long-term negative im-pacts on the global economy.

Oil prices rose above $70 per barrel following the Saudi drone strikes. But the oil producing economies could not make much capital of the incident as Saudi’s principal ally, the Unit-ed States made to balance the global shortfalls from its own reserves.

Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil producer has often experienced shocks occasioned by attacks

on oil installations in the Niger Delta. In the follow up to the 2015 general elections out-come, a hitherto unknown mili-tia group called the Niger Delta Avengers blew up oil facilities in the region, bringing down Nige-ria’s production quota to about 1.7 million barrels per day. Ni-geria dropped below Angola on the continent in its oil produc-tion output.

Also with the unraveling of Libya, North Africa’s oil produc-ing giant and the free flow of weapons to the hands of terror groups in sub-Saharan Africa, the possibility of the Saudi in-cident happening in other plac-es cannot be ruled out. With experiences in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has mutated in West Africa and now has an af-filiate in Boko Haram which op-erates in the Lake Chad region

spanning Nigeria, Chad, Camer-oun and Niger.

It is on record that ISIS at-tacked and seized several oil production facilities from which they earned substantial rev-enues to finance their opera-tions.

Internal security challenges which include oil theft, pipeline vandalism and militancy in the oil regions of Nigeria have been major challenges confronting the government. Oil theft is said to account for 10 percent of oil losses. This portends that Nige-ria’s capacity to take advantage of the Saudi misfortune or any major conflict in the Gulf region is severely limited.

Incidents such as the Saudi attacks have further exposed the frightening dimension in the global trend of violence and terrorism. State and non-state actors may resolve to strike at economic targets to settle scores and register their griev-ances against opponents and/or enemies.

A recent meeting of the se-curity chiefs wherein Presi-dent Muhammadu Buhari gave them marching orders to end banditry, insurgency and other multiplying criminal tendencies was held behind closed doors. There is therefore no informa-tion whether it featured con-cerns about the oil industry at-tacks in Saudi Arabia. However, analysts are of the opinion that

Despite claims by the Houthi rebels, Saudi officials believe Iran is responsible because the intensity of the attack is beyond the capability of the Houthi. Accord-ingly, they want to gather evidence before going public with the claims, according to Gulf diplomats and re-gional officials.

Industry 09:19

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According to the NNPC, Nigeria is the only mem-ber country in the OPEC that imports petrol and is currently the largest importer of PMS in the world.

an oversight is costly, given the economic importance of oil to the nation’s economy.

Oil is the livewire to global economic activities. Therefore, attacks on oil facilities espe-cially across borders must be guarded against. If the Saudi in-cident is not addressed frontal-ly to prevent future occurrence not just in Saudi Arabia but oth-er oil producing countries, then the world may be in for a bigger shock yet.

Nigeria’s four refineries sit-uated in Port Harcourt, Eleme, Warri and Kaduna may not be fully functional, but they are important state assets that re-quire protection against terror-ism and criminal violence. The Abqaiq facility is not a refin-

ery or a petrochemicals plant, but a crude separating facility where impurities like hydrogen sulphide are removed from the crude prior to export.

With hindsight, the escala-tion of restiveness in the Niger Delta and violent attacks by militants on oil installations caused several shutdowns and losses amounting to billions of dollars in oil revenues. Some in-ternational oil companies in the region shutdown or withdrew their staff for safety concerns.

Although the level of violent agitation has substantially re-duced, it is imperative to guard against surprises and to proac-tively prepare for eventualities as global trends in terrorism render conventional security

measures obsolete.Long standing grievances

such as environmental destruc-tion, lack of development and infrastructure in the oil produc-ing communities, a perceived inadequate share allocation from oil revenues, among oth-ers are widespread and still simmering in the region. The government needs to work to-wards addressing these causes of resentment in order to se-cure the confidence of the Niger Delta people against disruption in oil production and as well to successfully keep out the influ-ence of groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa.

Industry 09:19

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Industry 09:19

The Federal Government re-mains committed to bring-ing prosperity to Nigerians

through solving the nation’s en-ergy challenges, declares Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

Towards this objective, there are plans to deliver Final Invest-ment Decisions (FIDs) on at least four key projects within the nation’s oil and gas industry by the end of last quarter this year.

Chief Sylva, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosed this while speaking at the 24th World Energy Congress (WEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a release by the Group General Manager, Public Af-fairs Division of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu indicates.

According to the minister who only recently assumed office, “Energy is always at the heart of our prosperity because in Nige-ria, oil is central to our national development. Power today has

become very central to every-thing we do”.

Describing the conference theme: “Energy for Prosperity”, as apt, the minister maintained that addressing Nigeria’s energy needs would go a long way in Nigeria’s march towards indus-trialisation.

“A lot is being done by the Federal Government to improve the energy situation in the coun-try. Government has since rec-ognised the need to improve the nation’s energy situation and that is exactly what we are poised to do,” he said.

The former governor of Nige-ria’s oil-rich Bayelsa State said his vision is to bequeath a vi-brant petroleum industry which shall guarantee long term stra-

–By Julius Ogar

FG to Deliver Four FIDs and Boost Prosperity

… Says PMB at World Energy Conference

President Muhammadu Buhari

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My plan is to ensure that during my tenure, four Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) are taken. I am sure that within the next quarter, we should be able to conclude on some of these FIDs so as to grow the in-dustry”.

Industry 09:19

tegic investments and prosper-ity for Nigerians.

“My plan is to ensure that during my tenure, four Final In-vestment Decisions (FIDs) are taken. I am sure that within the next quarter, we should be able to conclude on some of these FIDs so as to grow the industry,” the minister stated.

He also highlighted gas devel-opment as part of government’s priority to fast track the industri-alisation drive of the country.

“As you are aware, we are fo-cusing on the Ajaokuta-Kadu-na-Kano (AKK) pipeline project which will address some of our power issues and encourage the setting up of local industries and businesses along different areas in Nigeria.”

On the imperative of rehabili-tating the nation’s refineries, the minister said it is unsustainable for Nigeria to continue to import petroleum products. According to him, while private investment in the refining sector is encour-aged, government needs focus more on the repair of its existing refineries.

“People are talking about modular refineries, we know that modular refineries are part of the solution but they can only be part of the solution and not the solutions themselves. So, we are going to try to encourage modular refineries but before that, we are going to really focus on repairing the existing refiner-ies to ensure that we are back on stream very shortly”.

He also maintained that gov-ernment was equally looking at the issue of reducing the cost of production through robust en-gagement with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) towards getting best value for all stake-holders.

Speaking on crude oil theft which he described as “intracta-ble”, Sylva said government was looking at practicable solutions to the problem.

According to the minister, Nigeria needs to lend its voice to global energy fora as they remain some of the best plat-forms where major decisions that impact the global energy landscape are taken.

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Industry 0919

The Organisation of the Pe-troleum Exporting Coun-tries (OPEC) has com-

mended Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to the stability of the global oil market which spanned many years of its membership of the bloc.

Chairman of OPEC’s 16th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), Prince Ab-dulaziz Bin Salman, applauded Nigeria’s role in Abu Dhabi, Unit-ed Arab Emirates, on the occa-sion of the World Energy Con-gress.

Saudi Crown Prince, Bin Sal-

man, who doubles as the Saudi Arabian Energy Minister noted that since the 1980s when Nige-ria’s late Oil Minister Dr. Rilwanu Lukman reigned at the helm of OPEC, the West African nation’s role has been very pivotal in helping the organisation achieve stability in the oil market.

“Nigeria has always brought commitment and obligation to-wards the OPEC cause. I always thought of how we would have crossed the uncertainties of the global oil market of the 1980s without Nigeria,” Bin Salman added.

According to him, Nigeria’s role cuts across compliance with OPEC charters as well as mediation and reconciliation among member countries over the years.

During the JMMC session, OPEC reiterated its determina-tion to accelerate concerted ac-tion towards addressing market challenges and adapting to fu-ture developments.

While enjoining non-compli-ant members to fully observe their production commitments, the JMMC also underscored the need for continued com-

‘Nigeria is the Ballast’ — Saudi Prince

–By Julius Ogar

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mitment for the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in support of oil market stability on a sustain-able basis.

Earlier in his remarks, Minis-ter of State for Petroleum Re-sources, Chief Timipre Sylva said OPEC’s endorsement was a testimony to President Mu-hammadu Buhari’s efforts at ensuring that Nigeria remains a stabilizing force within the or-ganisation.

“The rest of OPEC have al-ways looked up to us whenever there are problems. Recall that as OPEC Secretary General, our late Oil Minister Dr. Rilwanu Luk-man was highly influential and since then we have played a central role and have been taken very seriously by member coun-tries,” he stated.

