For the first time in three months, Nigeria has witnessed an increase in its rig count having recorded 32 in April as against 31 recorded in the month of March, data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, have shown. This happened at a time the world rig count decreased by 90, as its April record showed 2,170, as against 2,260 witnessed in the previous month of March.

IBETO Cement Company Limited has announced its acquisition of Century Petroleum Corporation, a United States (U.S.) publicly traded petroleum exploration and production company.

The company said it acquired 70 per cent of Century Petroleum, resulting in the reverse merger of the cement manufacturer’s assets with the U.S. firm’s.

A reverse takeover or reverse merger takeover is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public.

South Africa’s economy shrank the most in nearly a decade as Jacob Zuma handed the reins of power to Cyril Ramaphosa, racking up the worst performance of the former president’s tenure.

Output slumped at mines, factories and farms in the first quarter, with overall gross domestic product dropped by an annualized 2.2 percent compared with the prior three months, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. That’s the biggest decline in nine years, much larger than economists forecast.

Bloomberg reports that Africa’s most-industrialized economy hasn’t grown at more than 2 percent a year since 2013 and is struggling to gain momentum despite political changes that bolstered investor confidence. Ramaphosa’s rise to power since December initially boosted sentiment and the rand following Zuma’s scandal-ridden tenure of almost nine years, but confidence indexes have now returned to levels they were at late last year as businesses seek real reforms.

With no definite date yet, MTN Nigeria is looking forward to raising the sum of $500 million, disposing of about 30% stake in the business by getting listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

And just recently, MTN Ghana launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to raise about $743 million for a 35% stake in the business unit.

It’s obvious that MTN Group is raising more money from its IPO in Ghana than that of Nigeria’s despite the fact that the latter has a significantly higher subscriber base.

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday adjourned until October 9, the crude oil shipment suit brought by the federal government against Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd.

The adjournment followed the absence of the trial judge, Mojisola Olatoregun, during proceedings on Tuesday.

The suit was filed by the federal government's counsel,Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nig. Ltd and its subsidiary, Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd. were joined as co-defendants.

The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) has directed the full recovery of N9bn into the treasury of the Federal Government from Capital Oil and Gas Limited.

The money is the balance of the N11bn worth of petroleum products, which allegedly disappeared from Capital Oil and Gas storage tanks in 2017.

The products were alleged to have been stored by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the private firm’s tanks under its various throughput arrangements with tank farm owners.

President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration had spent $9bn (N2.745tn at the official exchange rate of N305 to $1) on power, roads and railways in the country in the last two years. The President made these remarks at the 61st meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and Commission for Africa in Abuja.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has paid over N24bn to gas suppliers and released another fund to electricity distribution companies (DisCos) for the purchase of 704,928 electricity meters. The apex bank said it also purchased and installed over 500 transformers to enhance the distribution networks, and over 2,000km of 11kV lines and 130km of 0.45kV lines were rehabilitated.

The Nigerian Naira, on Monday, June 4, maintained its healthy run against the United States of America Dollar at the parallel segment of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market. At the end of trading for Monday, the Nigerian currency exchanged at the rate of N363 against the greenback at the black market.

Members of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, on Sunday gave a 21-day ultimatum to employers in the Nigerian oil and gas sector to address workers’ welfare or witness a total shutdown. The President of the Union, Williams Akporeha who stated this at a news conference in Lagos explained that over 500 union members had not been paid after working for some international oil companies.