President Yoweri Museveni’s determination to have Uganda enter the international oil market by 2020 is getting caught up in logistics, with preparatory work on the investment unlikely to be completed before the turn of the year.

Joint venture partners involved in the country’s oil sector said they were unlikely to complete the final technical study for the Buulisa oil blocks by the December 31 ultimatum.

The the study, called front end engineering design (FEED) which started in February this year usually takes between 12 and 18 months to complete. That places the completion date anywhere between March and August next year.

FEED focuses on technical specifications of the project and the cost estimates; initially put at $10 billion.

After it is completed, a detailed design will follow enabling partners Total E&P, Tullow Oil and China National Offshore Oil Company decide how much money they will put in the project. Fluor and CB&I are doing the study.

The 2020 evacuation target has gathered political undertones with President Museveni said to be keen to have the project running before the 2021 elections in which he is expected to contest, after Parliament last week voted to remove the age limit of 75 for presidential candidates. President Museveni is 73.

Ego trips for leaders

Big infrastructure projects in East Africa have recently become ego trips for leaders. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta was keen to have oil from Turkana hit the export market just before the general election in August this year.

His ambition came unstuck because of logistical challenges but he managed to pull through the standard gauge railway between Mombasa on the Coast and Nairobi.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has targeted the development of the Central Corridor — including the pipeline that will evacuate crude oil from Uganda — linking Dar es salaam to Bujumbura, Kigali and Kampala as one of his flagship projects.

President Paul Kagame targeted improvements in tourism and trade services leading to reforms that saw the Rwanda Convention Centre built and the country relax visa restrictions.

Oil prices

Although the delay in bringing oil to the ground could hold back revenues, it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise as international oil prices show signs of steady recovery from a trough that has persisted for more than three years. The partners, however, maintain the market entry target is still feasible.

“All parties are fully committed and are endeavouring to achieve the targeted date of end 2020,” said Total’s spokeswoman Ahlem Friga-Noy.

Fluor and CB&I are competing to be the contractor of the oil infrastructure after Technip was edged out in the first phase of the design completed in July.

“Fluor and CB&I have been selected to undertake the second phase of the front end engineering design. The best contractor at the end of the second phase will be selected to undertake the engineering, procurement and construction of the project,” said Ms Friga-Noy.

Thereafter the preferred contractor will again be selected to for remaining works, including establishing a 200,000 bop central processing facility.

In August 2016, the Energy Ministry issued eight production licences to Total E&P Uganda and Tullow Oil Uganda. The licences contain about 5.4 billion barrels of crude out of an estimated volume of 6.5 billion barrels.

“The companies are expected to work towards reaching final investment decisions within 18 months after issuance of the production licences and first oil in the year 2020,” energy and mineral development minister Irene Muloni said in February.

Source: By Halima Abdallah / allfrica.com

Eritrea has temporarily shut down nearly 450 private businesses, the latest in a series of moves that has sent shockwaves through the economy of the Red Sea nation.

The closures were a response to companies hoarding cash and “failing to do business through checks and other banking systems,” according to a Dec. 29 editorial published by Eritrea’s Ministry of Information on the state-run website Shabait.com.

Most of the affected businesses operate in the hospitality sector, according to the announcement, and they will remain closed for up to eight months, depending on the severity of the violations

About 58,000 private businesses operate across the country, according to the government; less than 1 percent was affected by the recent closures.

Replacing the currency

The government has taken other steps in recent years to reassert control over the economy.

In 2015, Eritrea mandated that citizens exchange all notes of the currency, the nakfa, for new notes. The government also imposed financial restrictions, including limits on the amount of cash that could be withdrawn from bank accounts or kept in private hands, according to multiple reports.

Business owners complained about the restrictions, and reports from inside the country indicate the rules have altered Eritrea’s black market exchange rate, which affects the price of many goods.

State control

Tesfa Mehari, a professor of economics in England, said the Eritrean government wants a state-owned economy. That’s a trap many other countries have fallen into that generally leads to economic failure, Mehari said.

“The government cannot develop the economy. Only the people can do that,” Mehari told VOA’s Tigrigna service. “The government can only be a facilitator. There hasn’t been a country in the world that developed because of government control.”

He also said that the closures harm people’s trust in the government and in banking institutions.

“At the end of the day, if the people of Eritrea want to develop the economy of the country, they can only work based on trust, especially with banks. What you have with banks is a matter of oath,” Mehari said.