Sylva, who was in his maiden

outing at the OPEC described the endorsement as “heart-warming”, adding that it would go a long way to spurring and encouraging the country to do better.

The minister also gave assur-ance of Nigeria’s commitment to meet its agreed quotas by October this year.

“We have agreed to comply with production cuts of 50% this month (September 2019) and 100% from October this year,” Sylva stated.

The next meeting of the JMMC comes up on the 4th De-cember 2019 at the OPEC Sec-retariat in Vienna, Austria.

Nigeria has always brought commitment and ob-ligation towards the OPEC cause. I always thought of how we would have crossed the uncertainties of the global oil market of the 1980s without Nigeria,” Bin Salman added.

Industry 09:19

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Industry 09:19

Mele Kyari Charts a New Course for NNPC

–By Gideon Osaka

Mallam Mele Kyari, the new Group Managing Direc-tor, GMD, Nigeria Nation-

al Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, may have set out to chart a new course for the nation’s national oil company.

Known for his welfarist ac-tivism, as a labour leader, Kyari may have set his goal to see a vibrant and performing NNPC. Not quite long after taking the helm of office, Kyari engaged the Chief Operating Officers of the various Autonomous Business Units (ABUs) of the Corporation at a sign-off event to formally commit to the delivery of the key priority areas at the NNPC Tow-ers, Abuja. Speaking at the event, Kyari charged members of his management team to work as-siduously to deliver on the key priority areas of growing the na-tion’s crude oil reserves and pro-duction, ensuring steady supply of petroleum products and sup-plying adequate gas to meet the next level agenda of the Federal Government. He explained that all the key performance areas (KPAs) and key performance in-dicators (KPIs) were designed by in-house experts without inputs from consultants, adding that it was an indication of the abun-dant talents within the corpora-tion’s human resource base. “I have the conviction that we can deliver on these KPAs and even do more. We have enormous goodwill from our various stake-holders and Nigerians that we can do things differently. Let me emphasize that our stakeholders

have tremendous trust in us and it is only excellent performance that can sustain the trust they have in us,” Kyari said.

He maintained that the clear goal of his management was to drive an NNPC that is Transpar-ent and Accountable with Perfor-mance Excellence (TAPE), stress-ing that the milestones for all the Autonomous Business Units (ABUs) and Strategic Business Units (SBUs) would be delivered within the timelines. The GMD

also said that the KPAs were the roadmap for growth and consol-idation, assuring that his man-agement would ensure effective stimulation of industrial growth in the country. Tagged the Road-map for Growth and Consolida-tion, Kyari’s new corporate vision of Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) is expected to ensure that all of NNPC’s seven Directorates leverage on technology and in-novation to deliver on their Key

Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, NNPC GMD

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Industry 09:19

Priority Areas (KPAs). The KPAs also have clear-cut roadmap and strategies towards actualizing the TAPE mandate.

For the Upstream Directorate, the KPAs are: growing the nation’s reserves and increasing produc-tion; while the KPAs for the Gas and Power Directorate include the expansion of the gas sector footprint towards stimulating in-dustrialization. While the Refining and Petrochemicals Directorates would focus on enhancing local refining capacity as its KPA, the Downstream Directorate would ensure efficient and seamless petroleum products supply to guarantee energy security for the country and ensure that the criti-cal oil and gas infrastructure are secured, and the Ventures Direc-torate would work to ensure that the corporation’s new business-es are capitalized and commer-cialised. For the Corporate Ser-vices Directorate, the Key Priority Areas are the development of the corporation’s human capital and excellent service delivery, while the Finance and Accounts Direc-torate is charged with ensuring fi-nancing for growth and effective liquidity management.

In his strive to halt rising cross-border leakages, the GMD has sought the intervention of the Department of State Ser-vices, DSS.

Kyari, who called on the DSS to help squelch the escalating cas-es of petroleum products smug-gling and other allied vices which had remained a clog in the drive

to achieve efficiency in the oper-ations of the oil and gas industry, lamented the negative impacts of the activities of smugglers and related ills on the nation’s econ-omy. According to him, the intol-erable implication of the reign of smuggling syndicates was that Nigeria is the unintended suppli-er of petroleum products to the entire west coast of Africa and beyond. The NNPC GMD listed other areas for immediate inter-vention to include: oil pipeline vandalism which has led to sig-nificant losses in revenue, pro-tection of NNPC workforce and equipment in course of operation in the frontier exploration fields. Kyari stated that the assistance being sought from DSS would go a long way to guaranteeing a veritable national energy security in line with the aspiration of the Service to the government and people of Nigeria. He noted that the attainment of the aforemen-tioned goals would not only be helpful to NNPC’s operations but would ultimately impact on the generality of the populace since NNPC is the biggest enabler of the Nigeria economy.

Also Kyari said that NNPC is committed to harnessing Nige-ria’s abundant gas resources for the benefit of Nigerians. Speak-ing at a gas and power breakfast briefing on the sidelines of the Gas Technology Exhibition and Conference (GASTECH) held in Houston, United States, Kyari, who was represented by the Managing Director of Nigeria Gas

Company, NGC, Salihu Jamari, said, “Nigeria is more of a gas na-tion than oil and for us, gas is the future. We have therefore com-mitted to providing the neces-sary support required to ensure Nigeria takes its rightful place in the international gas market,” While describing the Nigeria Liq-uefied Natural Gas (NLNG) as a very critical company for Nigeria, Kyari appealed to prospective investors to consider investing in the organization for the ben-efit of shareholders and the en-tire Nigerians. “There are a lot of opportunities within Nigeria’s LNG value-chain. I would like to assure you that the NLNG is the best destination for investment,” he added.

Since his assumption of office on 8th July 2019, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari has been engaging different stakeholders in the pe-troleum industry, who either paid him courtesy visits or those who he visited himself, with the aim of synergizing to find a lasting solu-tions to the industry problems. Latest of such visit undertaken by the GMD was his courtesy call on the Honourable Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Baba-tunde Raji Fashola where he sought the collaboration of the ministry in mending the state of strategic road segments which are related to fuel distribution and for the enforcement of regu-lations on truck dead weight.

“I have the conviction that we can deliver on these KPAs and even do more. We have enormous goodwill from our various stakeholders and Nigerians that we can do things differently. Let me emphasize that our stakeholders have tremendous trust in us and it is only excellent performance that can sustain the trust they have in us,” Kyari said.

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email: 007mbu@gmail.com

Marketi ng Communicati ons Public Relati ons Event Management Publicati ons

There is hope in the horizon that the much awaited take off of Nigeria Lique-

fied Natural Gas, NLNG, Train 7 will be achieved sooner than later.

This is coming on the heels of the latest NLNG talks with lenders to finance a $10 billion expansion. The company is dis-cussing with the country’s top-10 lenders including Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank, to raise as much as $2 billion, and with foreign lenders and export-credit agencies for the

balance, Chief Executive Offi-cer Tony Attah said. The funds will go toward building the gas plant’s seventh train, expected to boost output by 40 percent. “We have done the financial market pitch to know who has capacity,” Attah said recently.

Nigeria LNG has appointed Guaranty Trust and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation as financial advisers for the fund raising that will be a combina-tion of debt and equity. The sev-enth train is expected to cost as much as $7 billion to build,

with another $3 billion going for gas-gathering projects and pipe-lines needed to feed the new unit. Nigeria is joining nations from U.S. to Australia in increas-ing output of the fastest-grow-ing fossil fuel to help meet rising natural gas demand led by Chi-na. With the planned expansion, output is expected to reach 30 million tons a year when com-pleted in five years, from the cur-rent 22 million tons. Nigeria had already lost its position as the fourth-biggest exporter, over-taken last year by the U.S. This

$17 billion NLNG Train 7 Project will Create 40,000 Jobs

— Wabote

–By Gideon Osaka

Industry 09:19

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Industry 09:19

Explaining the development of NLNG, Attah said ”Train-7 will move from Front End Engineering De-sign (FEED) to detailed design, construction, com-mission and delivery and this phase will attract almost $7bn with an addition of the upstream scope of $10bn which will boost the foreign direct investment profile of Nigeria.”

year, American LNG is further expanding while Russia is also ramping up shipments from its Yamal LNG plant in the Arctic.

Nigeria LNG had moved clos-er to taking a final investment decision on the project when it named Saipem SpA, Chiyoda Corp. and Daewoo Engineering and Construction Company Lim-ited as the successful bidders to build the new plant. The compa-ny signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction, EPC, con-tracts with the builders, a key milestone toward a final invest-ment decision. “Our ambition is to take that decision on October 31,” Attah said. The company’s plant on Bonny Island supplied more than 300 LNG cargoes last year including 51 spot sales. NLNG, as it is known, has signed sale and purchase agreements with existing customers to take the additional volumes from the new plant while it expects that aggregate market growth will be driven by demand from emerg-ing markets, including new des-tinations such as Pakistan, Ban-gladesh, Jordan and Jamaica, the CEO said.

