The Shell Companies in Nigeria have restated commitment to supporting Nigerian businesses in the quest to grow local content for the domestic oil and gas industry.

The company made the assertion at the recent Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and committed to doing this through contract awards and scaling up of expertise.

Biztellers reports that over 700 oil and gas entities participated in the 13^th edition of the PNC Forum

The four-day conference with the theme “Deepening the Next Frontier for Nigerian Content Implementation” began today and will see the hosts, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and participating companies review progress on the development of Nigerian content pertaining to the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Development (NOGICD) Act since it was enacted in 2010.

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The Shell companies in Nigeria were the forum with a strong message of support for Nigerian companies, having awarded contracts worth $1.98 billion to the businesses in 2023 in continuing effort to develop Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry.

The contracts, awarded by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), and Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) present a three percent increase from the 2022 performance of $1.92 billion.

Business Opportunity Manager for SNEPCo’s Bonga South-West Aparo Project, Olaposi Fadahunsi, representing SNEPCo Managing Director, Ron Adams, told participants at the opening of the forum that several benefitting companies had taken advantage of the patronage to expand their operations and improve their expertise and financial strength.

“Shell companies execute a large proportion of their activities through contracts with third parties, and Nigeria-registered companies have been key beneficiaries of this policy aimed at powering Nigeria’s progress,” Fadahunsi said. He commended the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for ensuring compliance with the Nigerian Content Act.

In addition to contract awards, Shell companies have implemented projects under the Human Capital Development Fund, including the Niger Delta University learning centre and digital library project and the Federal University of Technology Information Technology Hub. Both projects were inaugurated this year, in collaboration with SPDC Joint Venture partners – Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), TotalEnergies and Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC).

Other projects include the University of Lagos Geosciences Centre of Excellence, Nigeria Diving School and funding of ongoing research at the University of Ibadan to develop a synthetic-based drilling fluid.

The Shell Companies in Nigeria also continue to develop indigenous manpower through scholarship programmes with over 3,772 undergraduate and 109 Niger Delta post graduate scholarships since 2016.

Fadahunsi added: “As we speak, beneficiaries of the 13th edition of the Niger Delta Post Graduate Scholarship awards are pursuing their studies in the United Kingdom. The employability rate of the scheme is high with over 98% of the graduates who won the awards securing employment in the oil and gas industry, academia and Information Technology, among other sectors, within one year of completing their studies. Nigerian content will continue to be an important part of Shell operations.”

Local content development has been described as critical for the growth and development of Nigeria in the quest to acquire oil and gas technology and build indigenous capacity in the industry.

Chairman and Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa Business Unit, Jim Swartz made this remark at a Panel session on The Next Frontier for Nigerian Content: Divestments & Offshore Opportunities, during the 2024 edition of the Practical Nigeria Content Forum organized by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State from December 2 to 5, 2024.

Swartz noted that as an industry that thrives on partnership with key stakeholders, the Nigerian oil and gas industry is expected to continue to play an active role in prioritizing Nigeria content development and building local capacity in the industry.

He explained that Chevron believes that its business success in providing affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy is directly tied to the progress and prosperity of the people it works with and the communities where it operates.

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“Our strategy is to leverage our strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. Our primary objective is to deliver higher returns, lower carbon, and superior stakeholder value in any business environment,” he stated.

According to Swartz, “having made significant investments in Nigeria for over 60 years, Chevron believes that the broad and varied opportunities in the oil and gas industry, can be harnessed to engender economic development, with the appropriate government legislation, policies, and regulations.

“Chevron’s Nigerian Content policy is driven by the vision to be recognized as the petroleum company that works best to foster competence and competitiveness among Nigerian indigenous contractors and suppliers, by adopting the participatory-partnership model,” he remarked

The Chairman and Managing Director noted that Chevron companies in Nigeria had developed and implemented the Local/Nigerian Content development philosophy as far back as 1999, well before the April 2010 enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (“NOGICD Act”).

