The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has announced an annual preventive maintenance of its 330/132 Kilo Volt (kV) at Ajaokuta Transmission Substation.

It said that the maintenance was scheduled to take place on Tuesday from 9am to 4pm.

The management of the company announced this on its X handle in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to TCN, the exercise will enable its crew to carry out preventive maintenance on the 162 MegaVolt Ampree (MVA), 330/132kV power transformer, associated switchgear and ancillary equipment in the substation.

It said that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) would be unable to off-take electricity to its customers in Ekirin, Omuo, Ibillo, Akoko, Ogala, Ikare, Magongo, Okene Town, Ayere, Kabba and environs during the period.

”Similarly, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) will be unable to off-take electricity to its customers in Okpella Town, BUA Cement Company, West African Fertiliser Company, Dibeks Milling Company, and Edestein Company.

”Other areas to be affected include the Freedom Group Company, Ososo, Uluoke, Iyora, Apana, Okpekpe, Arigidi, Ikare Town, Lampese, Igara, Oka and environs,” it said.

The company said that power supply would be restored to the affected areas upon completion of the exercise.

It also apologised for the inconvenience the planned maintenance would cause affected electricity customers, and appreciated their understanding and cooperation.(NAN)

The Abia Government has elevated selected cultural and natural sites to state heritage and monuments as part of efforts to position them for recognition as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, said this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting on Monday in Umuahia.

Kanu said the State Executive Council had approved the declaration of selected heritage and natural sites as state heritage and monuments to strengthen their preservation and promotion.

He said the approved sites included the National War Museum, Ojukwu Bunker and Government College, all in Umuahia, as state monuments.

He also listed the Ibom Waterfall in Arochukwu and Ulochukwu Caves at Alayi Bende as state natural monuments.

According to him, the elevation of the sites would enhance their tourism potential and position them for possible recognition as UNESCO heritage sites.

Kanu also announced the designation of Aba as a Creative and Innovative City, saying the move was part of efforts to promote the state’s cultural, creative and tourism potential.

He further said that the retrofitting of the Ojukwu Bunker and National War Museum had reached about 80 per cent completion and was expected to be completed before the end of 2026.

The commissioner said that the projects, when completed, would enhance the preservation and historical value of the sites, improve visitor experience and increase their tourism potential.

Kanu said the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy had commenced the development of the Ibom Waterfall Tourism Corridor in Arochukwu.

He said that initial development works, including the grading of access roads to the waterfall, had commenced, adding that the project was expected to be completed before the end of 2026.

According to him, the project is expected to unlock additional tourism and economic opportunities in the state.

He said that the ministry had also commenced the erection of monuments at strategic locations across the state to preserve Abia’s heritage and honour its heroes and heroines.

Kanu said one of the monuments would honour the heroines of the 1929 Aba Women’s Uprising, celebrating their courage, resilience, resistance and leadership.

The commissioner said that the initiatives reflected the state government’s broader efforts to preserve its historical and cultural assets while using them to drive tourism and economic development.

On tax rates in the state, Kanu said the rates being circulated were not new, adding that most dated back to 2020 and were introduced by the previous administration.

He said that the Abia Board of Internal Revenue could not increase tax rates without enabling laws and that no such increase had been introduced by the board.

Kanu also dismissed reports that an akara seller was paying N50, 000 in tax, describing the claim as false.

“Akara sellers don’t pay tax or levies, they pay daily tolls, and none can pay as high as N50, 000,” he said.

On gratuity payments, Kanu said that the state government had paid the batch covering 2001 to 2010, while preparations covering 2011 to 2025 were being processed.

He dismissed claims that the government was compelled by the opposition to commence gratuity payments, describing the narrative as misleading.

He explained that the government had incorporated gratuity provisions into its 2026 to 2030 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework to ensure that future arrears did not accumulate.

“This does not translate to the payments being terminated in 2031.

“So, as soon as the internal processes are done with, these payments will continue at pace and in batches,” Kanu said.(NAN)

The Federal Government is firming an initiative that will boost oil and gas swap plan, embedded with a regulator-mandated netting mechanism, the first of its kind around the world, to enable refiners to bring down refining costs.

The finer details of this complicated swap mechanism, pitched forward by the present administration, are being worked out by the various stakeholders

The spur is volatility in retail petrol prices, which have rocketed more than sixfold since President Bola Tinubu terminated decades-old fuel subsidies on his inauguration day in May 2023, and the promise the move holds for the affordability of the product, and other fuels.