The CEO said that a re-mar-keting effort for volumes from its older trains 1, 2 and 3 that began in 2017 is now nearing a close and he expects bilateral agreements with new and ex-isting buyers will be signed by October. LNG buyers are now

increasingly shifting toward shorter contracts as more car-goes are now sold on the spot market, he said. About 32 per-cent of global LNG imports last year were on spot or short-term basis, according to GIIGNL, an industry body of importers.

“We see that kind of behaviour in the trains 1, 2 and 3 re-mar-keting where I can positively say the average tenure was about 10 years. Not many people want contracts for 20 years,” accord-ing to Attah.

Explaining the development of NLNG, Attah said ”Train-7 will move from Front End Engineer-ing Design (FEED) to detailed design, construction, commis-sion and delivery and this phase will attract almost $7bn with an addition of the upstream scope of $10bn which will boost the foreign direct investment profile of Nigeria.”

He pledged the company’s commitment to achieving the project within four to five-year period and hoped that it would sign the Final Investment Deci-sion (FID) by the end of October 2019.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Simbi Wabote, said that the $17 billion NLNG Train 7 project will create 40,000 jobs. He stated this during the signing of the Letter of Intent (LoI) for the Train-7 Engineering,

Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contract between NLNG and the preferred consortium- SCD, which is constituted by three entities – Saipem, Chiyoda and Daewoo. Giving an insight into the opportunities, Wabote said “the NLNG Train-7 will deliv-er 100 per cent engineering of all non-cryogenic areas in-country. The total in-country engineering man-hours is set at 55 per cent which exceeds the minimum level stipulated in the NOGICD Act, in line with our resolve to push beyond the boundary of limitations.”

The schedule of the NOGICD Act set the minimum engineer-ing man-hours for FEED and Detailed Engineering on LNG Facility at 50 percent. He stat-ed further that the benefits of the Train 7 project will extend to site civil works on roads, piling, and jetties, 100 per cent local procurement of all LV and HV cables, non-cryogenic valves, protective paints and coatings, sacrificial anodes and many oth-er direct procurements from our local manufacturing plants. The target, according to the Exec-utive Secretary, is to assemble over 70 per cent of all non-cryo-genic pumps and control valves in-country, while other spin-off opportunities include logistics, equipment leasing, insurance, hotels, office supplies, aviation, haulage and many more.

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Star of the Industry 09:19

Catherine Uju IfejikaCEO of Brittania-U Group

23

Star of the Industry 09:19

Uju Ifejika whose full name is Catherine Uju Ifejika is a Nigerian lawyer and oil

magnate. She is the CEO of Brit-tania-U Nigeria Limited (BUNL) and Brittania-U Ghana (BUGL) which are both affi liates of the Brittania-U Group, an indigenous and integrated Oil & Gas Com-pany. She is one of the richest women in Africa and also one of the most influential women in the oil and gas sector of the world.

Uju Ifejika was born in Opobo, Rivers State on the 28th of Octo-ber in 1959. She got her primary school education from the Uni-versity Primary school, Nsukka and then went on to Queens School, Enugu for her second-ary school education.

A graduate of Ahmadu Bel-lo University, Zaria, Catherine obtained a Diploma in Law and an LLB (Hons.) in 1985 and promptly called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986. She is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association,

a fellow of the Institute of Arbi-tration and Conciliation, as well as a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Ad-ministrators.

Uju Ifejika started her steady rise to prominence with working for Texaco and eventually Chev-ron. She worked her way up the ranks at a steady but deter-mined pace, she started at the position of Junior Counsel, and went on to become Acting Chief

Counsel and eventually became the Company Secretary for Pub-lic and Government Affairs. By 2003 she had risen to the posi-tion of Company Secretary for Public and Government Affairs for West Africa.

She became the CEO of Brit-tania-U Nigeria Limited in 2007. The company’s operations cov-er the entire range from oil ex-ploration to production, refi ning, trading, supply & distribution.

Catherine’s leadership of Brittania-U has brought a number of significant ‘firsts’. The Ajapa Floating Produc-tion Storage Unit, 100% owned and operated by the com-pany, produced its first oil from drilling in 17 months; a feat yet to be equaled by any other company of its kind in Nigeria. She has set up six subsidiary companies in sev-en years, receiving numerous awards for good governance and management in Nigeria, the US, China, and Europe.

–By Danlami Nasir Isah

Catherine Uju IfejikaChief Executive Offi cer

Brittania-U Group

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Star of the Industry 09:19

Hence the company is actively involved in Upstream (Explora-tion & Production), Downstream (Supply & Trading), Shipping and Sub-Surface Engineering Affi li-ate Companies. Catherine is the fi rst and so far, the only woman to become chair and CEO of an Upstream Exploration and Pro-duction Company in Nigeria.

She also founded other com-panies for herself of which in-clude Data Appraisal Co. Ltd, Nexttee Oil & Gas Trading Co.

Nigeria Ltd and Brittania-U Gha-na Limited.

Catherine’s leadership of Brit-tania-U has brought a number of signifi cant ‘fi rsts’. The Ajapa Floating Production Storage Unit, 100% owned and operat-ed by the company, produced its fi rst oil from drilling in 17 months; a feat yet to be equaled by any other company of its kind in Nigeria. She has set up six subsidiary companies in sev-en years, receiving numerous

awards for good governance and management in Nigeria, the US, China, and Europe.

Uju Ifejika served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Min-istry of Arts and Culture of Nige-ria from 2001 to 2002.

She received the African Busi-nesswoman Award from Black Pumps in 2013

She is married to Emmanuel Ifejika and together they have three children. She also adopted three more children.

She became the CEO of Brittania-U Nigeria Limited in 2007. Catherine is the first and so far, the only woman to become chair and CEO of an Upstream Exploration and Production Company in Nigeria.

25

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Cover Story 09:19

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recently said it

will begin full rehabilitation of the nation’s three refi neries by January 2020.

The Group Managing Direc-tor, Mallam Mele Kyari who said this during a facility tour to the

Port Harcourt refi nery noted that the move would help the Corporation to refi ne crude oil at optimum capacity by 2022.

According to him, making the refi neries to operate at op-timal capacities is a mandate that NNPC as a Corporation will leave no stone unturned to

actualize, because a timely de-livery of the asset is a priority.

“We will stick to time, we will deliver this project by 2022. We will commence actual rehabili-tation work in January 2020.

“We will do everything pos-sible between October and De-cember to close out all neces-

Is NNPC’s Promise to Fix All Refi neries by 2022 Empty?

–By Fred Ojeigbe

28

sary conditions for us to deliver on that project.

“I believe that with the sup-port that we have from the shareholders – government of this country, the entire staff of this company and the contrac-tors, I believe it is doable and we will deliver the project,” the GMD said.

Speaking further, Kyari said, “The NNPC leadership has promised this country that our

refineries will work, therefore, we must work not to disappoint over 200million Nigerian stake-holders.”

Valuechain reports that the Corporation in a March 2019 statement explained that it had commenced first phase of the rehabilitation of the 210,000 barrels per day Port Harcourt Refinery complex that compris-es the 60,000 barrels per day old Refinery built in 1965 and

the 150,000 barrels per day, new Refinery, commissioned in 1989.

According to the Corpora-tion, the first phase of the Port Harcourt rehabilitation con-tract which would run for six months will involve detailed integrity check and equipment inspection of the Port Harcourt Refinery complex beginning from end of March, 2019.

The integrity test comes as a forerunner to the second phase of the rehabilitation proj-ect which entails a comprehen-sive revamp of the complex aimed at restoring the refinery to a minimum of 90 percent capacity utilization.

The first phase of the Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation project which is being execut-ed by Milan-based Maire Tecn-imont S.p.A, in collaboration with its Nigerian affiliate, Tecn-imont Nigeria is expected to be delivered within weeks from now.

NNPC said it further seg-mented the rehabilitation to begin with Port Harcourt Refin-ery Complex and then progress to Warri and Kaduna Refinery complexes using the same methodology.

“We will make sure that within the life of this admin-istration, before Baba’s ten-ure (President Muhammadu Buhari) ends in 2023, we will deliver on the four refineries,” NNPC GMD Mallam Mele Kyari said in his maiden address as NNPC chief in July.

Going by all these promises from the NNPC, all the refiner-ies are expected to refine crude at optimum capacity by 2022.

However, the antecedents of the NNPC especially around the refineries may leave Nigerians in doubt over the Corporation’s

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Cover Story 09:19

ability to deliver on this promise once again?

