Oil & Gas
Olu of Warri , Kings Good Hosts of Niger Delta Crude Oil Bearing Communities
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lee Engineering & Construction Limited, Dr. Leemon Ikpea, who has been a major player in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy for 46 years, has commended the good nature and behavior of some traditional rulers in the oil-bearing communities of Nigeria.
Singling out the Olu of Warri, Ogiamen Atuwase III, His Royal Majesty Pere Ayemi Botu and some Ovies in the Niger Delta Region of the country for their accommodation and cordial relations with oil companies operating in their communities.
Chief Ikpea, however, appealed to leaders and communities in the region, who are hostile to oil and gas companies in their domains to be more charitable and follow the good examples of the kings and people earlier mentioned saying, “Many Nigerians are very hardworking, they are equally very dedicated people, while majority of the Nigerian youths are ready to work, but if the work is not available and the environments where this work is available are hostile, it then becomes a problem, the country will invariably not prosper as expected.
That is why my advice to most communities where I find myself is to always tell them, that if they are lucky to find some people coming to invest and site their companies in their communities, the least that is expected of them is to cooperate with such company owners and the workers they bring to work in their communities. They are therefore to consider such an act as a rare blessing, which they should be grateful about. The Community leaders and the people should endeavor to work with such people to bring progress to their places. If this is done, the company’s management will be watching and noting developments in due course the company will be left with no other option than to give back to these host communities for all their assistance in helping them to grow.Sadly, in some communities in the Niger Delta Region, the hostility of the leaders and people in these communities usually prevents companies coming to set up in their areas because they don’t feel safe.
He continued, “I Chief Leemon Ikpea grew up in Warri. Warri in those good old days. While growing up in Warri as a young man, we had oil companies like MacDemond, alongside very many oil companies in Warri then. There were so many other activities going on in that City, but unfortunately, Warri unlike in the past is today an empty shadow of its old self. As we speak today, there is virtually nothing going on in Warri. For example, it is because I am a Warri boy, that is why I located my official base in Warri, just because I can’t run away from where, I grew up.
I must therefore seize this opportunity to thank His Royal Majesty, Ogiamen Atunwase III alongside other first class kings and Ovies in the Niger Delta Region for being such a wonderful host. I do have a very strong personal relationship with these kings. They have all been doing their very best to assist me and also help my outfits in their communities in doing their businesses effortlessly without any rift or rancur. This we are very grateful about. My appeal therefore, is for some leaders and communities in this same region to learn to co-operate with upcoming contractors trying to do business in their communities. My appeal is for them to cooperate with these young companies so that they also grow as we did. As most of the sponsors of these young companies are Nigerians they are not foreigners, even if they are foreigners, community leaders and their people need to learn to work with these people for them to grow and help develop their places. Nigerians want to give back to Nigerians and as such, it is unreasonable for Nigerians to be seen to be hostile to fellow Nigerians. Once we learn to show love to one another God’s blessings will surely follow.
On the Nigerian Senate investigating committee verdict, that commended him, for coming clean, not found wanting of any infractions in the N250 billion Naira Gas Expansion programme Fund Probe that was recently concluded, that gave a clean bill of health to Lee Engineering Company Limited, Chief Dr. Leemon Ikpea said, “My company and I, regard this verdict as a victory for the truth, integrity, industry and competence and an honour to all the genuine players in the Nigerian crude oil and gas industries. Dr. Ikpea in this exclusive interview, said, “I guess you know where we are coming from, as this is my 46 years in the Nigerian Crude oil and gas industry. We built the Warri Refinery in the early 70s, I was a Manager in that Refinery in 1984 when we were building the place. Not as a staff but as one of the major contractors that built that place. So, over the years, I have come to know and appreciate greatly what integrity is. I know what it is to be honest and hardworking. It is therefore usually very sad when some group of people for no justifiable reasons try to blackmail one, for selfish and malicious reasons, such an ungodly act gives one severe pains in the process.
