NNPC Issues 2Year Oil Lifting Contracts

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has issued crude export contracts that are expected to last two years instead of the usual one year, trading sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.
Reuters reported that a partial preliminary list showed 30 companies including the world’s largest energy traders Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore.

The final list could contain between 50 to 60 companies, the sources added. NNPC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Meanwhile the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) imported 12.966 billion litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol while the country’s three refineries contributed only 1.508 billion litres of the product NNPC supplied in the country last year.

Analysis of the corporation’s monthly financial and operations report released at the weekend showed that the imported volume represents 90 percent of a total 14.475 billion litres of PMS supplied and distributed by the state oil firm in 2017.
By implication, the refineries only contributed 10 percent of the product the NNPC supplied and distributed last year.

A breakdown of the data showed that March and October 2017 recorded the highest volumes of PMS import into the country at 1.491 billion and 1.478 billion litres respectively. The highest volumes of petrol refined by the refineries were 235 million and 185 million litres in January and February 2017 respectively.

Private fuel marketers who imported most of the petrol consumed in the country were said to have stopped importation leaving NNPC to import petrol for almost all part of the year in 2017.

On March 2, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said Nigeria was the only member country in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that imports petrol and is currently the largest importer of PMS in the world because its refineries have not worked to their maximum capacity.