Compounding this mistrust, he added, is that the government’s actions aren’t backed by a specific law or decree that is publicly available for all to read.

In a statement, the government also acknowledged shortcomings in modernizing its banking sector with up-to-date technology and relevant expertise, another potential impediment to confidence in the system.

Namibia has ceased the issuing of machine-readable passports and will start issuing biometric or electronic passports as from Monday, 8 January 2018.

This was announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration’s director for immigration and border control, Nehemia Nghishekwa, on Friday at a media briefing in Windhoek.

Nghishekwa explained that electronic passports are highly secure travel documents with a chip which enhances security.

“The drive is to maintain the integrity of the Namibian travel document and to render it difficult to forge,” said Nghishekwa.

He said the move was in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements, which urge all UN member states to implement the electronic passports.

Nghishekwa explained that Namibia had an untainted reputation internationally, making it an ideal target for international travel document fraudsters.

He noted that the electronic passports come with general security features, compared to the previous passports, adding that the electronic passports contain 40 pages compared to the 32 pages of the old passports.

The electronic passport features include the Namibian map on the inside of the cover page, images of the Namibian Parliament, the national flower of Namibia, the welwitschia mirabilis, and a watermark on all pages.

He said the machine-readable passports currently in circulation, which include ordinary, diplomatic and official passports, will run concurrently with the new electronic passports until they outlive their lifespan of up to five years.

“The current machine-readable passports are still accepted in internationally, however, they are phasing out,” he said.

An electronic passport will cost N$160 and the waiting period will remain the same.

Source: allafrica

Lagos — Currently being constructed on a 2, 200 hectares at the Lekki Free Trade zone in Lagos, Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical is adjudged the single largest train petroleum refinery in the world and is being counted on by the federal government to nail the coffin on fuel scarcity in Nigeria.

With capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude per day, and a petrochemical plant of 750,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per annum, it is 13 times bigger than the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited built by the federal government. Projected to be the biggest refinery in the world, it is also projected to have 1.5 times more capacity than the existing four oil refineries in the country, even if they are operating at 100 per cent.

With $14 billion loan from a consortium of local and international banks, Dangote refinery is expected to come on stream in the last quarter of next year.

According to the President of Dangote group, Aliko Dangote, the sum of $400 million was brought in for the construction of the refinery plant, out of which N16.3 billion had been paid for the acquisition of 2,200 hectares of land, with expectation of earning $5 billion annually from the export of surplus products.

All in all, projections about the plants are all optimistic at the moment.

“With the refinery, there will be no more importation of fuel,” an enthusiastic Dangote said, “Because 40% of our foreign exchange needs go into the importation of petroleum products. If we produce here and sell here, everything would be done in Naira and this creates jobs. We are stopping the exportation of jobs and the creation of poverty. We are doing this by extracting by-products from crude and some of these components are in high demand outside the country. It is the same thing with fertilizer,” he said

He estimates that the refinery can load 2,680 trucks per day, meaning about 10, 000 trucks in four days. Loading by sea and shipping to Calabar and other south-south states will also cut out the need for tank farms.

“A place like Apapa has tank farms in residential area which is dangerous for the residents,” Dangote said.

A well-known businessman, who is also the son of a late prominent anti-apartheid activist – is expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday for allegedly assaulting his wife in Camps Bay, Cape Town earlier this week.Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed to News24 on Wednesday that a domestic violence-related assault charge was laid by the man’s 27-year-old wife on New Year’s Day at the Camps Bay police station and that it was under investigation.

Van Wyk said an investigating officer had met with the businessman and his legal representative on Wednesday and that the businessman was charged and informed to appear in court on Thursday.

Sources close to the case allege that a disagreement broke out between the businessman and his wife.

The man allegedly demanded his wedding ring from her and proceeded to assault her. The wife was allegedly assaulted “in full view and/or passive assistance” of a relative of his.

Source: News24 / allafrica

The Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, on Wednesday updated President Muhammadu Buhari on the approved procurement of two new satellites from China at the cost of $550 million.

Speaking to State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with the president in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mr. Shittu said the China EXIM bank had agreed to pay the entire $550 million for the procurement of the satellites.

The minister explained that the initial agreement was that the China EXIM bank would provide 85 per cent of the total cost ($550 million) while Nigeria would pay the remaining 15 per cent as counterpart funding for the projects.

