Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation awards crude oil contracts to 39 companies

Nigeria's state-run oil corporation, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has announced the list of successful bidding companies for the 2017/2018 crude oil term contract.

The list includes 39 companies, 18 of which are domestic organisations. The remaining companies consist of 11 international traders, five foreign refineries, three national oil companies (NOCs) and two NNPC trading arms.

The awarded contract will be valid for one year from 1 January for 12 consecutive circles of crude oil allocation.

All the awarded contracts are for 32,000 barrels per day except the contract won by Duke Oil, an oil trading unit of NNPC, which received a contract for 90,000 barrels per day.

The bidding process opened last November, during which NNPC managing director Dr Maikanti Kacalla Baru had said: “We will ensure transparency and fairness in the process. There is nothing that is hidden just as you have seen today.”

NNPC received a total of 224 bids this year. In 2016, 27 companies won contracts to purchase and lift Nigerian crude oil grades, reported Reuters.

This year, China’s Sinopec, India’s Indian Oil and South Africa’s Saccoil are the prominent international firms that won the NNPC contracts.

Some of the international refineries that were awarded the contracts are Hindustan Refinery, Varo Energy, Sonara Refinery, Bharat Petroleum and Cepsa, reported TheGuardian.ng.

Nigeria is an OPEC member that produces around two million barrels of oil per day of crude oil, though the 2016 output was severely affected by terrorist attacks.