He stated, “At Chevron, we demonstrate our commitment to the socio-economic development of Nigeria by building mutually beneficial partnerships and supporting the policies of government on Nigerian Content Development. In addition to skills acquisition trainings for Nigerians, Chevron provides contract and procurement opportunities, support for asset acquisition, technical support, and facilitates collaboration on research and development for local community contractors.

“For the last 10 years, CNL has spent an estimated annual average of $1 billion on Nigerian suppliers and service providers. We do all this, not because we are compelled to, but because it is the right thing to do,” he remarked.

Swartz affirmed that Chevron would continue to partner with the NCDMB to boost local capacities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. “We will continue our efforts in capacity building and training of the local talents, our support for research and development and facilitation of partnerships among local businesses”, he concluded.

. . . Insights On FY25 Plans For Nigeria, Niger

Savannah Energy PLC, the British independent energy company focused around the delivery of Projects that Matter, has offered a comprehensive update on its operating performance and outlook, while also outlining its FY25 plans for the existing portfolio in Nigeria and Niger.

These were detailed in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos by Communications Manager, Okwudili Onyia.

The update shows that its gross production in Nigeria has averaged 22.7kboe/d (88% gas; flat YoY), generating Total Income of $320m and Adj. EBITDA (including other operating income) of $257m in the 10-months to end-October, up from $233m and $202m respectively in H1 FY24A.

It revealed that the company’s midstream subsidiary, Accugas Limited has now drawn NGN279bn under its new NGN340bn transitional debt facility, with proceeds used to pay down its US$ facility.

“The facility should be fully drawn by year end, with management requesting an increase in the size of the facility to enable the remaining $225m balance to be converted into Naira,” it added.

It was gathered that this process, when complete, will align Accugas’ debt facility with the currency in which gas revenues are received, while the company also continues to advance its plans for a potential long-dated domestic bond issuance to ultimately replace the NGN transitional facility.

The Chief Executive Officer of Savannah Energy, Andrew Knott, said, “I am pleased to provide an operational and financial update which demonstrates the continued progress we have made as a business in 2024. 2025 is clearly going to be an exciting year for our Company: we have a large operational programme in Nigeria which is expected to enhance both our oil and gas production levels and capacity; we intend to progress our R3 East oil development project in Niger; we continue to pursue key acquisitions in the upstream oil and gas space; and we expect to announce plans significantly expanding our renewable energy business. Fundamentally, Savannah remains unequivocally an “AND” company, seeking to deliver strong performance both for the short AND long term across multiple fronts, and pursuing growth opportunities in both the hydrocarbon AND renewable energy sectors.”

According to the update, the company’s US$45 million Uquo Central Processing Facility (“Uquo CPF”) compression project in Nigeria is right on track for completion of construction before year-end, with commissioning taking place in Q1 2025, enabling the expansion of gas production in the medium term, with FY25F gas volumes expected to remain broadly flat YoY.

There are also plans to drill an additional Uquo development well and exploration well in H2 FY25. The transaction to increase Savannah’s ownership of the Stubb Creek asset to 100% for $61.5m is now scheduled to complete in Q1 FY25. Savannah has signed a new $60m RBL facility with The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited to fund the transaction and continues to plan for an expansion of oil production from the field.

In Niger, Savannah continues to seek to progress its 35 MMstb (Gross 2C Resources) R3 East oil development in South-East Niger. During 2024, it sought to optimise the development plan for the R3 East Area and, whilst there is no change to its resources estimate, it now forecasts a peak potential production of approximately 10,000 bopd (vs 5,000 bopd in the previous plan). Savannah’s estimates of the forecast PV10 value of the R3 East development project has also increased from US$150 million to US$210 million.

Savannah’s Renewable Energy Division remains focused on its target of 2GW+ pipeline of renewable energy projects by the end of FY26, up from c.700MW currently. A firm believer in Africa’s transition to renewable energy, Savannah has up to 696 MW of renewable energy projects currently in motion, including the up to 250 MW Parc Eolien de la Tarka wind farm project in Niger and the up to 95 MW Bini a Warak hybrid hydroelectric and solar project in Cameroon.