UPDATE 1-Nigeria's state oil firm has not paid Eni's cash call payments for three months

(Adds Eni's comment)
ABUJA, July 24 (Reuters) - Nigeria's state oil firm said on
Wednesday it had suspended cash call repayments to Eni ENI.MI
for three months and did not plan to renew some of the Italian
firm's asset licences.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owes
billions of dollars to international oil companies, including
Eni, its share of operating costs for their joint ventures. Of
the original $5 billion owed two years ago, repaid through a
system known as cash calls, about $3 billion is now outstanding.
But NNPC has withheld three months' payment to Eni over a
set of disputes. Delayed payments for the cash calls have
hindered development of some of the country's oil assets.
Among the issues raised by NNPC are that Eni's licences for
some oil assets have expired, but Nigeria's government does not
plan to renew them as it wants the state oil firm to take over.
The Nigerian firm did not specify which of Eni's licences it
would not renew.
"The failure to pay cash call arrears in the last three
months was deliberate and meant to ensure that the issues
surrounding the agreement (are) settled," the NNPC said in a
statement, adding it has the money to pay and expects a
resolution by the end of the week.
Eni said in a statement the "issue of arrears ... has
briefly been dealt with over the course of a very warm and
constructive meeting with the new management of NNPC."
President Muhammadu Buhari in June appointed Mele Kyari, a
geologist, to head NNPC. Kyari is also Nigeria's representative
at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
"The cause of the delay in payment was identified as a
technical one and NNPC agreed to resume payments," Eni said.
NNPC urged Eni to complete the first phase of rehabilitating
Nigeria's Port Harcourt refinery by the scheduled date of
October, the statement said.
It added that Eni's executive vice chair for sub-Saharan
Africa, Brusco Guido, said the Italian firm listed a number of
challenges that had hampered its operation and asked NNPC to
help resolve them in order to meet its target of growing the
joint ventures' oil production by 30% over last year's rate.