Page 13 - AsianOil Week 47

AsianOil NEWSBASE’S ROUNDUP GLOBAL (NRG) AsianOil

Forward momentum

Various oil and gas plans around the world are moving forward despite

ongoing uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic and oversupply jitters

COMMENTARY WELCOME to the latest edition of NewsBase’s All these separate moves appear to point to
Roundup Global (NRG), in which our team of expectations of more oil and gas activity globally
international editors provide you with a snap- as the industry looks ahead to 2021.
shot of some of the key issues affecting their
regional beats. Get the NRG Oil & Gas Editor’s Africa: Nigeria – PIB and production costs
Picks to your inbox every week for free. Just sign Concerns about production costs and key legis-
up here. lation are in the headlines this week in Nigeria.
Lingering uncertainty over the impact of the Last week, though, the speaker of the House
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on energy of Representatives, the lower house of the
demand is not stopping various oil and gas ini- National Assembly, hinted that the timeline for
tiatives from cautiously moving forward. Over finalising the long-awaited (and oft-delayed) PIB
the past week, Norway launched its 25th frontier might extend beyond the first quarter of 2021.
licensing round, aimed at driving forward explora- According to Femi Gbajabiamila, the leader of
tion in relatively unexplored regions. President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progres-
Meanwhile, buyers have emerged for stakes sives Congress (APC) faction, the lower house
in various oil projects. Russian state oil com- will be able to pass the bill within six months.
pany Rosneft appears to have finally succeeded Gbajabiamila also expressed some concerns
in attracting a foreign partner to its flagship about the current version of the bill, saying:
Vostok Oil project in the Arctic, agreeing to sell “[The] PIB as it is does not allow Nigeria to com-
a 10% stake in the venture to Trafigura. And pete favourably in the global market ... We need
in Iraq, two state-owned Chinese firms are to look at [the details of the bill].”
reported to have shown an interest in acquir- Meanwhile, the head of National Petroleum
ing ExxonMobil’s 34.7% stake in the super- Investment Management Services (NAPIMS),
giant West Qurna-1 oilfield. Positive news has a corporate service unit of Nigerian National
also come from elsewhere in the Middle East, Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), had his own take
with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company on the measures needed to ensure the country’s
(ADNOC) announcing it has found 24bn bar- competitiveness. Speaking at a virtual industry
rels of oil across one unconventional and one conference last week, Group general manager
conventional discovery. Bala Wunti called on NNPC to reduce its pro-
Elsewhere, two separate memoranda of duction costs to $10 per barrel or less.
understanding (MoUs) have been signed for He explained his call for cost-cutting by point-
LNG-to-power projects in Vietnam. ing out that market conditions would not support

Week 47 26•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13