(In July 15 story, adds contract duration in paragraph 1 and 2)
By Libby George and Julia Payne
LAGOS/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - Nigerian state oil firm
NNPC issued award letters on Monday for highly sought-after
contracts to exchange crude oil for imported fuel for one year,
oil industry sources told Reuters.
A total of 15 groupings, with at least 34 companies in
total, received award letters, four sources with knowledge of
the deals said. The new contracts are expected to start with
October-loading cargoes, they added.
The award letters were circulated on Monday. While the
contracts have not yet been signed, that is largely a formality
as the terms have been negotiated, the sources said, and the
list of companies is unlikely to change.
NNPC spokesman Ndu Ughamadu, when reached for comment, said
he would seek verification of the news.
The number of winners is an expansion on the previous list,
which had 10 pairings with a total of 22 companies. Oil
companies work hard to get on the list, which gives them
coveted, and potentially lucrative, access to Nigeria's crude
oil cargoes https://reut.rs/2GbOxcs.
NNPC extended the previous contracts at least twice as the
nation focused on elections in February this year.
swap deals have supplied virtually all of Nigeria's
gasoline for the past two years, as capped prices mean that
other would-be importers cannot make money bringing the fuel
into the country.
Nigeria, with a population of some 190 million, consumes
close to 40 million litres per day of gasoline and is easily the
largest fuel market in West Africa.
While NNPC has refineries with a combined nameplate capacity
of 445,000 barrels per day, decades without regular maintenance
or investment leaves the nation almost wholly reliant on
imports.
The following is a list of the winning groups:
1: BP/Aym Shafa
2: Vitol/Varo
3: Trafigura/AA Rano
4: MRS
5: Oando/Cepsa
6: Bono/Akleen/Amazon/Eterna
7: Eyrie/Masters/Cassiva/Asean Group
8: Mercuria/Barbedos/Petrogas/Rainoil
9: UTM/Levene/Matrix/Petra Atlantic
10: TOTSA
11: Duke Oil
12: Sahara
13: Gunvor/Maikifi
14: Litasco /Brittania-U
15: Mocoh/Mocoh Nigeria