Retail petrol has been defenceless against external pressures that have driven it to extreme price levels in Nigeria, since the US-Iran war started in February, up by 22.7 per cent.

This has continued to weigh on consumer budgets so profoundly that regulators are now stepping up consultations more tenaciously to introduce reforms to ease the pressure on businesses and households.

In August, the idea of a crude oil and gas swap system that pairs domestic producers up with refineries with a view to compressing input costs and delivery time was discussed at a meeting between the midstream sector’s top watchdog and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in Abuja.

The structure is in the works. The proposal is currently engaging other players, with Eyesan noting that discussions on the crude oil component of the swap are still rudimentary.

The operational asset-exchange framework of the swap allows two distant producers, who are close to each other’s delivery points (refineries in this case), to switch volumes.

This gives them ample room to leverage the proximity of their bases to such destinations to save the massive logistics expenses involved in shipping crude across the supply chain.

The volume differences, quality API differentials, as well as delivery margins, are then netted off at a proposed commercial clearing house.

At the time, 27 of the 63 companies producing gas in the country had approved quotas to supply the market. However, just 23 of them were actively doing so.

The gas swap framework, on that score, permits operators unable to evacuate their gas for certain technical constraints to get a leg-up from counterparts with the facilities to supply the gas where it is needed.

It raises hope that the savings on logistics the swap is out to guarantee will directly impact the pump price of locally sold petrol, should the plan fly.

The scheme advances to the drafting stage, once consultation is over, where the energy sector’s technical committees will compose the credit-settlement laws, commercial netting-off guidelines and grade quality valuation standards, setting it up for adoption.

Implementation, if reasonably successful, might institutionalise a model from which oil-producing nations, especially those battling spikes in fuel costs internally, could borrow a leaf.

The netting-off feature of the scheme uniquely endows it with a luxury, which similar swap structures in other markets don’t offer.

Under the US crude location/quality swaps, which come closest, midstream operators can exchange cargoes of crude through clearing houses like ICE to avoid physical pipeline backhauls, based on mutual agreements between parties. However, regulation does not obligate such deals.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the continent’s largest, based in Lagos, added to the urgency to tame soaring refining costs recently when it revealed that involvement of middlemen raises feedstock costs by USD 3 to USD 4 per barrel in Nigeria.

That is so because crude pricing under Nigeria’s petroleum industry law is tied to Free-on-Board Dated Brent. Producers often claim that not factoring in international freight differentials while selling oil to the home market puts them at a disadvantage, unlike if it is exported.

Much as that is a regulation-backed practice, it unfairly leaves local refiners bearing a cost they are not actually liable for.

Beyond stretching logistics spending for refiners, the pass-on effect of the extra cost on fuel prices complicates affordability for consumers.

The refinery holds the biggest slice of the domestic fuel market, accounting for 87.6 per cent of petrol supply in May, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

That affirms the overpowering implications a slight rise in the refining expenses of a refinery of that scale can have on the majority of Nigeria’s 242.4 million population, the continent’s largest.

The global costs of processing crude feedstock into finished products are accelerating to unprecedented levels across regions, due to a refining shortfall.

A note by Goldman Sachs, cited by Bloomberg in a report on August 31, suggested that the trouble has been compounded by attacks on refineries in the Middle East and Russia that are driving margins to new highs.

Russia had, in the last week of July, elongated its ban on petrol and diesel exports until January of the year ahead, making the global fuel market tighter.

Diesel is projected to be the worst-hit, with the New York-based investment bank anticipating the refining margins to reach $63 per barrel in the US and an average of USD 49 in the EU in 2027.

It marks a 133.3 per cent surge for US refiners and 157.9 per cent for their EU peers from previous forecasts.

As of August 26, the daily time rates of chartering a tanker from the Middle East to China had surpassed USD 600,000, the second time in history that has happened, Reuters stated, citing LSEG data, pressuring refining costs.

In India, a shortage of physical oil supply is pointing refiners to the expensive spot market as traders request premiums of USD 3 to USD 4 per barrel amid a narrow supply condition that shows no signal of improving soon.

The risk factor of transporting cargoes through troubled maritime routes is giving traders grounds to price crude higher.

Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, the largest in South America, reported in its half-year 2026 corporate results that average refining cost rose 15.1 per cent to USD 3.21 per barrel, compared to a year ago.