Oil drilling starts in Nigeria by government ownded company

Nigeria's state-owned NNPC Ltd on Tuesday started drilling for oil and gas at a field in northern Nigeria that has reserves of 1 billion barrels, as the country seeks to produce crude outside the Niger Delta for the first time.

NNPC said in a statement that phase one of the Kolmani project in the northeast would have an oil refinery, gas processing unit, 300-megawatt power plant and fertilizer plant producing 2,500 tonnes a day.

NNPC Ltd first announced in 2019 the discovery of crude oil, gas and condensate in commercial quantity in the Kolmani area between Bauchi and Gombe states in northeastern Nigeria, a region that is battling an Islamist insurgency.

President Muhammadu Buhari said Kolmani had 1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion cubic feet of gas.

No oil major is involved in the project being developed by NNPC, local firm Sterling Global Oil and New Nigeria Development Commission, a conglomerate owned by 19 northern states.


"It is therefore to the credit of this administration that at a time when there is near zero appetite for investment in fossil energy, coupled with the location challenges, we are able attract investment of over $3 billion to this project," Buhari said at a ceremony to start the oil project.

Nigeria has for years been searching for oil in frontier basins in the largely poor north of the country, including the Lake Chad Basin, the heartland of the Islamist insurgency.

Buhari urged NNPC and its partners to work with local communities and draw lessons from the restive Niger Delta, where militants have in the past blown up pipelines, accusing oil companies of neglecting locals.

Oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta more than six decades ago.

Oil majors in Nigeria are divesting from onshore to focus on offshore drilling due to increasing insecurity and oil theft, which have led to a decline in production and caused Nigeria to lose its status as Africa's top oil producer.

Reuters, by Felix Onuah

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Gunmen abduct more than 100 in Nigeria's Zamfara state

More than 100 people, including women and children were abducted when gunmen raided four villages in Nigeria's northeastern Zamfara state on Sunday, the information commissioner and residents said on Monday.

Kidnapping has become endemic in northwest Nigeria as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from villages, highways and farms and demand ransom money from their relatives.

More than 40 people were abducted from Kanwa village in Zurmi local government area of Zamfara, Zamfara information commissioner Ibrahim Dosara and one local resident said.

Another 37, mostly women and children were taken in Kwabre community in the same local government area, the resident added, declining to be named for security reasons.

"Right now Kanwa village is deserted, the bandits divided themselves into two groups and attacked the community. They kidnapped children aged between 14 to 16 years and women," the Kanwa village resident said.

In Yankaba and Gidan Goga communities of Maradun Local government area, at least 38 people were kidnapped while working on their farms, residents said.

Information commissioner Dosara accused the gunmen of using abductees as human shields against air raids from the military.

Reuters, by Garba Muhammad

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Portugal Beat Nigeria 4-0 in International Friendly

Bruno Fernandes scored twice in the first half and debutant Goncalo Ramos and Joao Mario added late goals as Portugal crushed Nigeria 4-0 in a World Cup warm-up in Lisbon on Thursday.

Missing Cristiano Ronaldo due to a stomach bug, his Manchester United team mate Fernandes led a strong Portugal side in their last match before travelling to Doha on Friday.

The only surprise was the debut of 19-year-old Benfica defender Antonio Silva, who started ahead of Pepe as the veteran works his way back from a long injury layoff.

Roared on by a sold-out Alvalade stadium, Fernandes seized the first chance he had in the ninth minute when Joao Felix found Diogo Dalot and he teed up Fernandes to tap into an empty net.

Portugal doubled their lead through Fernandes from the penalty spot in the 35th minute after a Bernardo Silva cross struck the hand of defender Bright Osayi-Samuel.

Fernandes calmly converted the spot-kick to complete only the third brace for Portugal.

"The perfection didn't exist or at least it is very hard to accomplish, but we made a great game, dominating every level," Fernandes told Sport TV.

"It was a win that give us great confidence ahead of our debut against Ghana.

"We are a team, it is not about individuals and we have a great group, young players that are up and coming and hungry. We are ready to the World Cup."

Coach Fernando Santos made six substitutions in the second half and Ramos scored Portugal's third immediately after Portugal goalkeeper saved a penalty from Emmanuel Dennis after the VAR spotted Dalot's foul in the 81st minute.

Ramos took a short pass from Raphael Guerreiro in his stride and unleashed a powerful shot low into the middle of the goal.

Joao Mario closed out the victory with a strike into the bottom corner to the delight of around 45,000 fans in the stadium.

Portugal are in World Cup Group H with Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea.

Reuters, by Fernando Kallas

Nigerian artist creates art with oil kegs in effort to reduce waste

Growing up, Nigerian artist Oluwajuwonlo Adeyemi saw her mother discard large plastic kegs of cooking oil she used for her catering business in Lagos.

Distraught at the thought of adding waste to sprawling dumpsites in a city where only a small fraction of rubbish is recycled, Adeyemi turned them into faces that have become a trademark of the artwork.

She cuts off the top of the keg and paints it, using the handle as a long nose and the round screw-top opening as a mouth.

The colourful masks then become the heads of the protagonists in her paintings, on which she uses materials such as fabric and string to add texture and dimensions.

"Instead of me just painting the face, I wanted something that I can feel, something that can look real... that will look real to others," Adeyemi told Reuters in her studio.

The 20-year-old marketing student has exhibited twice in Lagos. Some of her pieces have sold for over $1000, she said.

Through her work, Adeyemi also hopes drawing attention to her mother's discarded oil kegs will raise awareness about waste reduction.

"Whenever she is throwing them away, it affects us and it pollutes our environment," she said, noting that re-using the kegs was a way of "stopping the pollution".

Reuters, by Seun Sanni

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26 men charged in suspected crude theft from oil tanker

A Nigerian court has charged 26 men with conspiracy to commit a maritime offence and attempting to illegally deal in crude oil after authorities accused their supertanker of sailing in Nigerian waters without authority.

The captain is an Indian national while the crew members are from Poland, India, Sri-Lanka and Pakistan, court papers showed.

At the request of Nigerian authorities, Equatorial Guinea detained the Heroic Idun, a vessel capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, on Aug. 17 for sailing without an identifying flag, fleeing from the Nigerian navy and sailing in Equatorial Guinean waters without prior authorization.

The 26 men, including the captain, appeared in a High Court in the Nigerian Rivers state capital Port Harcourt on Monday and Tuesday and the judge ordered them to be detained on their ship under the guard of the Nigerian navy.

The men, who all denied the charges, were accused of having "attempted to deal with crude oil within the Nigeria Exclusive Economic zone without lawful authority".

Nigeria said the vessel had not loaded any oil before the navy approached it, but said the ship made a false claim of a piracy attack, entered a restricted area without authorization and attempted to load crude oil illegally.

Oil theft has taken more than 400,000 barrels per day from Nigeria's oil output, hit state finances and knocked it from Africa's top exporter to number two, the state oil firm says.

Reuters, by Tife Owolabi

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