Catalogue of failed targets, promises

Valuechain investigations showed that in 2012 when NNPC reportedly kicked off a planned Turnaround Mainte-nance (TAM) of the refineries, then petroleum minister Dieza-ni Alison Madueke had prom-ised that by the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2014, the

TAM project would have been completed and all the refineries would be refining 370,000 bar-rels per day, which is about 90 percent of the 445,000 barrels per day combined capacity of all the country’s refineries.

That plan never saw the light of the day with the then govern-ment citing exorbitant bills for the TAM from the original refin-ery builders and several other excuses why the rehabilitation failed.

Valuechain reports that the abysmal state of Nigeria’s refin-eries located in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna was a major concern for President Muham-madu Buhari when he took of-fice in May 2015.

The implications of the re-fineries’ poor performance is the country’s over-reliance on import of most of its refined petroleum products with the at-tendant effect on pump prices and subsidy recorded by the Ni-

President Muhammadu Buhari Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, NNPC GMD

We will stick to time, we will deliver this project by 2022. We will commence actual rehabilitation work in January 2020. We will do everything possible between October and December to close out all necessary condi-tions for us to deliver on that project.“I believe that with the support that we have from the shareholders – gov-ernment of this country, the entire staff of this compa-ny and the contractors, I believe it is doable and we will deliver the project,” the GMD said.

30

Cover Story 09:19

geria National Petroleum Cor-poration (NNPC) on premium motor spirit, otherwise called, petrol.

The Buhari government on realisation of this fact therefore promised to again fi x and get the refi neries to work up to 90

percent of their installed capac-ity by 2019.

In 2015 when Dr. Ibe Kachik-wu took offi ce as GMD of the NNPC he set December 2016 deadline for the refi neries to perform above average.

“The GMD toured the refi n-

eries and has set a deadline of December for the refi neries to produce optimally. If that doesn’t work, these refi neries will be shut for a year to under-go comprehensive rehabilita-tion,” NNPC said in 2015.

This did not happen as all the

Dr. Ibe Kachikwu Mr Kragha Anibor

Kaduna Refi nery

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Cover Story 09:19

refineries struggled to remain afloat and were unable to churn out products in significant quantities.

“We have been able to do a pie chart that shows that by 2019 we should be able to de-liver (get the refineries work-ing). Even if in 2019, I don’t achieve the target I still would have been able to reduce im-portation substantially, it is better than not doing anything.” Kachikwu said at a conference in Houston, United States May 2017.

Kachikwu as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Chair of the NNPC board, in 2017, set December 2019 dead-line for the plants to perform optimally, but the target will no longer materialise in 2019.

Why Refineries Rehab Continues to fail

Despite several interventions to revamp the existing plants, the three refineries in Port Har-court, Warri and Kaduna are still not in the shape as promised.

The refineries’ rehab dead-line set earlier under the cur-rent administration has not been kept despite claims by the NNPC that for the first time in 20 years there was both the political will and the economic climate to ensure effective ret-rofitting of the refineries.

Immediate past Chief Oper-ating Officer, Refineries, of the NNPC Mr Kragha Anibor, said

at a conference earlier in Jan-uary 2019 that the major prob-lem why the corporation can’t bring the refineries to work was funding.

Efforts by the federal govern-ment to revamp the ailing refin-eries through private investors funding of the repairs and oper-ations of the facilities have also encountered rancorous oppo-sition by Nigerians, just as the option of selling them have also met strong opposition.

It will be recalled that the NNPC had to abandon its ear-lier private sector funding strat-egy due to onerous conditions demanded after more than twelve (12) months of negotia-tions.

The federal government would need about $1.2 billion to repair and bring the three refin-eries to full capacity, estimates by a government committee on the refineries show. But since the government does not have such money due to other com-peting demands, it would need financiers to fund the repairs and recoup their investments later.

NNPC has resolved to im-mediate direct funding from internal cash flows and how it intends to achieve this remains unclear at a time the global oil industry is grappling with un-certainties in crude oil prices and fluctuating production.

However, there is huge op-timism the current GMD Kyari

will deliver on the promise by that time, going by his anteced-ence and integrity as attested to by various stakeholders in the industry in the wake of his appointment as the 19th GMD.

Stakeholders Comments, suggests Way forward

Commenting on the issue, the publisher of Valuechain magazine, Mr. Musa Bashir Usman said in his opinion, the nation’s legislators will take the larger share of the blame for our comatose refinaries.

“Part of the legislators’ con-stitutional role is to have over-sight supervisory role on var-ious Ministries, Depertments and Agencies of the federal government. That is the wis-dom of having committees in both lower and upper chambers of the national assembly. Their work is to hold the various pub-lic office holders accountable through constant monitoring and evaluation of their day to day work. Apart from law mak-ing business, this is the reason why they are elected by the citi-zens of Nigeria.

So, one can easily conclude that our legislators are not do-ing their work well that is why they give window for weaker public institutions that keep is-suing failed promises. If our leg-islators will rise up to their func-tions and eschew any material gain by working for the interest of the masses of this country, I

However, there is huge optimism the current GMD Kyari will deliver on the promise by that time, going by his antecedence and integrity as testified by various stakeholders in the industry on the wake of his ap-pointment as the 19th GMD.

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Cover Story 09:19

assure you everything will start working in this country. They (Legislators) should monitor the public office holders and hold them accountable, if that is done, our refineries will work, transperency and accountabil-ity will be entrenched thereby reducing the work load of EFCC and ICPC,” he said.

He called on the NNPC to form a supervisory committee that will monitor the rehabilita-tion process from beginning to the end.

“So that at the end of the day they will be able to give inde-pendent feedback to NNPC/Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources about the rehabil-

itation progress periodically. Members of that committee should consist of some of the civil rights organisations, retired technocrats in the industry and members of the media. That is the only way we will achieve the 2022 deadline. Without that, I think it is still going to be busi-ness as usual,” he advised.

Part of the legislators’ constitutional role is to have oversight supervisory role on various Ministries, Dep-ertments and Agencies of the federal government. That is the wisdom of having committees in both lower and upper chambers of the national assembly. Their work is to hold the various public office holders accountable through constant monitoring and evaluation of their day to day work. Apart from law making business, this is the reason why they are elected by the citizens of Ni-geria.

Port Harcourt Refinery

33

Industry 09:19

The Federal Republic of Ni-geria on September 26 pulled off a major break-

through in its bid to upturn the $9.6bn judgement debt in favour of Process and Industrial Devel-opment Limited (P&ID) as a UK court granted the country leave to appeal, and a ‘stay of execu-tion’ of the earlier judgement.

The ruling by Commercial and Arbitral Court of the United Kingdom (UK) offers the country a fresh opportunity to prove its allegation against P&ID that the company was bent on using its alleged claim of expertise in gas processing to defraud Nigeria.

The court heard the Federal government’s fresh grounds to review the judgement and ruled that a stay of execution be grant-ed subject to a $200 million se-curity payment to court within 60 days pending the determination of the appeal.

Reacting to the condition, At-torney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) said: I am pleased with today’s de-velopment in the court as I see this as a positive resolution that constitutes an important step in the government’s effort to de-fend itself in challenging the UK Commercial Court’s recognition of the Tribunal’s decision in the UK Court of Appeals, uncover-ing P&ID’s outrageous approach for what it is; a sham based on fraudulent and criminal activity developed to profit from a devel-oping country.” We will study the court rulings, exercise the right of appeal, and consider the legal options available at our disposal as it relates to the payment of $200 million in view of the 60 days window stipulated by the Court.”

Also reacting, P&ID in a state-

ment welcomed the ruling, say-ing, “The Nigerian government will now have to put its money where its mouth is if it wants to avoid immediate seizure of as-sets.”

It went on: The Nigerian gov-ernment’s media exercise to al-lege fraud against P&ID turned out to be a red herring. Indeed the Nigerian government did not present any evidence to support Attorney General Malami’s find-ings from his sham investigation. The Nigerian government knows there was no fraud and the alle-gations are merely political the-atre designed to deflect attention from its own shortcomings.”

Some Nigerians allegedly in-volved in the failed gas supply contract were recently convict-ed by the local court, which also ruled on the seizure of P&ID’s as-sets in Nigeria. The Project con-ceived by P&ID founders, Bren-

P&ID: UK Court Grants Nigeria Stay of Execution, Leave to Appeal

–By Benjamin Ike

Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,

Mr. Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture

Dr. Dennis Aghanya, ES, Anti-Corrup-tion and Research Data Initiative

34

Industry 09:19

dan Cahill and Michael Quinn, was to deliver much-needed power generation to millions of Nigerians and create profitable by-products for sale on the inter-national market. Under an agree-ment with Nigeria, P&ID would build a state-of-the-art gas pro-cessing plant to refine natural gas (wet gas) into lean gas.”