He added, “Have you been to Lee Engineering facility in Warri? In that facility alone, we are taking care of more than four thousand people, multiply this number by three persons for example in a family, times this number that will give you on average about 12,000 people in one facility alone. I have over these years invested in this factory in Warri and I have spent more than over 100 million dollars in this place alone. At this point, we are at the completion stages of this particular factory. At some point in recent times, I discovered that we were short of funds. As expected I borrowed some money from my banks which is normal, as no business man or woman can survive without occasionally accessing some facilities from the banks. I therefore approached my banks and borrowed some money from them, I was therefore shocked and surprised when I saw an advertorial in the newspapers which included the name of Lee Engineering among the companies that allegedly borrowed money from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which was not true. If you must know the truth, I have never done anything in my entire life with the CBN and I honestly do not know anybody up till this day in the CBN. I was therefore shocked when the name of my company was included alongside companies that allegedly borrowed money from the CBN. So, the Nigerian Senate Committee headed by Senator Agom Jarigbe, invited my company alongside other companies accused of these infractions, about a week or so ago to Abuja, I went to the place with all my staff, it was at that particular meeting that I told the members of the Senate Committee investigating this matter, to endeavor to go to Warri and see for themselves our little efforts, what we have been doing over the years in Warri. The committee members truly went to our facility in Warri and they were amazed at what they saw on the ground. I was not there with them as I was already out of the country on some other assignments when they came visiting our facility, as I just returned back to the country from Qatar on Tuesday, the 5th of December 2023. I was told by my staff, who were on the ground to receive them, that they were highly impressed.
Dr. Ikpea further stressed, “It is human nature to see petty jealousy and attempt to blackmail people, who are minding their daily businesses and doing their jobs to the best of their ability.
Dr. Ikpea said, “As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely nothing for anybody to be jealous about me. Or an attempt to shoot me down, as at today that I am speaking with you, I have done my little beat at helping the people and communities where I operate to the best of my ability. As a way of giving back to the communities where I operate as part of my company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and as a way of thanking God, for his good gesture towards me, and to appreciate better the good God in his infinite wisdom has bestowed on me as Chief Leemon Ikpea, I have trained more than 50 doctorate degrees holders in various fields of endeavours. Most of these people I have never met in person and they are not my relatives or tribes men and women. Most of these people are already working. While two of these boys I trained are presently in the United States Marines corps serving the United States Government in whatever capacity they find themselves. Before taking up the responsibility of training these boys, who are today in the U.S. Marine Corps, I had never met them. I only saw their names on social media and that was how I took up the responsibility of training them. In the same spirit, I have again trained more than 200 students in various institutions across Nigeria. As we speak, so many people are enjoying my personal sponsorship and scholarships. Ditto for sick, fragile, and weak people especially elderly in the society. Men and women, who were in their sick beds at the point of death, which God used me to rescue and help to restore their health. Many of these people I sponsored their medical trips to India, Germany, London and the United State of America. As we speak and just recently, I paid for all the medical bills of an old man from Effurun Community in Delta State, he is presently in London taking treatment. This particular man was in the intensive care unit in a hospital in Port Harcourt when his people got in touch with me. These honestly are the things that give me immense joy as a person. I always want people to be happy through me, not unnecessary pettiness, jealousy and blackmail that some people get involved in that makes no meaning to me. This is why Chief Dr. Ikpea is different from most people.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Agom Jarigbe, who headed the Senate panel that oversee how the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention fund was disbursed and spent, in a personal letter dated, Tuesday, December 5th 2023, addressed to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Lee Engineering and Construction Limited, declared that the committee found Chief Ikpea and his company not to have committed any infraction as far as the subject matter was concerned. This same letter commended Chief Ikpea for his immense contributions to the growth of the oil and gas industry of the country. Saying that Chief Ikpea’s zeal and development efforts need to be emulated by other companies in Nigeria.
From Dan Amasingha, Minna.
Angry vehicle owners on Sunday staged a peaceful protest at the NNPC Mega Station along the Western Bypass in Minna, Niger State, over the alleged three-month shutdown of the facility’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) dispensing service.
The protesters, who accused the station’s management of failing to address the persistent shortage, said the development had frustrated the Federal Government’s initiative to promote CNG as a cheaper alternative to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.
They lamented that despite investing hundreds of thousands of naira and, in some cases, over ₦1 million to convert their vehicles to run on CNG, they had been unable to access the product in the state capital for months.
Findings indicated that a component of the station’s CNG dispensing equipment had reportedly developed a fault but had allegedly remained unrepaired, leaving motorists who rely on the alternative fuel with little choice but to return to the more expensive petrol.
The persistent outage, the protesters said, had not only undermined the economic benefits of converting their vehicles but had also imposed additional financial burdens on vehicle owners already grappling with rising transportation and fuel costs.
Speaking during the protest, one of the motorists, Engr. Israel Ogbonnaya, described the situation as discouraging, alleging that repeated visits to the station to obtain explanations from the management had yielded no meaningful response.
