More details emerge on NNPC's crude oil liftings for 2017

- The NNPC announced the successful companies to lift crude oil in Nigeria

- It said the selection was based on transparency and fairness

- Companies with substantial investment in Nigeria were targeted for selection

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) confirmed that 39 companies have won the crude oil term contract for the purchase and lifting of 1.306 million barrels per day of Nigeria’s crude oil for 2017/2018.

Vanguard reports that Wale Tinubu’s Oando, Toye Cole’s Sahara Energy Resources, Sayyu Dantata’s MRS Oil were among the 18 Nigerian companies that won the contract.

Also, 11 international oil traders, five foreign refiners, three National Oil Companies, (NOCs) and two NNPC trading arms also got the deal for the lifting which becomes would run for a year.

Mr. Mele Kyari who is the group general manager of the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC said all the contracts are for 32,000 barrels per day except Duke Oil Ltd which is an oil trading arm of the NNPC, which shall be for 90,000 barrels per day.

The other successful companies are Uche Ogah’s Masters Energy, Alhaji Auwalu Rano’s A.A. Rano Nigeria Ltd, Oladimeji Edwards’ Hyde Energy, Uju Ifejika’s Britania-U. North West Petroleum and Optima Energy, AMG Petroenergy, Arkleen Oil & Gas Ltd, Shoreline Ltd, Emo Oil, Setana Oil and Prudent Energy. The International oil traders are Trafigura, ENOC, BP Trading, Total Trading, UCL Petro Energy, Mocoh Trading, Trevier Petroleum, Heritage Oil, Levene Energy, Glencore and Litasco Supply and Trading Company.

The India Oil Company, Sinopec of China and Saccoil of South Africa made up the government-to-government category while the two NNPC subsidiaries are Duke Oil and Carlson Hyson.

224 bids were submitted for the contracts for oil lifting and Mr. Maikanti Baru who is the group managing director of the NNPC had promised fairness and transpatency in the selection process.

He said the high number of companies that showed interest indicated the demand for Nigeria’s high grade oil.

He said NNPC was targeting crude oil refiners, big oil traders, as well as companies that had made substantial investments in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

He said: “There have been speculations that we are struggling for market. That is not true. Nigerian crude has continued to earn premiums and they are hot cake for refiners. Because of the light nature of the crude, it induces very high yields on the valuable products that you produced from crude oil. Nigerian crude continues to maintain market.

“In fact, contrary to a lot of speculations that a lot of Nigerian crude goes to China, it does not. Most of them are consumed and refined in India and Europe, particularly, this year and last year, most of Nigerian crude ends up in European refineries.”