He, however, stated that as Nigeria could not be able to meet her obligation in paying the counterpart funding, the agreement was renegotiated with the China EXIM bank and the manufacture of the satellites, the China Great Walls.

Mercenaries have attempted to launch a coup in the Western African state of Equatorial Guinea, its government says.

At least 30 armed men from Chad, Cameroon and the Central African Republic were arrested late last month, a minister said.

They were found with rocket launchers, rifles and ammunition just over the border in Cameroon, he added.

The government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is often accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

Troops in Equatorial Guinea shot dead a “mercenary” during clashes on Wednesday near the border with Cameroon, TVGE, the state television reported, adding that security forces had “used gunfire to disperse (others) in the forests along the border”.

Mr Obiang has been in power for nearly 40 years, taking power in a coup by ousting his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was shot by firing squad.

The long-time leader was re-elected to a fifth seven-year term in 2016.

After the Mugabes, which African dynasties remain?

In a statement read on public radio, Security Minister Nicholas Obama Nchama blamed the alleged coup on mercenaries hired by opposition groups and supported by unnamed “powers”.

He said the coup attempt had been foiled with the help of the Cameroonian security services.

Equatorial Guinea has faced alleged coup attempts in the past.

In 2004, a former British soldier, Simon Mann, was linked to an attempt to overthrow Mr Obiang.

The former British Army officer and businessman was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 and extradited four years later to Equatorial Guinea.

In 2008, Mr Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison, although a year later he was released after being pardoned by Mr Obiang.

Equatorial Guinea is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, but much of its population still lives in poverty.

In October 2017, a French court gave a three-year suspended jail term to Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President Teodorin Obiang, President Obiang’s son, for corruption.

Source: allafrica

Tawanda Chitiyoboasts neither of a fancy university degree nor any other such tertiary qualification. But the 30-year budding entrepreneur from Mutare has a sharp eye for business. He knows just when the time is right – and now was the right time to turn waste into energy

Chitiyo describes himself simply as “an entrepreneur and a climate change enthusiast,” with no prior experience in project development or management. It is easy, and very tempting, to dismiss the youthful entrepreneur as an amateur feigning humility to gain support.

But using his street-horned skills, Chitiyo has put together a team of experts that has come up with a formidable project plan to build what he termed a ‘bio-refinery’ in Mutare, producing gas, electricity and diesel from human waste, at a cost of $10 million.

Working in partnership with the Harare Institute of Technology’s Climate Change Research Centre and Astra Innovations, a German technological firm, Chitiyo has agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Mutare to convert thousands of kilogrammes of human excreta at the Sakubva and Yeovil waste treatment plant into something useful.

There was power outage across Nigeria on Tuesday night.

The power ministry, in a statement in the early hours of Wednesday blamed the outage on fire at a gas pipeline system which interrupted gas supply and affected the national transmission grid.

“The sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd January 2018. The national transmission grid is owned and operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN),” the ministry stated.

Read the ministry’s full statement below.

AFTERMATH OF FIRE INCIDENT REPORTED BY GAS PROCESSING COMPANY : TCN , GENCOS WORKING TO RESTORE OPERATION OF NATIONAL GRID

… We urge members of the public to bear with us as we work to overcome this set back which should be temporary- MINISTRY

Regrettably, after a sustained period of increasing production and distribution of power since September 2017 to date, the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Ltd (NGPTC) has reported a fire incident on its Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada, Edo State on Tuesday, 2nd January, 2018.

The incident requires a shutdown of the pipeline supplying gas to Egbin 1,320MW; Olorunsogo NIPP 676MW, Olorunsogo 338MW, Omotosho NIPP 450MW, Omotosho 338 MW and Paras 60MW power stations.

The sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd January 2018. The national transmission grid is owned and operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Most of Nigeria’s power generation is from thermal power stations that require gas for fuel. The gas is produced by oil and gas companies overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The gas is delivered to the power stations through pipelines owned and operated by Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company Ltd (NGPTC), a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

TCN and the generation companies are working to restore operation of the national grid. Once the national grid is restored output from the hydroelectric power stations and all other unaffected gas fired thermal power stations will be increased to the extent possible to minimize the impact of loss of generation from the affected power stations while NNPC takes necessary steps to restore gas supply.

We urge members of the public to bear with us as we work to overcome this set back which should be temporary.

Signed:

MINISTRY OF POWER, WORKS AND HOUSING

2nd JANUARY, 2018

source: Allafrica