Fifteen local and international oil companies have been selected by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to supply 14 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (popularly known as petrol) under the 2019/2020 Direct Sale of Crude Oil and Direct Purchase of Petroleum Products (DSDP) contracts.
About 132 firms had submitted bids for the project, where over 14 cargoes of crude are to be supplied to Europe and other nations for refining. The corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, in a statement yesterday, said the one-year contracts run from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. Adopted to replace the Crude Oil Swap and the Offshore Processing Arrangement, the DSDP allows the NNPC to sell crude directly to offshore refiners and get products in return.
Though the process had faced transparency and accountability concerns in the face of government’s inability to address the challenges of the country’s refinery to produce products locally, the national oil company has, however, insisted that $2.2 billion (N673.2 billion) had been saved from refining over 40 billion litres of crude oil abroad through the scheme. The corporation had equally noted that the programme, which was introduced in 2016, has seen the supply of 29.5 million metric tons (39.6 billion litres) of petrol, representing 90 per cent of the national requirement.
The oil agency said the process comprised technical and commercial bid submissions, evaluation and short-listing as well as commercial negotiations with prequalified companies and engagement of the successful consortia/companies by it. NNPC said: “Following the completion of the 2019/2020 DSDP tender exercise, 15 consortia/companies, made up of reputable and experienced international companies and Nigerian downstream companies, emerged successful to undertake the 2019/2020 DSDP arrangement.
“Under the DSDP arrangement, the 15 consortia/companies shall over the contract period, off-take crude oil and in return deliver corresponding petroleum products of equivalent value to NNPC subject to the terms of the agreement.” The lucky firms include BP Oil International LTD/AYM Shafa Ltd; Vitol SA/Calson-Hyson; Totsa Total Oil Trading SA/Total Nig. Plc; Gunvor International B.V./AY Maikifi Oil & Gas Co. Ltd.; Trafigura PTE Ltd./A.A. Rano Nig. Ltd.; Cepsa S.A.U./Oando Plc; Mocoh SA/Mocoh Nig. Ltd. and Litasco SA/Brittania-U Nig. Ltd./Freepoint Commodities. Others are MSR Oil & Gas Company Ltd.; Sahara Energy Resource Ltd.; Bono Energy Ltd./Eterna Plc/Arkleen Oil & Gas Ltd./Amazon Energy; Matrix Energy Ltd./Petratlantic Energy Ltd./UTM Offshore Ltd./Levene Energy Development Ltd; Mercuria Energy Trading SA/ Barbedos Oil & Gas Services Ltd./Rainoil Ltd./Petrogas Energy, Asian Oil & Gas Pte Ltd./ Eyrie Energy Ltd./ Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd/Casiva Ltd and Duke Oil Company Incorporated. The Guardian
Pix: NNPC headquarters, Abuja