P&ID would receive no pay-ment for this work: instead, it would own the by-products cre-ated by the refining such as pro-pane, ethane and butane known as Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) and would have the right to sell them on the international mar-ket. This market would be worth billions of dollars over the 20-year lifespan of the contract.”

Nigeria reportedly failed to supply the ‘wet gas’ which was required under the terms of con-tract and so the project could not continue.

P&ID claimed it made multi-ple compromises in an attemt to find a workable solution but did “not find a willing partner on the other side of the table.”

In 2012 P&ID went to arbitra-tion to try to resolve the dispute, and in 2016, the panel of inde-pendent arbitrators ruled that Ni-geria was liable to the company, a decision that has led to the cur-rent situation.

Earlier, the Federal govern-ment was urged to arrest and prosecute ex-government offi-cials connected with the ill-fated gas plant project.

The Executive Secretary, An-ti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative, Dr. Dennise Agbanya whose anti-graft outfit investigated former Chief Jus-tice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter On-noghen on fraud said the P&ID contract was a scam aided by some unpatrotic citizens to swin-dle the country.

“The administration that initi-ated the contract (the late Pres-ident Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s ad-

ministration) should have guided it to a logical conclusion if it was well-intended in the first place.

“In fact, the negotiation that saw P&ID agreeing to take $850m instead of $6bn early 2015 was not enough excuse to exonerate the administration of its carelessness that brought about this mess, Aghanya said in a statement made available to newsmen on September 5, in Abuja.

The statement therefore, called on the AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) to open investiga-tion into the matter with a view to prosecuting ex-officials of gov-ernment who were directly and indirectly involved in the P&ID hoax contract.

“The AGF should without delay invite the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) to commence probe and prose-cution of officials of the past ad-ministration who structured the contract with P&ID and failed to take corrective measures when it became obvious that the con-tract was not working.

“When would government offi-cials in this country realise that the interest of the country should come first in all official negotia-tions.

“It has become the norm for persons in position of authority, either civil servants or political appointees, to see public office as a means of amassing wealth rather than rendering service for public interest.

“We therefore encourage the President to beam his search-light on the activities of officials of past administration without blinking.

“The President must act with-out consideration to political af-filiation as his fight against cor-ruption enters the send phase in the schedule of this government,

“In Republic of China, eco-nomic sabotage attracts death penalty and we should begin to

contemplate that level of stiff penalty in this country.

“We wish to commend the AGF and Minister of Justice for his stance that the judgement by the British Commercial Court must be set aside because of the dire consquences of allowing im-plementation of such judgement on the country’s economy.”

Notwithstanding, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed reassured Nige-rians that the country would not lose any of its assets based on the judgement inspite of what he described as the firm’s grand-standing.

Mohammed wondered how people could come to Nigeria with portfolio and walk away with about 20% of our entire for-eign reserves.

P&ID had argued that the ac-crued interest of $1.2 million a day had pushed the amount to $9.6bn - about 1/5 (one-fifth) of Nigeria’s declared foreign re-serves of $45bn.

Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua

35

Industry 09:19

The capital flight being ex-perienced in the oil and gas industry will soon be a

thing of the past as the Nigerian Content Development and Mon-itoring Board (NCDMB) is set to partner with the Nigerian Finan-cial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to retain spend in the local econo-my and create value.

The agreement was reached when the Executive Secretary NCDMB, Simbi Wabote received the Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Mr. Modibbo Ham-man Tukur at the Board’s Abuja liaison office. Tukur explained that NFIU is the Nigerian arm of the global financial intelligence units. He added that the NFIU seeks to safeguard the Nigerian financial system and contrib-utes to the global fight against money laundering, terrorism financing and related crimes through the provision of credible financial intelligence. He intimat-ed the Board about the setting up a Financial Action Task Force to evaluate and analyse finan-cial transactions carried out by financial institutions and profes-sionals that hold funds in trust for establishments and individ-uals. Also speaking, Wabote affirmed the Board’s prepared-ness to collaborate with NFIU to curb capital flight for the benefit

of the Country. He noted that the Board had taken concrete steps to implement the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content De-velopment (NOGICD) Act and is open to signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NFIU. He also explained that part of the Board’s mandate is to promote indigenous partici-pation in the oil and gas sector, stressing that local content is not intended to nigerianize the industry, rather it is focused on domiciling oil and gas activities in-country.

Meanwhile, Wabote said that the number of expatriates working in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has been reduced by 80 per cent. Speaking recently at the NCDMB’s third-quarter engagement with the media, which focused on the major achievements of the board, he said, “From 2010 till date, the board has reduced the number of expatriates in the Nigerian petroleum industry by 80 per cent. Nigerians now occupy key positions and deliver critical ser-vices in the industry.’’ The exec-utive secretary said that before the implementation of the Nige-rian Oil and Gas Industry Con-tent Development Act, oil weld-ing activities were done outside Nigeria because of the lack of

world-class welding facilities.“Today, we are fabricating

about 60,000 metric tonnes per annum in Nigeria, which never existed before. “We have about five world-class welding yards as we speak today. These weld-ing facilities can compete with any of their peers outside the country.

“Today, 95 per cent of service companies in the oil and gas sector, be it onshore and swamp drilling activities, well interven-tion facilities, well simulation activities and others, are being done by Nigerians.

“These used to be the exclu-sive preserve of multinational companies like Schlumberger, Haliburton and others; but Ni-gerians have taken all those responsibilities in the land and swamp areas, especially in the area of drilling,’’ he said.

As regards the operations of the upstream sector, Wabote noted that in the past, it was the multinationals that were operating all the existing fields. He, however, said that Nigerians were now operating those fields which accounted for between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of oil production in the country, aside from domestic gas production.

NCDMB, NFIU Partner to Fight Capital Flight, Reduce Expatriate Quota

–By Gideon Osaka

37

Industry 09:19

OML 34: 390m daily gas scuf threatened … as pipeline shut-down hits 3 days

The suspension of flow of nat-ural gas from Oil Mining License (OML) 34 has hit three days, follow-ing the shutdown of Abura Crude Trunkline, situated at Otu-Jeremi town in Ughelli, Delta State

Oil income drops by 45% in June – NNpC

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) has dis-closed that earnings from oil and gas production in June were down by 44.65 per cent, indicating a val-ue reduction of about $226.38 mil-lion between May and June 2019.

Nigeria to keep oil-for-fuel swap for at least 3 more years – NNpC GMD

Nigeria will continue swapping crude for fuel for at least three more years because its refineries are still not fully operational.

AMCON debt: Court orders take-over of SEpLAt petroleum chair-man’s assets

The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Asset Manage-ment Corporation of Nigeria (AM-CON) application to take over the assets of the Chairman of SEPLAT Petroleum Development Compa-ny, Ambrosie Orjiako.

Scarcity of aviation fuel cripples airlines’ operations

Airline operators are consider-ing increasing air fare to accom-modate recent JetA1 price hike and scarcity across the country.

Nigerian energy firm sacks 100 workers

OVH Energy Marketing Ltd. has retrenched about 100 of its work-force in order to overcome the problem of salaries payment due

to the ongoing challenges in the downstream oil sector.

NNPC, Navy to Deepen Collabora-tion against Crude Oil theft

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Navy have pledged to deepen collaboration to tackle the menace of crude oil theft and at-tacks on oil and gas facilities.

NNpC threatens to sack staff of 21 depots over corruption

Mele Kyari has warned that any member of staff of 21 depots across the country involved in cor-ruption will be sacked

Refinery: Dangote’s High Tech ex-cites engineers

Anxiously waiting for petroleum products from the ongoing Dan-gote Refinery project, Nigeria’s top engineers yesterday spoke glow-ingly of the use of the state – of – the – art technology in the refinery project.

We’ve Over 80m Liters Of Aviation Fuel, NNPC Debunks Reports Of Scarcity

The Mele Kyari led management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has debunked media reports that the nation was in short of aviation fuel.

NNpC seeks DSS’ assistance on debt recovery, vandalism

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr Mele Kyari, has asked the Department of State Services to assist the NNPC in its effort to recover outstanding debts as well as curb pipeline vandalism.

Evacuation, Consumption of pet-rol Drop over Closure of Nige-ria-Benin Border

The Group Managing Director

of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, recently disclosed that the volume of petrol evacuated from depots in the country for con-sumption has dropped significant-ly.

Shell: We Lose N200m Daily to Crude Oil thieves In Niger Delta

“Hurting these assets means hurting the nation’s revenue, the economy of the states, the health of the people and the environ-ment.”

fG to make decision on 4 oil proj-ects -Buhari

The Federal Government is to deliver Final Investment Decisions on at least four key projects with-in the nation’s oil and gas industry within the tenure of this adminis-tration, President Muhammadu Buhari, has said.

