Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report United Bank for Africa Plc, the lender operating in 19 countries on the continent, plans to expand to Angola and South Africa as the economy of Nigeria, its largest market, is pummeled by falling crude oil prices. The lender will move to the southern African nations as part of its next “phase of expansion,” Chief Executive Officer Phillips Oduoza said in an interview on Thursday with Bloomberg TV Africa’s Eleni Giokos in Davos. Oduoza said he didn’t expect oil prices or the Nigerian currency to continue their decline. Nigerian companies and the Lagos-based bank are “adequately protected”…
Author: orientalnewsng
Source-Reuters The boss of oil giant BP Bob Dudley has said that oil prices could remain low for up to three years. He added that could send UK petrol prices below £1 per litre. He told BBC Business editor Kamal Ahmed in Davos BP was planning for low oil prices for years to come. That is expected to lead to job losses and falling investment in the North Sea oil industry and elsewhere, curbing supply and eventually forcing the price back up. Italian oil group Eni has said the next spike could be around $200 a barrel. Eni’s chief executive,…
Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report OPEC defended on Wednesday its decision not to intervene to halt the oil price collapse, shrugging off warnings by top energy firms that the cartel’s policy could lead to a huge supply shortage as investments dry up. The strain the halving of oil prices since June is putting on producers was laid bare when non-member Oman voiced its first direct, public criticism of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ November decision not to cut production but instead to focus on market share. Oil prices have collapsed to below $50 a barrel as a result of a…
Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report Nigeria’s economy has plunged as investors fear that the oil reliant nation will suffer from a recent slump in prices The Nigerian naira has fallen by more than 7.5pc against the dollar, ahead of a critical election in the country next month. The naira has slumped to record lows, falling beneath 200 per US dollar as market pressures have broken the currency’s back. The currency has been left bruised by recent falls in the value of oil. Brent crude traded as high as $115 per barrel last June, but has since dropped to trade at six-year lows…
Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi PricewaterhouseCoopers’, PwC, a management and advisory services firm, has estimated that by the end of 2015, the International Oil Companies, IOCs in Nigeria would have sold at least 250,000 barrels per day worth of equity in onshore and shallow water producing assets in the Niger Delta region. The divestments represent the single largest opportunity for indigenous companies to participate in the upstream oil and gas industry as the transfer of operatorship to the buyers of these assets will go a long way in demonstrating government’s commitment to the local content policy and will in turn unlock…
Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report The developers of the world’s first solar-powered plane (with the capacity to fly for seven days and nights), has announced that it will embark on its global journey in early March 2015, the AFP reported. With flying speeds of around 50-100 kms (30-60 miles) per hour, the journey for Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) is expected to take 5 months from take-off, flying over the Pacific Ocean and making regular stops along the route, which has been 12 years in the planning. Bertrand Piccard, chairman of Solar Impulse said: ‘We want to demonstrate that clean technology and renewable…
Yemisi Izuora Joseph Dawha, Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that the ongoing decline in crude oil price will weaken operations in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector and will particularly cause interruption of about three deep water projects in the country. Dawha who expressed the apprehension at the Offshore West African Conference in Lagos which is themed “ Managing West African’s Major Projects’, said that this year theme was carefully chosen to address decline in oil projects affecting West African countries and ways to profile better solution. Dawha who was represented…
Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report Nigeria’s government was under pressure Tuesday to cut petrol prices further, with unions saying people were being “short-changed” over the global crude price plunge. The main opposition accused the government of “tokenism” before the February 14 elections, after Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke announced 10-naira (five US cent, 4.5 euro cent) reduction on Sunday. A litre of fuel at the pump in Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer now costs 87 naira. But the opposition and unions said the price of petrol as well as diesel and kerosene should be slashed further. The All Progressives Congress…
Yemisi Izuora The Offshore West Africa (OWA), an international oil and gas conference and exhibition which holding in Lagos is seeking ways of improving the sector in the West African country, which is the top oil producer in the continent, organizers said. The three-day meeting drew participants from local and international key players of the oil sector, is in its 19th edition. This year’s conference in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, takes place at a time when global oil prices have fallen sharply over the past seven months. In his welcome address during the opening ceremony George Oguachuba, chairman of the…
Yemisi Izuora The Management of Inspenonline, one of the insurance and pension online media, has released the names of nominees for the 2014 Nigerian Insurance and Pension (Inspen) Award. A statement by the Editor, Chuks Udo Okonta, said the yearly award which is in eight categories will be contested by underwriting firms, Pension Fund Administrators, broking firms and individuals who distinguished themselves in 2014. He noted that nominees for the Insurance Man of the year category are, the Managing Director Mansard Insurance Plc, Mrs Yetunde Ilori; Managing Director Leadway Assurance Limited, Mr Oye Hassan-Odukale; Group Managing Director Custodian and Allied…