VenturesNow

Why Shell must safely decommission its outdated assets before leaving Nigeria—Report

Published

9 months ago

March 6, 2024

According to a report on the environmental impact of multinational businesses’ activities, Nigeria must ensure that Shell safely dismantles its outdated infrastructure or pay to have it removed from the Niger Delta before it leaves.

After deciding in January to sell the company to a group of five, primarily local, businesses for $2.4 billion, Shell is about to withdraw from its onshore oil and gas operations in Nigeria.

This transaction is the most recent one made by a foreign oil corporation looking to exit Nigeria’s problematic onshore oil market. However, the analysis by the nonprofit Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) claims that the nation’s ecology may suffer as a result of the expense of decommissioning outdated assets.

“The big issue is that Shell is leaving the onshore Niger Delta and leaving behind potentially a massive bill for (clean up),” SOMO’s executive director, Audrey Gaughran, said.

Requests for a response from Reuters were not answered by Shell. The Renaissance consortium would handle handling oil spills in the delta, which Shell has long said are largely caused by oil theft and pipeline interference, according to the announcement made in January when it launched the contract.

Vice chairman of ND Western, one of the five businesses in the Renaissance consortium, Layi Fatona, told journalists that the grouping will abide by the laws of the nation, but she would not comment directly on the matter or how much it has planned for cleanup.

Before being given permission to leave, oil majors would have to demonstrate compliance with regulations on decommissioning, among other things, according to Gbenga Komolafe, the head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, who spoke with Reuters.

He did not mention Shell by name, and the regulator would not say if the oil firm or other businesses had followed the regulations. The administration has declared that it will not obstruct the Shell transaction.

The delta’s residents are also requesting that Shell compensate them for land damaged by past oil spills or restore the environment.

“We depend on farming and fishing, but now our lands and rivers have been destroyed. If they leave without healing the soil, how do we survive?,” says 61-year-old farmer Ayibakuro Warder, from the Ikarama community in Bayelsa State.

VenturesNow

IMF mission concludes 4th loan program assessment in Egypt

Published

2 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following the completion of a recent visit to Egypt, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that its mission had achieved significant strides in policy talks aimed at concluding the fourth review of the IMF loan program.

The review is the fourth in Egypt’s most recent 46-month IMF loan program, which was authorised in 2022 and increased to $8 billion this year following an economic crisis characterised by high inflation and chronic foreign exchange shortages. It may unleash more than $1.2 billion in financing.

Along with reaffirming its commitment to maintain a flexible exchange rate system, the IMF stated that Egypt “has implemented key reforms to preserve macroeconomic stability,” including the unification of the currency rate that facilitated imports.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Cairo has asked the IMF to modify the targets for the programme not only for this year, but for its full duration, he added without giving more details.

“Discussions will continue over the coming days to finalize agreement on the remaining policies and reforms that could support the completion of the fourth review,” the IMF added in its statement.

VenturesNow

Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.