SEPTEMBER SHORT TAKES–Compiled By Saidu Abubakar

Mr. Timipre Sylva, Minister of State, Petroleum

38

Industry 09:19

Fire guts Ibadan NNPC depotFire recently gutted the Apa-

ta Ibadan depot of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The incident, according to an official of the Corporation who spoke with our correspondent oc-curred in the loading section of the depot.

Our gas plant complied with safe-ty regulations – techno

The management of Techno Oil Limited has said that its gas plant situated in Kirikiri, in the Oriade Lo-cal Council Development Area of Lagos State, fully complied with requisite safety procedures in the oil and gas industry.

SON Seals 10 Illegal Oil firms In Kano

The Kano State Coordinator of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Alhaji Yunusa B. Moham-med has declared that the agency would not hesitate to descend on any Lubricant Firm that is toying with quality and standard in the discharge of it’s services to the cit-izens.

Saudi fire Could push Oil to $100pb

Two drone strikes on Saudi Ara-bian oil facilities by Yemen rebels have reduced the country’s pro-duction by half and threatened to push up crude prices.

NNPC Agrees to $2.5bn Financ-ing with Chinese Lender for pipe-line project

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has disclosed that the cor-poration has agreed to a $2.5 bil-lion financing with a Chinese lend-er for pipeline project in Nigeria.

NNPC, JV partners resolve dis-pute, resume operations in OML 25

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) and its joint venture partners, Shell Pro-duction Development Company (SPDC) and Belema Oil, have re-

solved their dispute over the oper-ations of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 25.

Sylva foresees prospects for Ni-geria’s oil & gas sector

The Minister of State for Pe-troleum Resources Timipre Sylva yesterday declared that there are prospects for exponential growth of the nation’s oil and gas sector in future.

NNpC woos investors for NLNG in Houston

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) has re-iterated its commitment towards harnessing Nigeria’s abundant resources for the benefit of Nige-rians.

Kyari: We’re tired of telling sto-ries about our refineries…Says it’s time to fix them or we quench

The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, has declared that the management of the cor-poration has become tired of telling stories and giving excuses about the nation’s ailing refineries.

Nigeria transports less petrol after closure of Benin border – pppRA

The volume of petroleum prod-ucts transported from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation fuel depots reduced in the wake of the recent closure of the Nige-rian border with Benin Republic,

the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has reported.

NNpC: Makoji takes over from Ughamadu as spokesman

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) is set to appoint a new spokesperson for the organization in the person of Samson Makoji.

Host community beg NNPC to take over OML 11

Host Communities of Oil Mining Lease, OML11, in Rivers and Abia States, have begged the Federal Government to mandate the Ni-gerian National Petroleum Com-mission, NNPC, to takeover the operation of OML11 from Shell Pe-troleum Development Company, SPDC.

NNpC signs agreement with NAOC on 4 OMLs

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) has signed a novation agreement with Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) on Oil Mining lease (OML) 60,61,62 and 63.

Major marketers meet NNpC, lament fX, port charges

The Nigerian National Petro-leum Corporation (NNPC) and the Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) have resolved to continue to work hand-in-hand to grow the petroleum industry.

39

The President of the 24th World Energy Congress and UAE’s Minister of En-

ergy & Industry, Suhail Al-Maz-rouei, has called for global collaboration among energy stakeholders towards address-ing the numerous challenges facing the industry.

In his opening address at the conference, Al-Mazrouei said: “It is through foresight, commit-ment and unity that we can col-lectively meet the growing ener-gy demand of the world”.

He also emphasized the role of innovation as the cornerstone of the progress that is been wit-nessed, especially in clean ener-gy development and allied sec-tors.

He explained that the annual global gathering will challenge participants’ thinking and ulti-mately drive action towards bet-ter energy solutions for the ben-

efit of future generations.Also in his remarks, the chair-

man of the WEC, Mr. Young-hoon David Kim, said the coun-cil would continue to rally global energy leaders towards a more sustainable energy future.

Tagged the world’s premier energy gathering, the 24th WEC

is a four-day interactive pro-gramme designed to address the critical issues facing the global energy industry today.

This year’s congress was at-tended by over 150 participating countries and featured 80 panel discussions focused on the en-tire energy spectrum.

We Need Foresight, Commitment, Unity at OPEC — UAE Energy Minister

–By Julius Ogar

Industry 09:19

40

NNpC Upstream Golf tournament 2019Held on Saturday, 31st August, 2019 at the Benin Golf Club

Event 09:19

42

Industry 09:19

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said global oil markets remain

“well supplied” for now, with ample stocks available, after the recent attack in Saudi Arabia.

It added it remains in regular contact with authorities in the kingdom and other major producing and consuming countries and reiterated its commitment to take rapid action in the event of any sustained shortfalls. The IEA also welcomed newly-appointed Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman’s announcement to bring production back online to normal levels by the end of the month. The news follows attacks on state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco’s major facilities in the kingdom, including the world’s largest oil processing facility, which forced it to reduce production

in half. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said 50 percent of the oil production from the attack had been restored over the last few days and added capacity would reach 10 million barrels of crude per day (bpd) by the end of September and 12 million bpd by the end of November.

The IEA said member countries hold around 1.55 billion barrels of emergency stocks in government-controlled agencies that amount to 15 days of total world oil demand, which can be drawn upon in an emergency collective action, adding it would be “more than enough” to offset any significant disruption in supplies for an extended period of time. In addition, IEA member countries also hold 2.9 billion barrels of industry stocks as of the end of July – a two-year high that can cover more than a month of world

oil demand. The stocks include around 650 million barrels of obligated emergency stocks, which can be made immediately available to the market when governments lower their holding requirements.

Dr Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director added: “Recent events are a reminder that oil security cannot be taken for granted, even at times when markets are well supplied and that energy security remains an indispensable pillar of the global economy. “This is why the IEA remains vigilant about the risk of disruptions to global oil supplies, whether they are caused by extreme weather events such as hurricanes, major technical outages or geopolitical crises and stands ready to act when needed.”

World Oil Markets experience Supplies after attack in Saudi Arabia

–By Gideon Osaka

43

Health 09:19

My name is Hauwa Mu-hammad Lawal and I suffer from a genetic

disease called sickle cell ane-mia, for me this is my life, this is the reality of my world and I, like millions of others have been termed as “physically challenged. Often times I suf-fer from excruciating pains and have to be rushed to the hospi-tal at ungodly hours. Most peo-ple describe the pain as if all their bones are breaking. Others describe it as an hourglass and their blood is “stuck.” The pain is so bad and sudden that people require high doses of opioids.

Patients suffering from recur-rent episodes know what works for their pain, but some doctors and nurses take that knowledge as sign of addiction. Patients with sickle cell pain wait an average of 30 minutes longer for pain medication than peo-ple with other extremely pain-ful conditions, such as kidney stones.

Pain develops when sick-le-shaped red blood cells block blood flow through tiny blood vessels to your chest, abdomen and joints, etc as seen in fi gure 1.

The pain varies in intensity

and can last for a few hours to a few weeks.

There has been progress though. People didn’t use to live to be adults. Kids would die of stroke or of really bad infec-tions before they were 20, and in some countries they still do. The fact that we have adults, people of 90 years of age is a good thing. Living with sickle cell disease can be hard, espe-cially for children and also the poor because of the constant hospital trips.

People who are in pain often

may have problems with anxi-ety and depression. They may feel singled out or left out of things others enjoy because of their condition. These feelings can add to other problems the disease can cause.

If you feel stressed, sad, or overwhelmed, counseling or psychotherapy may be able to help. Talking about your prob-lems with a mental health pro-fessional can help you fi nd re-liable, healthy ways to handle pain and other challenges of sickle cell disease.

– By Hauwa Muhammad Lawal

Surviving Sickle Cell AnemiaTHE JOURNEY SO FAR

S I C K L E C E L L C L I N I C with Hauwa Muhammad Lawal

44

I have tried a lot of tradition-al herbs and also medically approved drugs but none has worked, but there’s a particular supplement that seems to be working so fi ngers crossed.

Most of the time, over-the-counter pain medicines like aspirin, diclofenac or ibuprofen can ease pain from an episode. (People under age 19 should not take aspirin, though.) There are some other things that may help, too: Drink water or other fluids

like water melon or sugar-cane when your symptoms start. Staying hydrated can help you head off the worst of an attack.

Use a heating pad or take a warm bath.

Try a massage, acupuncture, or relaxation techniques.

Do something to take your

mind off your pain. Watch TV, listen to music, or talk on the phone.

There are many misconcep-tions about this disease some of which are: Only Black people suffer

from Sickle Cell Disease. Sickle Cell Disease is a con-

tagious blood-borne disease like HIV and Hepatitis B.

