News
SNEPCo’s Bonga Hits 800m Barrels Mark

In 13 years of deep-water exploration, the Bonga vessel of the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) has produced over 800 million barrels of crude oil, confirming the company as a pacesetter in offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Guinea.
In its review of the performance of the Bonga Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for 2018, Bayo Ojulari, SNEPCo’s managing director, expressed satisfaction with the consistent availability and optimal performance of the vessel which began operation at the Bonga field in OML 118 in 2005 under a production sharing contract with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence on all fronts, and this we have consistently demonstrated with the management of Bonga to the satisfaction of our government and co-venture partners,” Ojulari said in Lagos on Monday.
“We leverage the Shell group’s global expertise in technology and new advancements in the industry to continue to unlock Bonga’s huge potential, one such example was the completion and inauguration of the Bonga North West Cross Over module in 2014, a first in the history of Shell which launched the beginning of a new phase delivering the reservoirs proven volumes and maintaining production of the FPSO at full capacity,” the SNEPCo MD added.
According to Ojulari, SNEPCo, with the support of NNPC and the co-venture partners – Total E & P, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, and ExxonMobil – has also done so much for Nigeria and Nigerians in its years of operations in revenue and taxes accruable to the government, and social investments in education, sports and health across the country.
In the last three years, SNEPCo has spent over $3million yearly in scholarships and other intervention in schools across Nigeria including the popular NNPC/SNEPCo Cradle-to-Career scholarships for the six years of secondary school for children from rural areas. The scholarships with over 375 beneficiaries since its commencement in 2014, cover tuition, boarding and maintenance allowances in leading schools in select Nigerian cities.
Ojulari said, “Our health and education programmes are aimed at improving healthcare; bridging the educational opportunity gap between urban and rural school populations; providing educational grants; improving ICT education; and supporting displaced persons.”
Elohor Aiboni, Bonga Asset Operations Manager, described the FPSO as a jewel noting however that SNEPCo’s achievements did not come without their challenges. “We overcome our challenges with the ingenuity and integrated delivery approach of our staff who work together every day to deliver one of the best assets in the world. “I’m proud to say that over 95 percent of SNEPCo’s staff are Nigerians and they have distinguished themselves as some of the best in the industry within and outside Nigeria.”
SNEPCo’s resounding performance, Aiboni said, had been delivered with zero fatality since first oil. “In 2016 the team also won the Shell CEO HSE Award for disciplined and focused safety culture.”
In recognition of its pioneering initiatives in Nigeria, SNEPCo was in early 2018 honoured as the best Nigerian oil and gas company in technology and innovation at the maiden edition of the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) held in Abuja for pioneering in-country Subsea Tree Refurbishment, a remarkable feat in local capacity potential which resulted in significant savings. This was the first time in the Nigerian oil and gas industry that a Subsea Tree was fully stripped down and refurbished locally with all its original functionality restored.
The Bonga field increased Nigeria’s oil production by 10% when output began in 2005 and has since stimulated the growth of support industries in addition to helping to create the first generation of Nigerian oil and gas engineers with deep-water experience. The FPSO has potential to produce 225,000 barrels of crude oil and 210 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The FPSO vessel’s capacity was upgraded in recent years, allowing SNEPCo to expand the field with further drilling of wells in Bonga Phases 2 and 3 and through a subsea tie-back that unlocked the nearby Bonga North West field in August 2014.
Bonga North West is capable of producing approximately 65,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and was named Engineering Project of the Year 2015 at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards in New York.
News
Toll Collection on Lagos-Calabar Highway Begins December

Senator David Umahi, the Minister of Works, has announced that a section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be tolled starting in December.
Umahi disclosed this during an interview for a forthcoming State House documentary marking the second anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
He said: “By December, we will toll Section 1 of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. We project a 10-year return on investment.
“The road has solar-powered lighting and CCTV infrastructure, and offers carbon credit advantages.
“It is more than a road; it is an economic corridor and a catalyst for regional growth.”
According to the minister, 30 kilometres of Section 1 have already been completed, with an additional 10 kilometres in Section 2 nearing delivery. Both segments feature six-lane concrete-paved carriageways, designed to meet modern standards for safety and durability.
Umahi further revealed that construction had commenced on Sections 3 and 3B of the highway, spanning a total of 65 kilometres, covering 38 kilometres in Cross River State and 27 kilometres in Akwa Ibom.
He described the positive response from local communities as a clear indication of the project’s wide-reaching socioeconomic benefits.
“Just days ago, we flagged off Sections 3 and 3B—65 kilometres in total, covering 38 kilometres in Cross River State and 27 kilometres in Akwa Ibom. The host communities’ excitement speaks to these projects’ transformative impact,” he said.
Umahi also highlighted the administration’s renewed focus on the Sokoto-Badagry superhighway, which he noted was part of a broader vision dating back to colonial-era trade plans.
“The Trans-Saharan trade route dates back to colonial-era planning. President Tinubu is now bringing these long-abandoned visions to life,” the minister explained.
News
Kaspersky Uncovers Dero Crypto Miner Spreading via Exposed Container Environments

