Page 15 - AfrOil Week 29

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

TechnipFMC signed a contract for FEED services in 2018 (Photo: KBR)
The statement added: “NLNG’s involvement in urged the government to act quickly. If Abuja
the process ends with the payment of such divi- does not start looking into the matter, he argued,
dend. The governance and controls around the it may not be able to determine where the funds
company’s finances also makes the allegations have gone.
against the managing director [Attah] and the Equity in the NLNG consortium is divided
GMD [Kyari] an impossible scenario, and there- between NNPC (49%), Royal Dutch Shell (UK/
fore members of the public are advised to disre- Netherlands, 25.6%), Total (France, 15%) and
gard the allegations, as it is totally baseless and Eni (Italy, 10.4%). The consortium has been
simply untrue.” turning out LNG since 1999 and already has six
The consortium issued its statement after production trains in place at its gas liquefaction
Ndudi Elumelu, the minority leader in Nigeria’s plant on Bonny Island. Together, these trains
House of Representatives, called for an investi- have a capacity of 22.5mn tonnes per year (tpy).
gation of NLNG’s finances. Speaking during a Earlier this year, NLNG took a final invest-
legislative session on July 7, he accused Kyari ment decision (FID) on the construction of
and Attah of “illegally [tampering] with the another production train. The new unit, which
funds at the NLNG dividends account to the will be known as Train 7, will push total output
tune of $1.05bn, thereby violating the nation’s up by 7.2mn tpy to 30mn tpy, with the new pro-
appropriation law.” duction facility adding 4.2mn tpy and the debot-
Elumelu, a member of the People’s Dem- tlenecking of existing trains contributing 3.4mn
ocratic Party (PDP) faction from Delta State, tpy. ™

Kenya hikes petroleum product prices

NIGERIA KENYA’S Energy and Petroleum Regulatory stated. “The prices are inclusive of the revised
Authority (EPRA) hiked prices for refined rates for [the] petroleum development levy on
petroleum products last week, citing a rise in super petrol and diesel as per Legal Notice No.
the cost of imported gasoline as justification for 124 of 10th July 2020 and 8% Value Added Tax
its decision. (VAT) in line with the provisions of the Finance
In a statement, the government agency Act 2018 and the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act
said it was increasing per-litre prices for gaso- 2020,” it added.
line, diesel and kerosene by KES11.38 ($0.11), According to the agency, prices went up
KES17.30 ($0.16) and KES2.98 ($0.028) respec- because the average landed cost of imported
tively. As a result, buyers in Nairobi will now gasoline climbed from $248.21 per cubic metre
have to pay KES100.48 ($0.93) per litre for gas- in May to $279.58 per cubic metre in June, a rise
oline, KES91.87 ($0.85) per litre for diesel and of 12.64% month on month, and because the
KES65.45 ($0.61) per litre for kerosene, it noted. average landed cost of imported diesel went up
This is the largest monthly increase in more from $228.62 per cubic metre in May to $302.15
than a decade, according to Kenyan press per cubic metre in June, a rise of 32.16% m/m.
reports. EPRA said it had not included kerosene in its
The new pricing schedule took effect on July calculations because the country did not import
15 and will remain in place for 30 days, EPRA this type of fuel during the relevant period.

Week 29 22•July•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15