ABUJA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Nigerian state oil company NNPC
said on Sunday that 15 companies had won the right to swap the
nation's crude oil for fuels following a tender for the deals.
About 132 companies bid for the deals, Nigerian National
Petroleum Corp (NNPC) said in May. The tender for
the one-year contracts effective Oct. 1, dubbed direct sale,
direct-purchase (DSDP), was issued in March.
Nigeria is almost entirely reliant on imported fuel because
of years of neglect at its own refineries. It has leaned heavily
on the swap arrangements to get fuel, particularly gasoline, as
other would-be importers struggle to make money due to price
caps.
NNPC said the companies that won the bids were made up of
consortia of 15 companies including Vitol VITOLV.UL , Trafigura
TRAFGF.UL , oil major BP BP.L and local downstream companies.
Since the scheme was introduced in 2016, replacing a
programme that paid subsidies to importers, NNPC has said it had
saved the nation $2.2 billion and supplied some 90 percent of
its import requirements.