Kaspersky Security Services experts have identified a sophisticated cyberattack campaign targeting containerized environments to deploy a miner for the Dero cryptocurrency.
The attackers abuse exposed Docker APIs — parts of Docker, an open-source container development platform. In 2025, there are a significant number of Docker API default ports that are insecurely published, accounting for almost 500 occurrences worldwide on average each month.
In the discovered campaign, cybercriminals inject two types of malwares into the compromised systems: one is the miner itself and the other is a propagation malware that can spread the campaign to other insecure container networks.
Kaspersky experts discovered this malicious campaign as part of a compromise assessment project. According to expert estimates, any organisation that operates containerized infrastructure — while exposing Docker APIs without robust security controls — can be a potential target. These may include technology companies, software development firms, hosting providers, cloud service providers and more enterprises.
According to Shodan, in 2025, there are 485 published Docker API default ports¹ worldwide each month on average. This figure illustrates the campaign’s potential attack surface by tallying the “entry points” — or insecurely exposed ports that attackers might target.
Once attackers identify an insecurely published Docker API, they either compromise existing containers or create new malicious ones based on a legitimate standard Ubuntu image. They then inject two malware types into the compromised containers: “nginx” and “cloud”.
The latter is a Dero cryptocurrency miner, while “nginx” is a malicious software that maintains persistence, ensures execution of the miner and scans for other exposed environments. This malware allows attackers to operate without traditional Command-and-Control (C2) servers; instead, each infected container independently scans the Internet and can spread the miner to new targets.
“The campaign has the potential for exponential growth of infections, with each compromised container acting as a new source of attack, if security measures are not immediately put in place in the potentially targeted networks,” explains Amged Wageh, an incident response and a compromise assessment expert at Kaspersky Security Services.
“Сontainers are foundational to software development, deployment, and scalability. Their widespread use across cloud-native environments, DevOps, and microservices architectures makes them an attractive target for cyber attackers. This growing reliance demands organisations adopt a 360-degree approach to security — combining robust security solutions with proactive threat hunting and regular compromise assessments”.
The attackers embedded the names “nginx” and “cloud” directly in the binary — an inflexible executable file composed of instructions and data for the processor, not for humans. This is a classic masquerading tactic that lets the payload pose as a legitimate tool, trying to deceive both analysts and automated defenses.
News
Manager, Others Arraigned for Allegedly Hacking into Premium Trust Bank’s Server

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, charged five defendants before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly hacking into the server of Premium Trust Bank.
The defendants are listed as the bank’s e-payment service manager, Matthew Adeniyi; Kehinde Odeyemi, a nursing mother; Samson Latshin, Bolaji Omotosho and Sunday Okunnola.
They were charged before Justice Alexander Owoeye, on a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, cybercrime and unlawful access to the bank’s database.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Mrs. Zeenat Atiku, prosecutor, alleged that they committed the offence between April and May this year, in collaboration with three others, now at large.
Those still at large are Isa Ismaila, Victor Joshua, also known as ‘Oracle’ as well as one other, simply identified as Humble.
According to the charge, the first defendant unlawfully disclosed sensitive credentials, including the bank’s server IP and domain details, to these parties.
She said this enabled an unauthorised access to the bank’s database and the consequent data breach allegedly resulted in financial gains of $10,000.
The prosecutor also alleged that the defendants attempted to intercept the bank’s network and procured a Hewlett-Packard ProBook 440 G9 laptop (serial No. SN#5CD2473N6G) configured to bypass the bank’s security systems.
The anti-graft agency said the alleged offences contravened the provisions of sections 12(1)(b), 27, 28(1)(b)(c) and 28(3) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024).
Following their pleas, the prosecutor, requested for a trial date and sought an order to remand the defendants in custody.
Meanwhile, the court declined an oral bail by the defence counsel and directed that a formal bail application be filed.
He adjourned the case until June 30, for trial and ordered that the defendants be remanded at the Nigerian correctional centre, pending bail.
The court, however, added that the defence may apply for an earlier trial date, upon filing their bail applications.
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