278 Companies Bid For Nigeria's Crude Contract

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, stated that 278 companies were vying to secure the contract for the trading of about 950,000 barrels per day of Nigeria’s crude oil from January 2016.
Speaking at the bid opening ceremony for the sale and purchase of crude oil grades in Abuja, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, said the Federal Government was committed to ensuring transparency in the trading of Nigeria’s crude oil.

He said: “The essence is to ensure that nobody needs to call me personally as Ibe Kachikwu for him to get crude allocation. So, you can imagine the burden it takes off my shoulders. It means a good amount of my time will now go into other relevant areas of operations, where the country needs me most.”
He assured the bidders that consideration would only be given to companies that are competent, credible and with the right capacity to deliver Nigeria’s crude.


Some of the companies that submitted bids include Forte Oil, MRS, Statoil, Eni Trading and Shipping Limited, Sacoil Energy Equity Resources, RainOil Limited, Repsol Trading S.A., Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Mercuria Energy Trading SA, Gunvor and BP Oil International.
Others are Obat Oil, Energy Network IBG, Groundwells Energy International, Universal Import and Export International, Global Oil Incorporated, Waltersmith, Hindustan Petroleum Limited, Societe Africaine, Nigermed Petroleum SA, Eterna Plc, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited and Strategic Fuel Fund/South African Government, among others.
The contract for the engagement of qualified and reputable companies for the sale and purchase of Nigerian crude oil grades is conducted in consonance and in pursuance of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, guidelines.

… to reduce buyers
Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division, NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, also said the corporation plans to reduce the number of buyers by one-third, cutting down the number of companies from 43 to 15 or 16.
He said: “We have realized that in the past, we have large volume of buyers— 43 to be specific. What that means is that we were unable to guarantee supply to any of the customers and it opened room for optimum discretion.
“Discretion created problems, as we are unable to satisfy any of the customers. At the end of the day, the market becomes unstable and then you have the long term effect of having lower government revenue.
“Our objective is to cut down that number. This means we have to come down from 43 to something smaller. We are thinking in the region of one-third of that number; maybe 15 or 16.”