All red blood cells have the same properties.

People with the Sickle Cell Disease are immune to ma-laria.

Sickle Cell Disease is very pain-ful and can cause severe pain crises in patients and also a lot of complications which are: Stroke. A stroke can occur if

sickle cells block blood flow to an area of your brain.

Acute chest syndrome. Pulmonary hypertension. Organ damage. Blindness. Leg ulcers. Gallstones. Priapism.

As we all know, September is “sickle cell awareness month“ so let’s all join hands and stop this disease from spreading and create more awareness on it.

I believe the society will be a better place if we can all learn to live with people with disabilities and stop the stigmatization.

Government, schools, and we as individuals need to be educated on genotype testing and above all stop the marriage between two carriers of the “S” gene.

To all the warriors out there, keep fi ghting!

Health 09:19

45

Motoring 09:19

A new luxury bus/coach model, Campione Invictus 1200, built on Mercedes-

Benz chassis by Comil to op-erate successfully in Nigeria’s challenging motoring environ-ment will be launched soon in Lagos by Utobras Nigeria Ltd, an international fi rm of transport investments experts with offi c-es in both Brazil and Nigeria.

In partnership with the author-ised Mercedes-Benz distributor in Nigeria, Weststar Associates Ltd, Utobras will be unveiling in December the Comil bus built on the latest version of the rein-forced popular Mercedes-Benz O 500 RSD 2436/30 chassis.

Giving this hint in Lagos re-cently during his visit to prepare for the launch of Invictus 1200, Utobras Managing Director, Mr. Frank Utomi, said the vehicle was engineered and the interior confi gured in a manner the av-erage long-distance luxury bus transporter would fi nd suitable for his business.

The vehicle, he assured, would be very competitively priced de-spite the rich standard features and the superiority of Mercedes drive-train and chassis.

“I am a Nigerian, and I am very familiar with luxury bus trans-portation here. But, I live in Brazil, and I am very familiar with the

luxury bus industry in that coun-try. That was why it was conven-ient for us and Mercedes-Benz to ensure that the bus we will be launching in December will be at home on Nigerian roads, in addi-tion to being operator-friendly in terms of running cost and ease of maintenance,” Utomi said.

Though the bus powered by the robust Mercedes-Benz OM 457 LA – Euro 3 engine would be coming with standard air-condi-tioning system, three-screen vid-eo player for on-board entertain-ment and 59 comfortable seats, the seats can be altered to suit individual operator’s needs.

According to him, one of the

– By Ironhand Sydney Chukwuemeka

Utobras set to thrill Luxury Bus transporters with Comil’s Invictus 1200

46

features integrated into the bus with the Nigerian road network in mind, is the sturdy frame with short front overhang, because a longer overhang poses a prob-lem when a luxury bus has to maneuver through deep pot-holes.

Also standard and intended

to help the transporters in man-aging the operation of the bus is a weekly tachograph, a tachom-eter providing a record of engine speed over a period of one week, as well as a speed limiter to en-able the driver stay within the Federal Road Safety Corps-per-mitted speed in order to reduce

the likelihood of an accident.Utomi, who is a well known

heavy-duty truck and bus spare parts provider to road transport-ers, disclosed that apart from comparatively more affordable price, one of Invictus 1200’s strongest selling points is its generous cargo space. This is an indication that Comil had tak-en into cognizance the fact that road passengers in Nigeria, a good number of whom are trad-ers, travel with many pieces of heavy luggage and bulky goods.

Some Invictus 1200 vital specs include drum brakes on front and rear axles; automat-ic break adjustment; adjusta-ble steering bracket; two units of 12-volt/170 AH mainte-nance-free batteries; oil cooler for gearbox with retarder; clutch wear indicator; buzzer for fire incident alert; 20 litre extra plas-tic fuel tank; cruise control; and an additional alternator for the air-conditioner.

The Utobras-Weststar collab-oration, Utomi assured, would also translate into an efficient after-sales service back-up for all Comil buses with ceaseless availability of replacement parts in the network.

“Our goal for introducing Campione Invictus 1200 is to help facilitate the return of many luxury buses to the medium and long-distance routes which they ruled over the decades, but which, unfortunately, are now dominated by mini buses.”

According to him, one of the features integrated into the bus with the Nigerian road network in mind, is the sturdy frame with short front overhang, because a lon-ger overhang poses a problem when a luxury bus has to maneuver through deep pot-holes.

Motoring 09:19

Front and rear view of Comil’s 59-seater Campione Invictus 1200 luxury coach

47

The Boeing Company has settled the first claims stemming from the crash

of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indo-nesia, a lawyer for a plaintiff in the United States said, and three other sources have said families of those killed will re-ceive at least $1.2m apiece.

Floyd Wisner, founder and principal of Wisner Law Firm, said he has settled 11 of his 17 claims against Boeing on be-half of families who lost their relatives when a brand new 737 MAX crashed into the Java Sea on October 29 soon after take-off, killing all 189 people aboard.

Boeing spokesman Gordon

Johndroe declined to com-ment. Wisner said the compa-ny did not admit liability in its 11 settlements.

The claims are the first to be settled out of some 55 lawsuits against Boeing in US Federal Court in Chicago and could set the bar for mediation talks by other Lion Air plaintiffs’ lawyers that are scheduled through next month, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Wisner said he could not dis-close the amount of the settle-ments because of a confidenti-ality agreement with Boeing.

The three people familiar with the matter said families of Lion

Air victims, who were nearly all from Indonesia, are set to re-ceive at least $1.2m each. That amount would be for a single victim without any dependents.

The people spoke on condi-tion of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential.

Compensation can vary ac-cording to victims’ nationality, age, marital status, income, dependents and life expectan-cy. The Lion Air victims were mainly from Indonesia, where incomes and legal compensa-tion for crashes tend to be low-er than in the US.

The manufacturer is also fac-ing nearly 100 lawsuits over

Boeing Settles with some Victims of Lion Air 737 MAX Plane Crash

–By Adeniyi Onifade

Aviation 09:19

Boeing has admitted no liability for the October 29 crash, but has reportedly agreed to pay millions to some victims.

48

an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash on March 10 that killed 157 people on its way from Ad-dis Ababa to Nairobi.

Lawsuits over both crashes highlight the role of Maneuver-ing Characteristics Augmenta-tion System (MCAS) automat-ed software that pushed the nose of the two planes lower. The lawsuits claim that design flaws allowed erroneous sensor data to set off the automated system and overwhelm pilots.

The Lion Air lawsuits are be-ing mediated before Donald O’Connell, a retired judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois, a jurisdiction that is often used for air accidents and that is situated in Chicago, where Boeing is based.

‘Common link’Lawyers representing plain-

tiffs in the Ethiopian Airlines crash are pushing for a jury tri-al in a US Federal Court in Chi-cago, demanding to know why Boeing allowed the 737 MAX to go on flying after the Lion Air incident.

The planemaker has said it is sorry for the lives lost in both crashes, but has stopped short of admitting any fault in how it developed the 737 MAX or the software.

It has said the two crashes - like most air disasters - were caused by a chain of events,

with a common link between the two MAX accidents being “erroneous activation” of MCAS software.

In the Lion Air case, families of victims who were married with one to three children could receive between $2m and $3m, sources said.

Wisner, an aviation industry veteran, said he had settled lawsuits for other plane crash-es that took place in Indone-sia in years prior to the Lion Air 737 MAX crash for around $500,000 to $600,000. He will receive one-third of his Lion Air settlements in fees.

The settlements come on top of $144,500 that Boeing is paying out of a $50m financial assistance fund it set up in July for families of victims of the two crashes.

Any settlement or jury award in the Ethiopian cases is likely to be larger than for Lion Air, the sources said.

Many of the Ethiopian Airlines crash victims, who came from 35 different countries, included United Nations employees and young working adults in their 20s or 30s. There were nine US citizens among the victims.

Boeing is also the target of a US Department of Justice crim-inal investigation into the devel-opment of the 737 MAX.

The 737 MAX has been grounded worldwide following

the Ethiopian Airlines crash while Boeing develops software updates and new pilot training. It has already estimated a cost of more than $8bn from the grounding - mainly due to pro-duction setbacks and compen-sation it will owe airlines that have canceled thousands of flights as they manage sched-ules without the fuel-efficient jetliner they had counted on.

Boeing has said it hopes the 737 MAX jetliner will fly again in the US early in the final quarter of this year.

The planemaker has said it is sorry for the lives lost in both crashes, but has stopped short of admitting any fault in how it developed the 737 MAX or the software. It has said the two crashes - like most air disasters - were caused by a chain of events, with a common link between the two MAX accidents being “erroneous activation” of MCAS software.