“It is so discouraging that for three months now, the CNG station at NNPC Minna has not functioned. Imagine that since January, some people did conversion and have not recovered their money,” he said.
Ogbonnaya expressed disappointment that motorists had allegedly received no satisfactory explanation regarding the prolonged breakdown.
“The CNG broke down, nobody has spoken to us. We have come here several times demanding answers from the management, and nobody is talking.
“So, for now, we want to bring the attention of Nigerians and those in authority to the situation in Minna.
CNG is the heartbeat of the President. He commissioned a committee to look into this scheme, and these people are taking us for granted,” he added.
Another protester, Mohammed Doko Saidu, questioned the rationale behind encouraging motorists to convert their vehicles to CNG without ensuring the availability of adequate dispensing facilities to meet demand.
Saidu disclosed that he had spent more than ₦1 million converting his vehicle, only to discover that the product was unavailable in Minna.
“The frustrating aspect of all is that I just installed CNG, spending over a million naira, without a single gas in Minna; hoping that it is going to be fixed today, it is going to be fixed tomorrow, and up till this moment, there is nothing.
“Nobody is saying anything. The station is just lying fallow. In short, I had to disconnect some of the cylinders installed in my car because there is no gas.
What kind of government are we in? It is frustrating,” he said.
The protesters called on the NNPC Mega Station’s management and other relevant stakeholders to urgently repair the faulty equipment and restore CNG supply to Minna.
They warned that failure to resolve the problem could trigger another protest involving a larger number of aggrieved motorists, including commercial tricycle operators who also depend on CNG to reduce their operating costs.
The motorists maintained that the prolonged unavailability of the product had defeated the purpose of the conversion programme, forcing them to bear the cost of installing CNG systems while continuing to spend more on petrol.
The development raises concerns among affected motorists over the reliability of CNG supply infrastructure and the need for prompt maintenance of facilities established to support the Federal Government’s alternative-fuel initiative.
Efforts to obtain comments from the manager of the NNPC Mega Station were unsuccessful as of press time, while attendants on duty declined to speak on behalf of the management.
From Sylvia Udegbunam Enugu
Governor of Enug State, Dr. Peter Mbah, has doubled down in his support for the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying it was undebatable and inconceivable for anyone to imagine a return to the old order.
Mbah spoke at the “Meet the Candidates” town hall meeting organised by Afia TV in Enugu on Wednesday, where he also said that his administration had delivered good governance to the people of the state across all sectors.
He described it as a pathetic misconception of the country’s situation and the direction it was headed for anyone to talk about the reintroduction of fuel subsidy.
“If you reintroduce fuel subsidy today, we will lose ten times whatever we are currently trying to gain in terms of the removal of subsidy. The poverty rate that you are going to experience will be very high because the naira would be automatically devalued.
“We cannot go back to subsidy. And I do not think it is in the interest of the country for us to even debate that.
“Again, we should not even debate it because we do not want to send a signal to prospective investors that we are contemplating it. That would take us back. It is going to create panic in the system. It is going to get investors to pull back.
“Those that are coming in today to invest in that sector will become jittery. So, it is not even a subject to debate. It is something that we have moved on from, and we should be thinking about how to ensure that the natural benefits cascade to the households, create jobs and generate wealth for our people,” he said.
He said the nation should focus on how to further encourage private capital to flow, noting the growth the nation had experienced in the stock exchange space.
He added that Tinubu’s policies had stabilised the macro indicators, thus encouraging foreign direct investment.
“You can see quite a lot of funds coming into our country, not just portfolio investments, but also direct investments. It is also going to strengthen because the macro indicators are right,” he stated.
Mbah maintained that whereas fuel subsidy removal enables the government to target the less privileged, fuel subsidy as earlier practised benefited the rich more.
“By the way, I do not think the subsidy we practised before the President removed it was even the right one for the country because even the people we were looking at benefiting from it were only insignificantly benefiting from it. It was largely beneficial to our wealthy folks.
“But now, you can almost notice that the government is doing that in targeting the poor, using proceeds from subsidy removal. The government is aggressive on cash transfers. There is also the programme where the government is targeting 1,000 persons per ward across the entire country to be able to provide seed capital for them to become productive,” he added.
Meanwhile, on his stewardship so far, Mbah said his administration had kept faith with the people of Enugu State, delivering good governance across all sectors in line with his campaign manifesto.
He said the people of the state only needed to imagine where the state was before his inauguration as governor and where it is currently headed.
