THE Senate Committee on Upstream Petroleum has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, of undermining the Senate's work on the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and circulating fake copies of the bill.

Beijing's Foreign Ministry officials are energetically distancing themselves from a US$7 billion minerals deal announced on 9 October by the increasingly isolated military regime in Guinea with the Hong-Kong based China International Fund. Without some fast diplomatic footwork, China could

Militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, expressed cautious optimism, yesterday, after a meeting between its leader, Henry Okah and President Umaru Yar'Adua.

The Federal Government has moved swiftly to allay the fears of International Oil Companies (IOCs) over its plan to allocate 10 per cent of its joint venture businesses to oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may soon honor Nigeria's quest for increased production quota as output from the country continues to improve.

Preparations on ground strongly show that the much expected and controversial commercial deregulation of the Nigerian petroleum market may come under full implementation by November.

THE Ijaw Council of Chiefs, led by the Pere of Lagos (Izon Bulodaowei), has expressed optimism that the amnesty granted to militants in the creeks of Niger Delta will guarantee lasting peace.

THE Government has commenced investigations to establish the continued shortage of fuel in Lusaka and other parts of the country even after offloading sufficient stocks on the market.

THE current fuel shortage in many parts of Zambia has no doubt negatively affected daily routines at different levels.

The government is injecting Shs14 billion in the power sector to stabilise electricity tariffs that were set to rise on the backdrop of double-digit inflation and heating international oil prices.

ESKOM's role in introducing independent power producers (IPP) should be reduced to a minimum, says Eskom chairman Bobby Godsell.

A constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, has said deregulation without any law authorizing same was unconstitutional, null and void .

Akwa Ibom State government has pledged to commit $33 million to gas production as part of efforts to boost the availability of the product in the state.

A coalition of labour unions and civil society organisations led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) announced yesterday that it would stage a protest rally in Abuja on October 29, 2009 to protest government's moves

President Umar Yar'Adua has approved a new schedule of responsibilities for the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Rilwanu Lukman and the Minister of State in the ministry, Odein Ajumogobia.

ALTHOUGH the federal government is uncertain on its planned total deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, labour leaders and their allies in the civil society groups are not taking chances. They have begun massive mobilisation of Nigerians

OBOTEBE kingdom, an Ijaw oil- producing clan in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, has threatened to severe relationship with the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) for supposedly declining to accord deserved recognition to its communities, as owners of

Alhaji Fusheini Adams, Information and Resource Coordinator of the Parliamentary Centre, a non-governmental organization (NGO), on Tuesday said legislations and watchdog roles of Member of Parliament (MPs) and journalists could bring about transparency and accountability in the industry.

The Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) and Dowans electricity plants, currently lying idle in Dar es Salaam, should be switched on immediately, the business community and private sector have advised.

A HARARE petroleum firm has won a provisional order at the High Court compelling Government to release nearly 500 000 litres of diesel it had impounded at Beitbridge Border Post last month on allegations that the fuel was "substandard" for