Aviation 09:19

Floyd Wisner

SOURCE: Reuters news agency

49

Property 09:19

By Danlami Nasir Isah

Urban Shelter Limited is a property development cor-poration with headquarters

in Abuja Nigeria. With over 25 years of experience in integrated property development and man-agement, the company has been driven to make itself a household name in the property industry. Urban Shelter Limited has to its advantage an immense reserve of resources and experience, which give it the ability to effec-

tively plan, develop and manage properties for individuals, private organisations, state and feder-al government establishments while strategically positioning the company to consolidate its activities across Nigeria, Dubai, and the entire West African sub-region

They are a real estate invest-ment firm positioned to deliver cutting edge and competitive real estate solutions to their val-

ued clients. They engage in real estate development, brokerage, and management. The company offers good and flexible payment plans on all their products and services. Their clientele include corporate bodies, private individ-uals, cooperative societies, insti-tutions and companies.

For more than 20 years, they have helped Nigerians rediscov-er the dream of home ownership, the aspiration of turning a house

Urban Shelter, Oniru, Lagos

Setting the Pace in Real Estate Solutions

50

Property 09:19

into a home. They have built houses so their clients can trans-form them to welcoming homes and safe havens in a secure lo-cation. “We are proud to say for many Nigerians, Urban Shelter has turned that dream into a re-ality.”

Urban Shelter is one of Nige-ria’s largest real estate develop-ers and a key player in realizing Abuja’s vision of becoming a cos-mopolitan city and as well as the

Goldman Sachs report on future emerging economies that the country will be among the top 20 economies worldwide by the year 2020; creating a world class destination for living, business and tourism.

Backed by over two decades of solid & verifiable practical expe-rience, the company’s strategic focus continues to be centred on building exceptional properties in some of Nigeria’s most desirable

locations. Residential, retail and commercial, each & every Urban Shelter development exemplifies the company’s commitment to the highest standards. Support-ed by market awareness, driven by passion and governed by in-tegrity, Urban Shelter is currently realising a number of potentially high-yield projects to add to its impressive portfolio.

3-Bedroom Semi-detached Duplex Brick City View, Kubwa

Urban Shelter, Promenade Estate, Lokogoma, Abuja

Urban Shelter, Lugbe

Urban Shelter, Abraham Adesanya, Ajah, Lagos Bellavue Residence II, Lifecamp, Abuja

51

Sports 09:19

Amputee football is a dis-abled sport played with seven players on each

team (six outfield players and one goalkeeper). Outfield play-ers have lower extremity ampu-tations, and goalkeepers have an upper extremity amputation. Outfield players use loftstrand (forearm) crutches, and play without their prosthesis.

Don Bennett, of Seattle, Washington, USA, was always active - skiing, boating, moun-tain climbing. Then he lost his leg to a propeller in a boating ac-cident. That may have changed his style of activities, but not his love for or his level of activity.

One example of his drive to remain active: Don became the first amputee ever to climb Washington’s Mt. Rainier (the second highest peak in North America) on crutches.

Simple Beginnings: Don Ben-nett created amputee soccer by accident. True.

He was watching his son practice basketball in his back yard. At one point a basketball escaped and began rolling down the driveway. Don, on crutch-es and without his prosthesis, simply raised up on his crutches and kicked the ball back to his son.

In a flash of insight, Don fig-ured if he could kick a basket-ball on crutches, he could kick a soccer ball on crutches. It was a deceptively simple beginning to what’s become a world-wide sport.

At the time Bennett was more involved with skiing than soccer. So he and a group of seven oth-er skiers used the game to keep active and stay in condition dur-ing the summer while waiting for ski season.

But the game caught on. In 1985 Bill Barry, a soccer

coach with Canadian and US pro team experience, became the coach of a team under the Seattle Handicapped Sports and Recreation Association (SHS-RA). He eventually established Amputee Soccer International. Bennett continued to serve as the team’s manager.

It was through his efforts, with the assistance of Don and other members of the Seattle group, that the sport was estab-lished in other countries.

Barry traveled through Cen-tral America and Eastern Europe introducing the game to anyone who would come out and watch.

At that time The Soviet Un-ion declined to have anything to do with the game because they claimed not to have any handi-capped persons.

1984 The first international amputee soccer tournament is held in Seattle, Washington, USA. American Canadian and Central American teams partic-ipate.

For the first several years of the game the goals remained regulation size and the game was played on a regulation American style football field.

The Boeing Aircraft Compa-ny became a major supporter of the game, sponsoring annu-al international championship events between 1986 and 1991.

One of Barry’s skills was to attract media attention through a series of exhibition matches held in conjunction with other major sporting events:

Amputee Soccer - The Beginning *First Kick: September 1982

–By Saidu Abubakar with agency reports

Founder Don Bennett center, in white T-shirt, and the very first amputee soccer team

52

Sports 09:19

Highest governing body: World Amputee Football Feder-ation

CharacteristicsContact: ContactTeam members: 7Mixed gender: Singletype: Outdoor (mainly)

1984 A match at Seattle Me-morial Stadium before 8,000 people during the US Olympic Soccer Team Tour.

1985 A match before 25,000 fans at a Seattle Mariners New York Yankees baseball game at the Seattle King Dome. 1986 A match seen by 47,000 fans during halftime at a Cana-dian professional football game. 1994 SoccerFest at the LA Con-vention Center during the World Cup tournament, and during

halftime of an Anaheim Splash (MISL) match in the same time frame. 1987 Pitch and goal size and other rule adaptions adopted to make the game our own.

El Salvador military veter-ans win the World Cup. Jose Baldimir Melgar Maravilla, a star player for El Salvador nicknamed “Rambo” for his ever present headband, scored a tournament leading six goals for the cham-pions. El Salvador struck a post-age stamp in his honour. 1988 Amputee soccer intro-duced in England by Dr. Gwynn Thomas, British Amputee Sports Association, as a rehabil-itation activity. Later in the year England sent a team to Seattle for the 1988 World Cup.

England won the indoor com-petition and took the Bronze behind El Salvador (Gold) and USA) Silver in the outdoor com-

petition. 1988 Barry introduces amputee soccer in Uzbekistan. 1989 Russia and Brazil estab-lish amputee soccer programs and send teams to the champi-onships. 1991 World Cup tournament, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. First World Cup held outside North America.

Around the worldThere are several amputee

football associations around the world. A couple of examples of this are the England Ampu-tee Association and The Irish Amputee Football Association. Each organization promotes the advancement of the sport and that it gains more recognition. The England Amputee Football Association states their main goal on their website as: “The England Amputee Football As-

Nigeria’s national amputee football team gather to pray before the start of a training session in a bare field at the national stadium in Surulere district in Lagos, Nigeria July 6, 2018. Picture taken July 6, 2018. REUTERS

53

Sports 09:19

sociation’s aim is to provide all amputees, people with con-genital limb deficiencies and persons with restricted use of limbs, with the opportunity to play football locally, nationally and internationally.”

Nigeria’s first Amputee World Cup win

After two losses at the 2018 Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico, the Nigerian team, nick-named ‘Special Eagles’ finally recorded their first victory at the tournament.

The Special Eagles defeated their opponents El Salvador by a lone goal scored by Ezeji Ken-nedy who was the first Nigerian player to score in an Amputee World Cup.

Although, it was a slim vic-tory, quite historic considering the odds that were against the team in making their debut ap-pearance at the World Cup after missing out on the past three editions due to lack of finance, despite qualifying.

The Special Eagles fell to a 6-0 loss against Brazil in their first game but were confident

they would bounce back in their next game.

All did not go as expected in the next game against Rus-sia, as first-half goals from Igor and Adam Mesiev, with a sec-ond-half goal by Dmitri Udalov ensured that Russia defeated Nigeria 3-0 to seal the Special Eagles elimination from the Am-putee World Cup.

With just a victory in their de-but tournament, the Nigerian team had some commenda-tions for their performance at the Amputee World Cup.

A Swedish journalist, Stefan Lovgren, while commending the Nigerian team said “this is the stuff of dreams. We won a game at the World Cup.

“The match was nervy for the crowd and those on the bench. The Nigerians came in strongly into the game, dominated the game especially in the first half. They were faster and stronger than their opponents.”

It was a struggle for the team to appear at the world cup need-ing major financing to cover travel, camping and logistics costs. It took the goodwill of Ni-

gerians and contributions from the NFF, Super Eagles players, Mikel Obi and former Vice Pres-ident Atiku Abubakar who all donated about N10 million to ensure the team made it to their debut World Cup.

Nigeria amputee football team gets first World Cup victory

The sport was designed to be played by all amputees. Women were among the first players and have competed in international competition. USA repre-sented here by Ms. Bronyn Creed

54