“Let us imagine the Enugu we knew four years ago. Let us just imagine an Enugu without Hotel Presidential. Let us imagine an Enugu without the International Conference Centre. Let us imagine an Enugu without Enugu Air. Let us imagine Enugu without the transport terminals, the 268 Smart Green Schools, 260 Type 2 Primary Healthcare Centres.
“You do not want them to imagine an Enugu without the International Hospital. You do not want them to imagine an Enugu without the CNG buses, the Nigergas. I think the list is endless.
“But I even think that we can stretch that imagination further because the work ahead will be more profound. Just imagine an Enugu where our children are receiving education that prepares them for the world because they have been imbued with evolving 21st-century skills. Imagine again an Enugu where you do not have any part of the city with an unpaved road.
“Also, imagine an Enugu in four years’ time that generates 660 megawatts of electricity; where we are able to provide 24-hour power supply; where you cannot come into your house and have the light off; and where people can run their businesses for a whole week without worrying about the cost of diesel. Just imagine an Enugu where you generate electricity and the people of Enugu are buying that at 120 naira because they own the coal that feeds the power plant.
“Imagine an Enugu where you now have to ride, not just on our CNG buses, but you have the monorail that can take you from point A to point B. Imagine an Enugu where you can fly from here to the United Kingdom, to the United States and other parts of the world,” he charged the electorate.
He urged the people to keep faith with the journey of greatness, growth and development, defending the gains of his first term and guaranteeing the promises of his second term by working for his re-election.
“If these imaginations capture our fancy, then we have a duty to fight for it. We do have a duty to continue to make sure that the bar does not come down and that the standard we have set in Enugu is sustained,” he concluded.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has opened discussions with Indonesia on petroleum investments, with Indonesian national oil company Pertamina expressing interest in Nigeria’s 2026 Licensing Round.
The development followed a meeting between the NUPRC Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, Indonesia’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, and Toriq Abdat, Vice President, Upstream Business Development, Pertamina.
Head, Corporate Communications and Media, NUPRC, Eniola Akinkuotu, made this known in a statement on Sunday.
Nigeria and Indonesia shared similar priorities, including energy security, resource utilisation and investments into the sector as both countries seek to increase oil production, with Nigeria targeting three million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030.
Nigeria currently produces about 1.6 million to 1.7 million bpd, while Indonesia produces about 600,000 bpd and is also seeking to increase output.
Abdat said Pertamina had been mandated to expand its operations internationally and was exploring opportunities in countries including Malaysia, Iraq and Nigeria.
“In Indonesia, we are producing only around 600,000 barrels. We are working on exploration towards deepwater but we found more gas than oil.
“That is why we go outside Indonesia, Malaysia, then the Middle East, Iraq and Nigeria,” he said.
Abdat said Pertamina was seeking producing assets, projects nearing production or opportunities ahead of Final Investment Decision (FID).
He said the company was open to both competitive bidding and bilateral arrangements with governments.
“We would like to be in projects with governments, producing assets, near production or before FID.
“Now we are looking at how we can help you reach the three million, and also help us provide more energy for our own consumption,” Abdat said.
He expressed interest in opportunities beyond crude oil and natural gas, particularly in the fertiliser sector, adding that Pertamina was developing a fertiliser plant to reduce Indonesia’s dependence on supplies from the Middle East amid disruptions caused by global conflicts.
He linked food security to the oil and gas sector, noting the importance of phosphate and other elements used in fertiliser production.
Responding, Eyesan said Nigeria’s production target was ambitious, adding that the 2026 Licensing Round was one of the strategies being deployed to achieve it.
“We have very aggressive targets, three million barrels per day by 2030, and today we are at 1.6, 1.7.
“We are committed to the objective and the licensing round is one of the strategies we are utilising,” she said.
Eyesan said licensing rounds had become a recurring exercise in Nigeria rather than an occasional process, following their institutionalisation under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
She said the most recent commercial bid conference, held in July, featured 50 assets, with 37 awarded.
The NUPRC boss said Nigeria had also reviewed its fiscal terms in response to competition for the same pool of global investment capital.
She said the country had reduced entry barriers, including signature bonuses, to encourage investment in the upstream sector.
Nigeria, in turn, is diversifying its phosphate sources, including through a long-term transatlantic pipeline project with Morocco aimed at serving West Africa.
The meeting ended with both sides agreeing to sustain commercial and diplomatic engagements on potential areas of cooperation.(NAN)
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