Press spotlights Nigerian position in ongoing campaign on energy transition, others

Speaking at the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES), the president noted that the country is already building measures that would ensure seamless energy transition, as the country joins in the race for net zero carbon emission.

Represented at the event by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Buhari stated that his administration declared natural gas as the transition fuel for Nigeria, adding that the country is prepared to face the challenge of the rising global demand for cleaner energy sources.

Speaking to global leaders in the energy sector at the event, he said: “I urge this summit to develop smart home-grown goals for the country’s energy transition. We are waiting to deliberate on the strategy paper from this summit and incorporate critical parts of it into government’s policies where necessary.”

Sylva, who decried the energy poverty on the continent, noted that, in adopting global future fuels, energy-poverty and climate change nexus have to be both addressed simultaneously.

According to him, for countries such as Nigeria, that are rich in natural resources but still energy poor, the transition must not come at the expense of affordable and reliable energy for people, cities, and industry.

The newspaper says that the Chief Registrar of the ECOWAS Court, Tony Anene-Maidoh, has said that 179 cases were pending before the court, 54 of them against Nigeria.

Speaking at the end of the court’s week-long sensitisation campaign in Kwara State, the registrar noted that 583 cases had been lodged before the court since its inception in 2001, recording 434 rulings and six advisory opinions.

The delegation of the court led by the Vice President, Justice Gberi-Be Ouattara, included Justices Dupe Atoki, Keikura Bangura and Januaria Costa, as well as the Deputy Chief Registrar, the Director (Administration and Finance) and other key staff.

During a press briefing to wrap up the campaign, Justice Atoki explained that the programme was held to create awareness on the court’s existence and operations.

According to her, various fora addressed the specific needs of the various stakeholders, including lawyers, women, students and lecturers. Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, declared the campaign open on February 22, 2022.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Kayode Alabi, commended the initiative of the court to increase its visibility within West Africa, which will impact immensely in the promotion of the rule of law essential to achieving “regional political and economic ties of the 15 member states of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The comment by the NNPC boss came about six months after he had highlighted key guidelines that would guide the evaluation of would-be replacement of divesting partner in the oil and gas industry.

Kyari, had, in August last year, while speaking at the Nigeria annual International Conference and Exhibition, said learning from previous experiences, the NNPC had developed requisite divestment policy that would provide clear guidelines and criteria for divestment of partners’ interest in all its joint ventures and production-sharing contracts.

To ensure that the NNPC sustains a prosperous business environment for Nigeria, he had said the national oil company would pay particular attention to abandonment and relinquishment costs; severance of operator staff; third party contract liabilities; and competency of the buyer.

ThisDay says that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that the nation’s rice milling capacity rose to 3,000,000 metric tonnes produced from over 68 integrated mills across the country in January 2022.

According to CBN, the policies of the federal government on agriculture appeared to be working, especially in term of the number of emerging integrated rice mills and the multiplier effects on farmers’ productivity, food availability, job creation and poverty alleviation.

The apex bank also disclosed that over 58 new integrated rice mills have been facilitated to give additional support to the existing 10 mills in the country through various policies of the federal government in the last seven years.

The Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, pointed out recently that rice mills in Nigeria were fewer than 10 in 2015, with a combined annual capacity of less than 350,000 metric tonnes.

Emefiele explained that the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), which the CBN introduced in 2015, has had catalytic effects on rice cultivation, processing and other value chain activities, adding that about 10 more integrated mills would be opened this year.

He said: “Food security remains a cardinal deliverable for every developing economy as it serves as the fulcrum of many other economic development indices.”

The Nation reports that President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday depicted the rising oil prices as a great opportunity, especially with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in place.

“Crude oil prices are on the rise again after turning negative in April 2020. It is a great opportunity for us as a country. With the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in place, there should be no excuses,” he stated.

He said the Federal Government has addressed the issue of enabling investment environment which was the setback of the industry, saying there is a high degree of certainty with regulatory and adminstrative frameworks. International Energy Summit (NIES) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the government has tackled the host community unrest challenge with the Act.

Stressing that the government has concluded the 2020 marginal field bid round, he noted that analysts might seek reason for such a gigantic deal at the time of global energy transition from fossil fuels.

“The answer is simple; awarding the marginal fields gives Nigeria the opportunity to speed up its fossil fuel exploitation and make good use of the resources for the betterment of the country rather than abandon the huge oil and gas reserves in the ground.

The Punch says that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives, an agency of the Federal Government, on Monday, blamed the over three-week scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, on the continued subsidy on PMS.

It explained that the solution to the country’s prolonged fuel crisis was to halt the subsidy regime as canvassed by stakeholders including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, but was quick to state that the Federal Government had its reasons for retaining it.

This came as officials of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria told our correspondent on Monday that the ex-depot price of petrol by private tank farm owners had risen to N180/litre.

The approved ex-depot price for petrol is between N145 – N148/litre. Last week, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the price by private tank farm owners was hiked to between N162 – N167/litre, but on Monday it jumped to N180/litre.

As the crisis in the downstream oil sector continued on Monday, queues for petrol by motorists in the few filling stations that had products, grew worse, with many fuel users spending several hours under the sun just to buy PMS.