Nigeria’s oil lifting contracts rise to $52bn

Nigeria has add¬ed Chinese and Indian state oil companies to an expanded list of yearly crude oil lifting term contracts for 2014/2015, up about $12 billion-worth of crude from $40 billion in April.
The list of those awarded contracts to buy crude was said to have been re-issued after what trade sources said was intense lobbying by disappointed buyers. More local companies have been awarded contracts, accord¬ing to a list seen by Reuters.
Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, will award around 482 million barrels of its oil for one year starting from June 2014. The bulk of these companies will receive about 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) during this period.
The list now comprises 43 companies, up from 28 on the initial April list, and closer to the 50 contracts given out the last time the Nigerian National Petro¬leum Corporation (NNPC) issued them in 2012.
The new list, entitled ‘Recommended List of NNPC 2014-2015 Crude Oil Term Contracts’, shows 28 Nigerian firms among the winners, up from 21 in the last round and two new bilateral government deals with Chinese state refiner Sinopec and India’s state-owned refiner In¬dian Oil Corporation were added.
The total contracted volume is expected to be around 1.32 million bpd, the expanded list showed, or about 70 percent of Nige-ria’s total crude oil exports, which fluctuate between 1.8 and 1.9 million bpd.
As was the case with the first list and in a break with tradition, no contracts were issued directly to global trad¬ers Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura or Gunvor, with only Swit¬zerland’s Mercuria awarded a deal.
Industry sources say that these firms will likely still trade Nigerian oil, either through buying from Nige¬rian firms or through part-nerships.
Delaney Petroleum Corp, a Dubai-based com¬pany which Trafigura says it sometimes cooperates with, was added to the latest list, said Reuters.
The total number of deals with foreign governments is just three, including Malawi, down from 10 last time, the agency said, adding that deals with neighbouring West African countries of Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast were not re¬newed.
Of the eight newly added Nigerian companies, only three were awarded con¬tracts in the last round.
Subsidiaries of Emma¬nuel Ojei’s holdings com¬pany Nuel Okei, Emo Oil and Petrochemical Co and Team Trade Petroleum Develop¬ment Co were two of the new winners.