Crude

Nigerian crude grades are failing to attract buyers from Europe, China and India as traders, to cut cost, shift to a blend of WTI (the main oil benchmark for North America) and Brazilian grades as a substitute for the country’s highly sought-after sweet crude. Top crude grades of Africa’s biggest oil producer, Bonny Light, Forcados and Brass, have a reputation for being light in sulphur, a quality that has made them the darling of refineries in Europe and Asia. But traders are flocking to the Urals crude blend…

Angola overtook Nigeria to emerge top African crude oil producer for the month of April, data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has shown. According to the April 2023 Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) published by the oil cartel, Angola recorded 1.06 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production in April, up from 972,000 bpd recorded in March. But Nigeria recorded an output of 999,000 bpd in April compared to 1.3 million bpd in March. The April output figure represented the lowest…

The world is direly addicted to plastics. Try as we might to recycle them, plastics are cheaper to make anew, so unthinkable amounts of plastic waste are dumped into landfill and are clogging up our oceans.From all the new plastics ever made, over 6 billion metric tons of plastic waste (that doesn't decompose but only breaks up into smaller and small pieces) has been generated, with less than 10 percent recycled thus far.Not only is manufacturing new plastics incredibly wasteful, but it uses starter materials derived…

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) on Wednesday announced the resumption of oil exports from the Bonny crude oil export terminal. The resumption follows the lifting of force majeure on crude oil exports at the facility. Force majeure is a provision that relieves the parties from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise. The SPDC had in March 2022 declared a force majeure on the Bonny Light oil export programme beginning from 3 March, citing a decline…

Approximately 40 per cent of the volumes of crude oil losses in the Nigerian petroleum industry are due to measurement inaccuracies and not theft, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said. The Chief Executive of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, made this known in a statement on Sunday. Mr Komolafe said the revelation followed a forensic audit on crude theft numbers, conducted by the commission covering the period from January 2020 to November 2022. According to the statement, he disclosed this in…

Increased crude production by Nigeria, Angola and Kuwait inspired a boost in the January production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the group said. Oil production from the 13 members of the organisation, OPEC, averaged 28.88 million barrels per day in January 2023, lower by 49 thousand barrels per day on a month-on-month, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report released Tuesday. The report also noted that crude oil production in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran declined in the same month.…

Last Updated: January 17, 2023, 18:26 ISTImage used for Representation. (Photo: Reuters)India, a major consumer, and importer of oil have been buying Russian crude at well below a $60 price cap agreed upon by the WestIndia has cut its windfall tax on crude oil and exports of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and diesel, according to a government notification dated Jan. 16.It cut its windfall tax on crude to 1,900 rupees ($23.28) per tonne from 2,100 rupees per tonne, effective Tuesday.The government also cut the export tax on…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has destroyed a barge loaded with stolen crude. The NNPCL in a statement said the barge destruction was carried out in collaboration with private security contractors and government security agencies on Saturday. A barge refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel used to transport goods or petroleum products on waterways. The NNPCL noted that the operators of the barge were arrested in December 2022. “The barge, named MT Brighton 1, which was…

Fast News The Group of Seven price cap comes as the West tries to limit Moscow's ability to finance its war in Ukraine. The Group of Seven (G7) countries and Australia last week agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil.…

Few communities in Southern California have been more successful at saying “no” to large new developments over the last decade than Redondo Beach.The South Bay coastal city of 70,000 blocked a $400-million remake of its waterfront, reduced the size of proposed apartment buildings by dozens of units and even prohibited the construction of mixed-use residential and commercial projects in the city for a year.One of the masterminds of this slow-growth movement is Mayor Bill Brand, a 65-year-old former airline crew chief who…