The Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) has awarded crude lifting contracts to 21 off-takers who emerged winners of the open bid exercise it conducted in October. The exercise witnessed the unprecedented public harvesting of 278 bids submitted by indigenous and foreign firms seeking to secure contract for the sale and purchase of the 26 Nigerian crude oil grades on offer.
The contracts cover 991,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, worth $13.5 billion at current crude oil prices.
A breakdown of the 2015/2016 crude oil term contract off-takers for the 991,661 bpd Nigerian equity crude indicate that 240,000 bpd representing 24 per cent of the total volume on offer is awarded to four refiners classified as major current receivers of Nigerian crude with capacity to process all of Nigerian crude grades. The off-takers in this category include: Emirates National Oil Coy (ENOC), Indian Oil Corporation, CEPSA Refinery Madrid and Sara SPA Refinery. Each of the off-takers in this category was awarded 60,000 bpd.
Three notable international trading companies namely, Trafigura PT Ltd, Mercuria Energy Trading SA and Vitol SA, won the bid for the lifting of 32,000 bpd of crude based on their pedigree as large scale buyers of Nigerian crude with structure for short-term freight intervention and storage. The off-takers in this category represent about 10 per cent of total crude volume on offer.
Trading affiliates of international oil companies consisting ENI Trading and Shipping SPA, TOTSA Total Oil Trading SA, Exxon Sale and Supply LLC and Shell Western Supply and Trading received term allocation of 32,000 bpd each totaling 128,000 bpd representing about 13 per cent of total volume of crude oil on offer.
Nigerian downstream players with wide experience in crude trading and large asset base accounts for 405,000 bpd representing about 41 percent of total crude volume on offer. In this category, Emo Oil & Petrochemical Coy/China Zhenhea- an NNPC long term trader is allocated 45,000 bpd. Other off-takers in this category include: Northwest Petroleum and Gas Ltd, 45,000 bpd, Forte Oil, 45,000 bpd, Oando PlC, 60,000 bpd, Sahara Energy Resource Ltd, 60,000 bpd, A.A. Rano Nig. Ltd, 45,000 bpd, Eterna Oil, 45,000 bpd and MRS Oil &Gas Coy Ltd 60,000 bpd.
NNPC trading companies, Calson/Hyson 32, 000 bpd and Duke Oil Incorporated 90, 000 bpd account for combined off-take of 122, 000 bpd representing about 12 percent of total volume on offer.
Apart from ensuring transparency, the companies were carefully chosen based on their track records and trading experience to ensure that Nigerian crude cargoes are not left unsold.
Variable fuel price will fluctuate between N87 to N97 band – Kachikwu
Dr Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has affirmed that there is no plan to jerk up the current price of the premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol, from N87 to N97 as being speculated in the media.
Reacting to earlier reports that quoted him as saying the price of the product will be reverted to N97 per litre as part of the ongoing reforms in the industry, the minister said plans are on repositioning the corporation into a profit making firm instead recording losses as has been the case in the past.
The minister, who made this clarification of his earlier statement at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, said that as a result of the changes being introduced, the price is likely to fluctuate between the variable band of the current N87 per litre and N97.
“All I said was that as a result of the reform we are carrying out, the prices of petroleum products will be left to market forces and may, at different times, fluctuate between the current price of 87 and the initially fixed price of N97,”
Giving an insight into activities lined up for next year, the minister noted that the restructuring will also involve redeployment of the headquarter personnel to the corporation’s subsidiaries.
According to him, over 50 per cent of the staff at the headquarters would be redeployed to boost efficiency and raise profitability.
-Leadership
