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GAS FLARING AND CLIMATE CHANGE
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¶4. (C) Pickard said the PIB requires an end to gas flaring by 2010. She said the industry won’t be able to do that due to the lack of investment and security. Shell is ahead of the other IOCs and could be ready by 2011. Shell would have to spend $4 billion to do this, but the GON would also have to fund its part and that is a risk. Shell would shut in oil production in fields where it is uneconomic to end gas flaring, and it would let others have the gas for free where it is economic to do so.
¶5. (C) Pickard continued that NNPC General Managing Director Dr. Mohammed Barkindo was interested in doing something on climate change in preparation for the climate change summit in Copenhagen December 6-18. Barkindo was spread pretty thin so Shell will ask him how they can help him prepare for the summit. She added that Shell had recently told the oil producing countries that coal will squeeze out oil as a result of the CO2 footprint issue if the oil producing
countries and IOCs do not do more to address the issue.
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HOPES THAT OIL NATIONALISM CAN BE TEMPERED
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Natuurlijk is er geen reden voor landen om al hun olie te verkopen. Nederland verkoopt ook niet al het gas, omdat het een belangrijke bron is van onze welvaart. Dat heet echter ‘Oil Nationalisme’.
¶8. (C) The Ambassador asked how comfortable Shell was with the new appointment of Dr. Rilwanu Lukman as Minister of Petroleum Resources, and the appointment of Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo as the new NNPC GMD. Pickard sees the nationalism card cooling with the removal of former NNPC GMD Yar’Adua, given that new Minister of Petroleum Lukman is more "pragmatic" and will hold sway over deputy Minister Ajumogobia. (Note: Ajumogobia’s technical assistant told EconOff in a meeting on January 14, 2009 that the State Minister was focusing on Gas, since before the mass cabinet change he was State Minster of Petroleum, with a separate State Minster for Gas.) End Note. She said she was also okay with NNPC chief Barkindo. She has worked with Barkindo several times over the past few decades, especially when they were both working climate change. She said Barkindo led Nigeria’s technical delegation to climate change negotiations that produced the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto protocol to UNFCCC during while he served on its Bureau at various times. She indicated that although his undergraduate studies were in political science, he obtained his MBA from Southeastern University in Washington DC and did postgraduate work in petroleum economics and management at Oxford University. Although she also said terms like nationalistic and Chavez she however said that she thought he could be steered in the right direction on the petroleum sector.
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COMMENT
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Shell had in 2006 een inkomen van 3 miljoen dollar per uur, natuurlijk door de olie winning in Nigeria. Het afromen van die winst heet corruptie, maar men kan zich afvragen of een boer corrupt is als hij een deel van de productie opeist die je op zijn land behaalt. Energie is geld, en dat maakt het soms moeilijk om beweringen over de kosten van energie, corruptie en winst naar waarde te schatten.
¶9. (C) Although Pickard clearly seems frustrated with the way things are going in the maritime security, oil sector legislation, and corruption which affects Shell’s bottom line, it was useful to hear that she has hopes for the new Petroleum Minister and NNPC chief. Septel on the Ambassador’s meeting with new Petroleum Minister Lukman will address many of these same issues.