The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has awarded 50 companies with contracts to buy Nigerian crude and more than half of them are local firms, foreign and Nigerian.
The 50 companies were among a total of 254 that participated in the bids held last January for the sale and purchase of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) equity crude under the 2018/2019 crude oil term contracts.
Of the total, 32 were local companies, doubling the number of awards to Nigerian firms compared to 2017. NNPC also awarded contracts to supply crude to 12 governments, although it was not clear how many of the deals would be handled by the companies already on the list of awards.
The Nigerian firms are AA Rano, Aipec, AMG, Arkleen, Barbedos, Bono Energy, Casiva, Cretus, Emadeb, Eterna, Gladius Commodities, Hinstock, Leighton, Levene, Masters Energy, Matrix, MRS, North West, Oando, Sahara Group, Ocean Bed (Sahara trading subsidiary), Propetrol, Prudent, Setana, Setraco, Shoreline, Ultimate Gas, Voyage, West African Gas, Zitts and Lords, Obat Oil & Gas, Duke Oil (NNPC subsidiary)
International trading firms and refiners that also won are Augusta, Switzerland based, BB Energy, Lebanon; Cepsa, Spain; Glencore, Switzerland; HPCL, India; Litasco, trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil; Mocoh, Switzerland; Petraco, Switzerland; Petrobras, Brazil; Sacoil, South Africa; SEER, South Africa’s SacOil Energy Equity Resources Ltd; Socar, trading arm of Azerbaijan’s Socar; Total, France; Trafigura, Switzerland; Vitol, Britain; Calson, Vitol/NNPC joint venture; Sonara, Cameroon, and ZR Energy
On the deals with governments the countries in the deal are China; India; South Africa; Turkey; Ivory Coast; Ghana; Liberia; Niger; Sierra Leone; Senegal; Togo and Malawi.
NNPC awards the oil purchase contracts annually, but sources said the deals this year were for two years not one year.
Contract awards were announced in January last year. Sources said the government may have delayed an announcement this time by several months as it sought to line up more local firms for awards, so it could drum up support for next year’s election.
This year’s overall total of 50 foreign and local firms was more than the 39 listed in 2017. The list last year also included three bilateral government deals.
During the exercise in January, the NNPC Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, told prospective bidders that the exercise was to promote greater participation of Nigerian enterprises, while preserving world-class standards.
The group general manager, crude oil marketing division, Mele Kyari, listed some of the conditions potential off-takers were expected to meet under the 2018/2019 crude term contract
These include, possessing a minimum annual turnover of $500 million for 2016 and net worth of $250 million for 2016, apart from having the 2015 & 2016 audited accounts.
Other conditions bordered on the marketability of Nigeria’s crude oil in the international market, particularly in Europe, which has remained the major market for Nigeria’s 26 crude oil grades.
WITH AGENCY REPORTS
