Oil & Energy
Olomu Honours Four Officers For Exceptional Performance
The Customs Area Controller, Apapa Premier Port Command, Comptroller Babatunde Olomu, last Friday presented letters of commendation to four officers of the command for their exceptional performances at their various duty posts, and contributing to the overall revenue generation of the service.
The commendation letters to the four officers were personally signed by the Zonal Coordinator Zone A, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Saidu Yusuf.
The officers effected are: Deputy Comptroller Atuluku Salamatu, the DC, Scanning of the Command; Chief Superintendent of Customs Dikko .A.; AIC Ebenebe. A; and AIC Abdullahi .M.
Speaking on the performance of the officers, Compt Olomu said “This morning, the Command was blessed with four mails that came from the Zonal Coordinator’s office, and when I checked, they were personally signed by him.
“You recall that the last parade that we had, there were four officers of the Command that we singled out for recognition, for their exceptional performance within the course of the month.
“The first among them is Deputy Comptroller Atuluku Salamatu, the DC, Scanning, who we are commending for her exceptional and remarkable performance within the Command.
“The citation of her has it that the Command has the highest number of interventions coming from the Scanning unit, and these were quite remarkable, and they were all paid back.
For this, the Zonal Coordinator deems it fit to commend her”.
Speaking on behalf of the recipients, Deputy Comptroller Atuluku Salamatu said the officers feel excited and overwhelmed by the recognition.
“To whom much is given, much is expected, this is an opportunity for us to do more where we are coming from.
“Most of my interventions come from concealment, and wrong classifications. My message to the trading community and the stakeholders, is for them to do honest declaration. By doing so, the NIgeria Customs Service would be able to generate their maximum revenue.
“So, I advise the stakeholders who are in the frontlines to do honest declaration in order for us to earn our revenue. Without honest declaration, the Nigeria Customs Service, we have our eagle eyes, and that is what we would use to discover the infractions”, she warned.
By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominc, Lagos
The Federal Government and key Petroleum Products marketers have proposed new measures to help curb rising cases of road accidents involving petrol tankers.
This followed recent incidents of road accidents resulting in cremation of hundreds of lives and causing extensive damage to properties.
Speaking at the Discourse organised by Mejor Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) in Lagos, Thursday, with the theme “Improving Safe Transportation of Petroleum Products”, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, noted with dismay the number of casualties the country recorded recently due to tanker accidents.
Lokpobiri stressed the need for an enhanced training for tanker drivers, installation of detection leak devices as well as other safety systems that can assist drivers.
He called on Marketers and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to strengthen collaboration with stakeholders, especially in the training of tanker drivers.
On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpo Ekpo, reaffirmed government’s commitment to providing enabling environment to ensure safety of petroleum products transportation.
Ekpo, who was represented by Engr. Abel, said consideration should be given to more safety means of transporting products like the pipelines and railway line.
He stressed the need for better training for drivers and implementation of safety regulations within the industry.
Earlier, Chairman, MEMAN, Huub Stokman, said the Association has elaborate training manual for members truck drivers.
Stokman insisted that more training programmes and consistent adherence to safety measures would help to curb road accidents involving tanker drivers.
Also speaking, the National President, Nigerian Association of Raod Transport Owners (NARTO), Yusuf Lawal Othman, called for support.
The Chairman, National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim, has said that the production of coal bed methane, an unconventional form of natural gas extracted from coal, is set to begin in Benue State.
Prof. Ibrahim staed this while addressing newsmen at the end of a joint meeting of the National and State gas expansion committees with Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia.
He said the Federal Government is committed to expanding gas availability in Nigeria for domestic use and mobility.
Ibrahim added that extracting gas from unconventional coal sources rather than traditional hydrocarbon reserves is a way to boost gas availability.
“Essentially there are four areas of implementation that the committee has identified. One is to pioneer the production of gas from what you call coal bed methane, which means that Benue is going to pioneer in the country the production of gas not from conventional hydrocarbon, but from non-conventional coal just so that the nation will have an alternative source to gas availability”, he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Benue State Gas Expansion Programme, Dr. Emmanuel Chenge, said the gas expansion initiative would contribute to the economic transformation of Benue State.
“The good news is that Benue is set to join the league of gas-producing states and if we are conversant with what being a member of the gas-producing state is, it shows that Benue State will start getting derivatives from that sector of the economy”, Dr Chenge stated.
The National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was established to boost the exploration and utilisation of gas in Nigeria and make Nigeria a gas-based industrial nation by increasing the use of gas for transportation, cooking, and industrialization.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has said there was no explosion at the newly refurbished Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC).
NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, made this known in a statement issued on Friday night.
Soneye said reports claiming that there was an explosion at the Warri refinery were false and should be ignored and disregarded by the public.
According to him, the refinery was undergoing routine maintenance.
His statement read, “NNPC Ltd. wishes to clarify that there was no explosion at the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC). Any reports suggesting otherwise are completely false.
“On January 25, 2025, operations at WRPC Area 1 were intentionally curtailed to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations.
“These intervention works are essential to ensure the production of on-specification finished and intermediate products, particularly Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Kerosene (Kero).
“The routine maintenance is progressing as planned, and Area 1 will be back in operation within the next few days.
“Despite ongoing interventions, over the past 11 days, AGO loading has been maintained at an average of eight trucks per day, with a sufficient supply available to sustain ongoing truck load-out operations”.
Soneye added that the NNPCL was committed to ensuring an uninterrupted supply of petroleum products from the refinery.
He said the company “appreciates the patience and cooperation of all stakeholders as it completes these essential maintenance activities”.