By Adewale Sanyaolu
Nigerians across the country, yesterday expressed their frustration and anger over the country’s prolonged energy crises which almost marred yesterday’s Christmas celebrations.
In separate interviews with Daily Sun, they lamented that the soaring prices of cooking gas, petrol scarcity and epileptic power supply made the Christmas celebrations one of the worst in recent times.
Samuel Oladele, an artisan who resides in Ajah, Lagos said the worsening energy crisis has in no small way left a big hole in his pocket as over 40 per cent of his income is now spent on funding alternative power supply.
Oladele explained that the poor state of electricity supply in Ajah, a suburb of Lagos, forced him to run his generator almost 24 hours just to preserve food items for his household use.
‘‘In order to beat the yuletide rush, my wife stocked food stuffs over a week ago, but that investment decision is almost being regretted now as I have spent close to 50 per cent of the cost of purchasing the food items to buy petrol.
My wife is close to being frustrated because if the foods stuffs are not preserved, we may end up losing all the items,’’he worried.
Also speaking, a staff in one of the new generation banks, Funmilola Adebisi, said she and her family members have decided to suspend their trip to Ado-Ekiti for the Christmas celebration because all efforts to fuel the car fuel tank at the official price of N170 per litre proved abortive due to the long queues at various stations.
She lamented that she and her other siblings have decided to jettison the idea of travelling this year because of the high cost of petrol.
‘‘How much is my salary that I would buy petrol at N250 per litre. My car has a capacity for 70 litres. At N250 litre, that amounts to N17,500. That is not even the problem. But what is the guarantee that I would get fuel in Ado-Ekiti to return to Lagos at N250 per litre. You know once you move out of Lagos, the situation gets worse,’’.
Findings by Daily Sun across some filling stations in Lagos reveal that the situation is not getting better as long queues of vehicles were seen almost everywhere.
The situation was further compounded as some filling stations operated by major marketers have suspended the sale of petrol into Jerry cans.
At the Mobil filling station in Abule-Egba, majority of the consumers were disappointed as the fuel attendants turned down their request to buy into Jerry cans down.
A motorist who spoke to Daily Sun at the filling station, Mr. Adeleke Ajibade, said for two days he has been out of electricity supply and needs the fuel to power his generating set in order to have a great time with his family on Christmas day. But that expectation has been short-lived.
The energy crisis is now further compounded by the rising cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG), popularly called cooking gas, a discentive to the effort of the Federal Government to deepen the use of LPG.
This development may force many cooking gas consumers to return to the use of dirty fuel which includes kerosene, charcoal and firewood during this yuletide and even beyond
Indeed, since the beginning of the year, the price of gas has soared beyond the reach of many consumers.
According to market survey conducted by Daily Sun at the weekend, it now costs an average of N12,000 to refill a 12.5kg LPG in some parts of Lagos, while the cost of refilling a 5kg cylinder has also increased to N4,750 on average.
Mr Mike Samson, a businessman who went to Dikram gas depot in Surulere, Lagos, to purchase the product on Friday, said the price hike has become frustrating to consumers.
Samson said: “At this point, we are quite frustrated at the rate of price for every commodity in the market.
Imagine the increase from last month to this month, and with every possibility that it might increase again in the next few weeks.
The product has increased by 240 per cent for 12.5kg, moving up from N3,000 to N10,200 within the first 10 months of 2021.”
Mrs Alice Bamidele, a housewife, arrived at her usual gas depot in the Somolu area of Lagos, last week, to refill her 12.5kg gas cylinder but was surprised that what she bought about a month ago at N10,200 had increased to 11, 800.
She lamented that the increase would affect her family’s monthly budget, particularly because her husband, a civil servant, had fixed income.
Oil price ‘ll return to $100/ barrel in 2023 –Analysts
Eric Nuttall, partner and senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners LP, had told the Financial Post that oil prices will return to $100 per barrel in 2023.
According to the analysts, many of the headwinds that have cut short the oil price rally this year including China’s zero-COVID policy and the coordinated SPR releases by several governments, will no longer be there in 2023. Coupled with sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas, this should elevate oil prices.
He has also predicted that the energy sector will continue to outperform other market sectors due to high demand in oil and gas stocks.
Last week, the Bank of America predicted that Brent could quickly go past $90 per barrel on the back of a dovish pivot in the U.S. Federal Reserve and a “successful” economic reopening by China.
BofA has forecast that Brent prices currently trading at $77.93–will average $100 per barrel in 2023 thanks to Chinese oil demand recovery on a post-COVID reopening coupled with a drop in Russian supplies of about 1 million barrels per day (bpd).
According to the investment bank, OPEC+ is likely to fully implement a two million bpd output cut in a bid to boost oil prices.
The forecast has come at a time when oil prices have been steadily declining due to fears that a weakening global economy would curb fuel demand.
Last week, Beijing announced the most sweeping changes to its strict COVID-19 guidelines, including relaxing testing requirements and travel restrictions. Further, people infected with COVID-19 but have only mild or no symptoms are now allowed to isolate at home instead of convalescing in centrally managed facilities.
“Our oil demand and price projections for 2023 rely heavily on robust China and India demand growth, so any Asia reopening delays could affect our expected price trajectory,” said the bank, adding that the path to a post-pandemic environment may not be easy “given the low levels of immunity in China.”
Crude oil futures have surrendered nearly all gains for the year, posting their largest weekly losses in more than eight months, as restarts for key pipelines eased supply concerns coupled with ongoing worries about a global recession and weaker crude demand from China.
NGA elects NLNG Company Secretary as President
The General Counsel/ Company Secretary of Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) and former MD of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), Mr.Aka Nwokedi, has emerged as President-Elect of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), leading the Executive Council to pilot and steer the affairs of the gas industry association for the next two years.
The election was conducted on December 15, 2022 as part of the Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the Association which was held in Lagos recently.
Aka Nwokedi who is a long-standing active member of the Association was the 1st Vice President before emerging as President-Elect. He has also over the years occupied several positions in the Association namely Legal Advisor, Secretary General and Chairman, NGA Conference Committee.
The newly elected Executive Council will formally assume office during the Association’s International Conference which will hold in April 2023.
The NGA set up in 1999 is the umbrella professional body of the gas industry responsible for lead advocacy, promotion and protection of the interest of the gas industry and players in Nigeria.
Savannah Energy joins EITI
Savannah Energy Plc, the British independent energy company focused around the delivery of projects that Matter in Africa, is pleased to announce that it has joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“EITI”) in support of EITI’s mission to promote the open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources.
EITI is a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources which seek to address the key governance issues in the extractive sectors.
Savannah’s subsidiaries have aligned to EITI principles in Nigeria since 2015 and Savannah seeks to partner with governments and regulators to build and sustain collaborative efforts towards driving and improving transparency, governance and anti-corruption efforts in the countries in which we operate.
Andrew Knott, CEO of Savannah Energy, said: “We are delighted to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and welcome further engagement with EITI as it offers additional support to us in demonstrating our robust transparency and accountability practices.”