By Bisola Adeyemo
No fewer than 12 countries, 26 foreign and local companies signed a deal contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to lift the country’s crude oil for the next two years.
The deal is coming less than a week after the corporation chose 16 oil and gas consortia for its new crude-for-fuel swap contracts for one year starting in August.
The contracts, known as Direct Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) are high-stakes agreements used to supply nearly all of Nigeria’s petrol needs as well as cover some of its diesel and jet fuel consumption.
The list sighted by Thisday showed that many of the companies involved in the DSDP deal; the preferred companies included Sahara Energy Resources Limited, Oando, Duke oil (an NNPC subsidiary), Petrogas, AA Rano, MRS, Mercuria and Vitol.
Other were; Oceanbed Trading Limited, Levene Energy, Bono Energy , Mocoh Energy, BP Oil, West Africa Gas Limited, Litasco SA, Emadeb, Hyde, Matrix and Brittania-U, Masters, AMG, Casiva, Barbedos, Trafigura, Hindustan and Patermina.
NNPC has its own equity share of crude oil from its Joint Ventures (JVs), usually shared on a 60 to 40 basis and thereafter appoints companies and issues licences to lift its share of the oil on a Free on Board (FOB) basis.
In the document approving the qualified countries, China, Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, India, Togo, South Africa came tops, while Sierra Leone, Liberia, Turkey, Senegal, and Fujairah also cut.